For full details of the 2008 Annual Conference of the Anthroposophical Society in New Zealand including on-line registration click here.

News Network Anthroposophy reports that the members of the 'Living the Christmas Conference' group, who were expelled from the General Anthroposophical Society last March on the grounds that their constant negative campaigning against the General Anthroposophical Society had begun to sap the society's
strength, have dropped their legal action to have their membership reinstated.

The plaintiffs also withdrew their challenge to the resolution adopted by
the Annual General Meeting last year which declared membership of Living the Christmas Conference to be incompatible with membership of the General Anthroposophical Society.

A third action, an appeal by the group against a ruling of the
Dorneck-Thierstein district court which had rejected the group's challenge
of the legitimacy of the resolutions adopted at the General Anthroposophical Society Extraordinary General Meeting in April 2006, was also abandoned.

In this third action the group had wanted to make the GAS executive council
personally liable for the 800,000 Swiss franc court costs associated with
the successful legal challenge mounted by 'Living the Christmas Conference'
with regard to the dispute over the existence of the Anthroposophical
Society re-founded by Rudolf Steiner at Christmas 1923 and its fusion with
the present General Anthroposophical Society.

This means that all the legal proceedings initiated by 'Living the Christmas
Conference' and its members against the GAS have been dropped.

"The withdrawal of the appeal and the three lawsuits means that these
proceedings have been discontinued. As a result there are no further issues
with regard to the legality of the AGM resolutions of 2006. The same applies
to the resolution of 31 March 2007 and the expulsion of the 44 Living the
Christmas Conference members from the Anthroposophical Society," the Genera' Anthroposophical Society stated in a press release.

Before finally abandoning its cases, 'Living the Christmas Conference' had
offered the General Anthroposophical Society a settlement in which both parties would pay their own legal costs and divide court costs equally between one another; an offer which was rejected by the General Anthroposophical Society. The court and the plaintiffs had been informed of the reasons in detail, the General Anthroposophical Society said.

The appeal and district courts will now have to decide on how costs are
divided, but the General Anthroposophical Society said in its press release that according to the procedural code a plaintiff who withdraws from a case has to bear most of the costs.

Commenting in a statement on the 'Living the Christmas Conference' website on
their decision to give up their action, the expelled members said that a key
factor had been that the financial risk of continuing had become too great.

"By abandoning the recourse to legal proceedings and with our current path
of self-questioning and searching we combine the hope that perhaps it might
become possible again in the future to work together with the members of the
General Anthroposophical Society," the statement added in conclusion.

The European Alliance of Initiatives for Applied Anthroposophy (ELIANT) has launched a new phase in its campaign to collect one million signatures by the end of this year.

The Alliance, which has so far collected more than 320,000 signatures, then aims to use the signatures as a tool to lobby the EU Commission and influence policy making in the European Union.

In this latest phase of the campaign, the ELIANT core members meeting in December decided on a new policy to recruit 1,600 people who would be willing to collect 10 signatures per week until the end of November 2008.

In the 45 weeks from the end of January, when the announcement was made, to November that would represent 450 signatures per person.

"Our experiences last year clearly showed that the signature campaign's
success is due to the great commitment and personal input of those who make announcements at public events, personally hand out materials or tell people in their immediate surroundings about the campaign," the Alliance wrote in a letter to "coordinators, friends and supporters of the ELIANT campaign".

"At the same time it became apparent how many people who make use of biodynamic products, Waldorf schools and anthroposophical medicine and remedies support the concerns of the Alliance  to create legal framework conditions at European level to safeguard these initiatives  and direct others to our website www.eliant.eu, where campaign materials are available for printing and copying," the letter adds.

The Youth Initiative Program (YIP) is a new social entrepreneur training for young people, aged 18 to 25, who want to create a positive social change in the world. It will take place in August 2008 in Jarna, Sweden and it is a course in how to bring your own initiative into being. Planned by an international group of young people in co-operation with the Youth Section at the Goetheanum, and the Vårdinge Folk High School, YIP will give an overview of the relationships between human beings, the world we live in, and how we influence each other. YIP lecturers include:

• Benji Leogardo (facilitation)
• Eric Utne (business/entrepreneur)
• Frank Chester (sacred geometry)
• Greg Kielberger (facilitation)
• Helene Bank (political history/economics)
• Marcel de Leuw (study of man)
• Nicanor Perlas (civil society)
• Nicolai Fuchs (agriculture/technology)
• Orland Bishop (mentoring)
• Regine Andersen (science and ethics)
• Robin Scmidt (portfolio)
• Tormod Bjørnstad (communication)
• Ulrike von Schultz (cooking and nutrition)
• Valentin Vollmer (portfolio)
• Vidar Vetterfalk (games)

 Learning to know yourself and the world Change-makers from globally active initiatives, businesses and organisations will give an understanding of the ‘big picture’: the world situation and the global society.  Participants will learn social skills like leadership, facilitation and self-management, and artistic activities will train personal creativity and help you reflect on the theoretical work. Hands-on experiencesHow do you bring your own initiative into being? A good start is experiencing how others do it, applying what you have learned. Four weeks of the year will be spent abroad, taking part in the work of an existing socially and environmentally sustainable project or organisation. Another four weeks will be spent as an intern in a local Swedish business or initiative, helping to expand their work. Through the combination of theory and practical work, learned skills can be put straight into practice. The process and results will be recorded and certified through a Portfolio. At the end of the year this will serve as a documentation of your YIP year in addition to the Swedish Folk High School diploma. Requirements and informationThe Programme starts in August 2008. It is an intensive, full-day programme, with just a few breaks throughout the year. Participants must be between 18 and 25 years old, and be able to speak, read and write English. The Participants will be housed together. More information is available at www.yip.se or by email to info@yip.se  

Sergei Prokofieff, the prolific author and member of the Executive Council in Dornach, will be the guest speaker at the Annual Conference of the Anthroposophical Society in New Zealand in 2008.

The conference will take place from 4th-7th July at  Michael Park School in Ellerslie, Auckland and the theme is The Christmas Conference. For further details see Annual Conference.

Aramitan is a New Zealand-based initiative to set up a community centre and family-style orphanage and day centre for at risk street children of Sao Paulo in Brazil. It is seeking willing particpants for work camps planned for 2008. Anyone interested in volunteering can obtain further details by emailing workcamp@aramitan.org

More details about Aramitan's work can be found at www.aramitan.org or by contacting Santiago De Marco, phone 06845 0211 santi@aramitan.org