Next year marks 150 years since the birth of Rudolf Steiner and numerous anthroposophical organisations and initiatives across Europe are preparing various activities for the year 2011.

The 150th anniversary celebration provides an opportunity to place Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy into the consciousness of the wider public as something that is both current and future-oriented. Worldwide there are more than a thousand Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf schools and several hundred social-therapy centres, as well as banks, medical clinics and hospitals, curative homes, agricultural enterprises, artistic endeavours and much more. Each if these works out of the ideas and impulses given by Rudolf Steiner - attesting to the lasting effect and expansion of Steiner's ideas right into our present time. As we move into the 21st Century, Rudolf Steiner's future-oriented impulses towards ecological responsibility, a relationship between work and money, and the prevention of health and socially related inequities and needs, are gaining new urgency.

The European initiative team of the Rudolf Steiner Archive, in co-operation with the Anthroposophical Society in Austria, is planning exhibitions, film festivals, art shows, conferences, Waldorf School events and a possible train trip - a “Rudolf Steiner Special Train” through Europe that they hope will include from Kraljevec to Koberwitz and/or from Vienna via Prague to Berlin and Weimar. This 150th anniversary of Steiner’s birth provides an opportunity for the anthroposophical movement throughout New Zealand to come together during 2011 to acknowledge all that works in this country through the indications of Rudolf Steiner. It is hoped that groups around the country will initiate ways to join in this Rudolf Steiner anniversary. To assist in co-ordinating activities and events around the country it would be appreciated if any group, planning an activity in celebration, contact Sue Simpson.

News and details for next year’s planned events in New Zealand and throughout the world will be published in future issues of Sphere and on the Society’s website.

Vee Noble