As summer inches its way towards New Zealand, “The World & I” Summer Gathering 2010 (Jan. 20–27) is also beginning to make its presence felt, especially at its venue, Te Ra School (near Wellington), where vegetables are being planted in anticipation of wonderful organic meals to be enjoyed by all participants.

We (the organising team) thought growing our own food was a promising start to a gathering centred around sustainability! During the five days of the gathering, participants will have the chance to learn from inspiring environmental and social change ‘gurus,’ as well take part in ‘back to basics’ workshops. The workshops will teach useful practical skills, ranging from bread making to the (perhaps not so basic) making of a pizza/bread oven. There will also be times for group discussions and of course free time for getting to know new people, catching up with friends from previous gatherings, and letting initiatives start to brew!

Te Ra School is an excellent example of what initiatives can look like 14 years down the track. The school has been kindly given over to us for a week by Doris Zuur, founder and now principal of Te Ra School; a week which we intend to use to its maximum potential! Being one of the pioneer pupils of Te Ra School, I am very excited that our gathering will be held there; I know what a beautiful, creative and inspiring place it is!

We hope that participants will leave with greater independence, being able to put to work their newfound practical skills (serving the environment, their conscience and their wallet all at once!). We also wish that participants will gain a greater knowledge of our world, and, with that, how to care for it and for our future.

I hope this little glimpse of the Aotearoa (New Zealand) Summer Gathering provides some insight into one of the many things we’re up to in our far-off, isolated country.

With warm wishes from New Zealand! Click here to visit the Gathering's website.

– Lydia Littlejohns

There is an old saying: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I carry the questions, How can we go together? How can we create community that stands true for each individual, and stands true as a united whole? Community can be seen as a striving for common unity – together. I have witnessed community being formed in moments that bind us – when we are threatened, when we feel grief or even when we share the same passion, goals or questions. Communities are formed around common experiences, common concerns and common questions.

I come from New Zealand – a place that can be considered as being at the end of the world. But doesn’t that just depend on your perspective? Could it be the beginning of the world? The date line begins there. It’s a place – a place I have called home, but a place I haven’t been back to for two years. So now I’m ready to return to my home called Paekakariki, to my sand and my ocean, to my wild wind and the place where I spent my childhood exploring rockpools. But I’m also hoping to share this space – to not only call it ‘mine,’ but also call it ‘ours.’ I hope to do this through the creation of a gathering, through the creation of community for a week, through working with other young people, and inviting youth from all over New Zealand and around the world to come to ask questions; to ask me, "What is your question," so that I may find the answer between us. The theme is World & I, the focus is meeting the world and shaping the future, the process is from I through community and into the world. It’s a space where I plan to be true: to my home, to the friends to be made, to the old friends returning, to myself, to my community and to my world. It’s a place – a place where (as with everywhere) I hope I can stand true for all I believe in, but also for all that the community we will create believes in. It’s a space where we can be true...together.

– Silvia Zuur

Hello my name is taniaimfromnewzealandandnoimnotgoinghomeforchristmas was how I introduced my self. I was starting YIP (the International Youth Initiative Program), it was August 2008 and for the first time in my life I was in a totally mixed pot; a scramble, an international (from 18 countries to be precise) group of young people.

When meeting someone for the first time, a natural conversation starter is to question one's nationality, one's origin and place of residence...whatever you call it, it’s about asking an easily answerable question about the other’s past – not too personal, easy to think of, and easy to answer. But what is contained in saying where you are from? What does it mean to be from somewhere?

Blood-wise, I don't have a hint of New Zealanderishness in me – but is this what matters? I was born and raised in that tiny country, at the bottom of the world; breathed its air, walked its mountains, swam its rivers, seas and lakes. Presently I live in Switzerland, with a Swiss Passport – am I Swiss?

A friend of mine has lived his whole life outside of his country, never stepping foot inside its borders or walking its sandy dunes. He is Palestinian.

Well, I don't have any answers. I haven't yet figured out what asking that question means, nor what it is to answer it – I just know that I'm walking on this planet, just like you. And this year I am going to New Zealand for Christmas.

– Tania Zuur

I probably could not travel any further away from here than New Zealand. And it is so exciting. This morning I received my e-ticket and finally realised – it is actually happening: I am going to New Zealand, escaping European winter and going straight into loads of sun, warm wind and hot sand, beautiful mountains and stunning beaches. Some say it is paradise on earth, some talk about The Lord of The Rings, some make fun of Kiwis. I have no idea what awaits me so far away, but I know it is going to be great. I will go and explore. My community is international and, at the moment, spread world wide. As part of this community, I have experienced full understanding, care and love between individuals coming from different cultures and backgrounds – individuals who hold different questions and qualities. New Zealand is one of my many 'home countries,' and I feel privileged to be given a possibility to see the background to the kindness, creativity and inspiration that my friends hold.

See you in New Zealand!

– Natalia Shklarova

Identity development is an interesting subject that almost certainly will affect everyone at some stage during their lifetime. I think questions of who we are, what our purpose here is and where we are going are common traits of this identity development – at least for me they are. Coming from this position I feel like a citizen of the world, not of one nationality, and not of one place. Everyone wants a home, but home is where you make it – where the people and atmosphere around you play a major role. Therefore, home can be where you were born, where you have temporarily moved to, or even just where you are, right in this moment.

Feeling like a youth of the world, I bring my ideas to this year’s group of organisers for the January 2010 Aotearoa Summer Gathering. Working with a group of people – some of whom I have never met, and who live half-way around the world – has had its challenges. But for the most part it has been very exciting. Having someone captain the ship (of organisers) from Switzerland – someone with a lot of experience organising and running youth gatherings – has been a major asset, especially with the fantastic support groups she is drawing on (groups which are strewn around New Zealand and around the world). Having the support of those with experience, both within New Zealand and from overseas, is adding to the flavour of an inspiring, exciting, international youth gathering. The team of organisers nicely reflects our theme of ‘The World & I.’ It reflects what each of us wants to create and can contribute – working as individuals together, and creating more meaning as a team.

– Nadine Seidel

The great continent of North America is unfathomable in its bounty. From coast to coast it continually amazes the wanderer with its wondrous beauty, and few of us can truly comprehend just how big – in size, in natural wonders – this continent is. There are sizzling hot springs that ooze out deep turquoise and orange coloured minerals, craggily dry deserts where nothing seems to stir to life, and acres of rolling fields and forests which are teeming with movement, color and inspiration. Within this continent, there is a bit of everything that embodies the polarities of wet and dry, cold and hot, hard and soft.

Likewise, every culture has somehow touched upon this continent and left its footprint on the landscape. Within this scope, over the last several years, a budding Youth Section movement has taken hold and has inspired pockets of individuals to take up the challenge of youth today; they have infused the land, and brought to its inhabitants something priceless: real human initiative.

If I were to paint the picture in a way that tries to encompass so much of our community in North America, the colors I would use, the brushstrokes I would feel compelled to sweep across the canvas, and the layers I would work upon one another would lead to an eclectic palette and texture that drew from many sources of inspiration, and could be identified as many overlapping genres. This reality becomes clear when we meet together – as so many of us recently did: our diversity stands as a testament to our own joyful celebration of individual and community, of personality and consciousness.

The wide array of initiatives that have sprung forth speak to the questions that we collectively ask, the questions which we hear others asking, and the questions that we feel called to answer. The budding initiatives, and chapters of organisations that are affiliated with the North American Youth Section include conversations on finance and associative economics, social renewal, community building, social sculpture, the arts, agriculture, politics, education and sexuality. Those who are invested, through their interest and their commitment to spiritual science, in the sustainability of the North American Youth Section seem to be moving about in the world with swinging arms and wide-embracing gaits, while their eyes are checking-out the horizon line for something that will connect deep within them, that will inspire them forward.

Recently, Nathaniel Williams spoke at the AGM and attempted to describe the experience of the North American Youth Section. Connected across phone lines and email threads, the participants strive, on “shaky legs,” to demonstrate their support, their commitment, their interest and their engagement with one another. Along the latitudinal line, and expanding 3,000-plus miles, young people gather in study groups, break bread, sip coffee, and do art together; they gather for two hours, eight hours, three days. They work through their questions together. And in their work, they come to a new experience of listening to one another’s I’s, of discovering one another’s gifts, of offering up brilliant gems of thought. As a result, some jump into buses, others hop on planes; still more open up their laptops, dial a number and wave happily at a familiar face on their screens.

Meanwhile, up and down the longitudinal curves, young people examine cultural differences and seek great leaders – men and women who will change the world by demonstrating right thinking. These people come together in workshops and within the context of great possibilities; they toil with their hands in the soil and their minds in the heavens, and together they weave together an exciting new future.

North America is alive with something – some call it hope, others call it life – that is rejuvenating. Young people who are interested in the world and in exchanging ideas emerge from their small pockets – from Vancouver to Denver to New York to who-knows-where – and take the step needed towards sharing their interests, their questions, their experiences of the world. Most importantly, regardless of where they are physically located, or how many fellow participants are nearby, they are all excited by what they are doing, by what they are asking, by the possibility that they are conscious of a new future and are working to support that emergence.

These individuals come together in interest, they come together in enthusiasm, and they quicken their steps when they see a familiar face across the crowds. The physical space that this Youth Section encompasses is expansive, but the space between individuals, between their passions, their perceptions and their hearts, seems to grow increasingly smaller, or to be more filled, as each individual comes together, says “hello” and takes on the work necessary to carry this particular movement forward – to wherever it needs to go.

– Leslie Loy

Read the 2009 North American Youth Section Meeting report.