[Oe List ...] Report on Fox's trip to Germany

[Isobel & Jim Bishop]

Thank you, Jann for sending us this report. Nothing on the press in 
Australia, but there are various Catholic on line resources, so it may be 
reflected there.             My women Catholic colleagues always seem to be 
up to date with creative Church  news.
Isobel.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <LAURELCG at aol.com>
To: <Dialogue at wedgeblade.net>; <OE at wedgeblade.net>
Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2005 5:48 AM
Subject: [Oe List ...] Report on Fox's trip to Germany


> This was sent by Jim Garrison, president of Wisdom University.  Forwarded 
> by
> Jann McGuire, D.Min.  Did any of you in Europe hear any of the news 
> reports?
>
>
>
> Dear Students,
>
>
> Matt and I are just back from our trip, which went very
>
> successfully.  Full details are available on Matt's blog at
>
> www.WisdomUniversity.org. What I want to share here is a few
>
> thoughts about what transpired and what lies ahead as we seek to
>
> build a global institution based not only on granting degrees but on
>
> training a new generation of leaders in the arts of mystical
>
> activism.
>
>
> We began in the small village of Bad Herrenalb in the Black Forest
>
> about one hundred miles south of Frankfurt.  Post card beautiful and
>
> very serene with birds chirping in the forest all day. We were hosted
>
> by a group called Forderkreis (Fellowship), founded by Walter
>
> Lechler, a doctor who brought Alcoholics Anonymous to Germany forty
>
> years ago and who for the past thirty two years has brought together
>
> that community plus a growing group of individuals seeking deeper
>
> connectedness.  Pentecost weekend is their largest gathering.  Matt
>
> spoke there and was very well received.
>
>
> Walter is about the same age as Josef Ratzinger, a bit older, and he
>
> told us stories of participating in the Hitler Youth and then the
>
> German Army, just like Ratzinger did.  Like Ratzinger, he did not
>
> speak out, a fact that continues to plague him to the present day. We
>
> had dinner with him for the three evenings we were there and spoke
>
> mostly about the Nazis, the many similarities between then and now,
>
> and the urgent necessity of developing a training program that will
>
> empower people to speak out from an unmovable spiritual grounding.
>
> We agreed to work together to develop a Wisdom University presence in
>
> Germany.
>
>
>>From Bad Herrenalb, we took the train to Erfurt in what used to be
>
> East Germany, where Meister Eckhardt served for six years as Head of
>
> the Dominican Priory there.  The Church in which he gave some of the
>
> sermons Matt translated for his book on Eckhardt is still there as is
>
> the choir stall in which he sat and the small refectory in which he
>
> spoke to the students.  After a tour provided by the current Pastor,
>
> Matt spent some time there alone meditating.  Very moving and very
>
> powerful.  Jan Hus, the famous Czech reformer who was burnt at the
>
> stake in 1415, is buried there.
>
>
>>From Erfurt, we drove with Peter Shipton, one of our DMIN students to
>
> Wittenberg where Martin Luther nailed his ninety five theses to the
>
> church door in 1517 and spent most of his life.  Our action there was
>
> a classic exercise in post modern theater.  The church authorities
>
> would not let us attach anything to the Church doors so we
>
> constructed an A-frame from two planks Peter bought at a local
>
> hardware store. Before a very small group of people assembled just in
>
> front of the church doors, Matt spoke, nailed his ninety five theses
>
> to the A-frame, and spoke to the media.
>
>
> The event, comprised of less than a dozen people, was covered by the
>
> largest German newspaper (with a circulation of ten million), German
>
> television (which is seen by tens of millions), the main newspaper in
>
> mid-Germany (with a circulation of several million), plus the local
>
> newspaper in Erfurt carried a full page story of his visit to
>
> Eckhardt's church.  A very small event was broadcast to an entire
>
> nation, reminding both of us of the awesome power of the media and
>
> how inventive theatre can use it to carry a powerful message far
>
> beyond the confines of the action itself.
>
>
> Perhaps the most important long term result of the trip was a series
>
> of contacts, mostly German and including Peter, who are interested in
>
> working with us to develop a sustained European presence for Wisdom
>
> University.  We will be organizing a pilgrimage with Matt to Germany
>
> to the sites associated with Eckhardt and Hildegard of Bingen.  This
>
> will be very similar to the one coming up in September to France with
>
> Andrew Harvey and Apela Colorado to visit the Mary Magdalen and Black
>
> Madonna sites.  We are also developing a strategic partnership with
>
> ForderKreis to develop MA and DMIN intensives with our current
>
> faculty and well known teachers from Europe.
>
>
> So Wisdom University took deeper root in Europe even as Matt's
>
> proclamation of a new Reformation took the message about the need for
>
> spiritual renewal to a nation.  People were excited by the notion of
>
> a university dedicated to mystical activism and eager to establish
>
> partnerships that will allow the light communities of Europe and
>
> America to collaborate during these dark times.
>
>
> I urge you to check out Matt's blog and to consider seriously the
>
> pilgrimage to France with Andrew and Apela.  There is something about
>
> being there, about being where the great mystics lived and taught and
>
> died, that inculcates what one reads and appreciates with the mind,
>
> but which the pilgrimage enables one to take in with the heart and at
>
> a cellular level so that the body as well as the intellect know the
>
> truth of what the mystics personified.  This trip turned out to be a
>
> transformative pilgrimage for both of us, and I recommend it to all
>
> of you.
>
>
> Warm Regards,
>
>
> Jim
>
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