Presenters: Dan McKanan, Steffen Schneider & Claus Sproll
Are farms where the heavens meets the earth? In this workshop, Professor Dan McKanan of Harvard Divinity School, Steffen Schneider director of Farm Operations at Hawthorne Valley and Claus Sproll Program Director, AdminInstitute will follow diverse spiritual communities as they go back to the land—by creating church and school gardens, establishing ecovillages, celebrating the sacraments with the four elements, practicing carbon farming, and participating in the global food sovereignty movement. Dan will trace the spiritual history of organic agriculture, identifying the spiritual teachings of Rudolf Steiner as one seed of the movement and highlighting the ways practitioners of many spiritual paths have collaborated since the very beginning. Hands-on sessions with farmers and gardeners will introduce participants to farming practices that reach up to the spirit and meditative practices that keep us grounded on earth. Not everyone can be a farmer, but everyone who eats can and should be part of a farm community. This workshop will show you how.
WHEN: April 7th and 8th 2018
TIME: April 7th: 4:00pm to 9:00pm and April 8th: 9:00am to 4:00pm
WHERE: Hawthorne Valley Farm
COST:
$125 Registration
$100 when registering two or more from the same organization
Questions? Contact info@admininstitute.net
Location:
Hawthorne Valley Association
327 County Route 21C
Ghent, NY 12075
Accommodations:
There are many options surrounding Hawthorne Valley — from bed and breakfasts serving farm-to-fork meals, to camping and cabins, to motels and hotels. Follow this link for a list of local accommodations.
Meals:
Available for purchase at the Hawthorne Farm Store.
Workshop Leaders:
Dan McKanan, the Senior Lecturer at Harvard Divinity School focuses his research on religious movements for social transformation in the United States from the abolitionist era to the present, with a particular emphasis on the contributions liberal and esoteric religious traditions make to sociopolitical radicalism. His newest book, Eco-Alchemy: Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Environmental Movement, has been published by the University of California Press. He also teaches and writes on Unitarian Universalist history, theology, and ethics.
Steffen Schneider, Director of Farm Operations at Hawthorne Valley, finished his agricultural university studies in Giessen, Germany in 1982. He has been a Biodynamic practitioner since 1983, first in Wisconsin and, since 1989, at Hawthorne Valley Farm. He especially loves working with the livestock and the dairy cows and his passion for Biodynamics continues to grow. He has given workshops at numerous conferences and also teaches at the Biodynamic Course at the Pfeiffer Center in Spring Valley, New York.
Registration:
$125
$100 when registering two or more from the same organization
Saturday April 7th
9 am – Welcome
9:10 to 10:15 -Opening lecture
“Landscape of Spiritual Agriculture”, this lecture will offer a wide ranging account of the diversity of spiritual approaches to agriculture today. It will explain why Dan believes that biodynamics is the single most important thread in the fabric that is spiritual agriculture and that he has chosen to begin with everything else to stimulate our reflection about how biodynamics fits into that fabric. – Dan McKanan
10:30 coffee break
10:45 to 12:30 –Panel discussion
10:45 to 11:30 –Spiritualty and earth (Steffen Schneider, Claus Sproll, Dan McKanan)
11:30 to 12:30 -Indications and sharing in small groups
12:30 to 1:30 Lunch
1:30 –life on the farm/garden - observations on the land and environment – “What do we see?” – Steffen Schneider
3 to 4 –three working groups:
1-Spiritual practice
2-Mindfulness work
3-I and You – interpersonal matters in a community of farmer and gardeners
Coffee break
4:30 to 5:30 –Contribution on inner practices of people working on the land with
Discussion following – Claus Sproll
5:30 Dinner
Evening Lecture following dinner and open to the public
“Biodynamics as the Past and Future of Spiritual Agriculture”. This lecture will explore the ways in which biodynamics is part of the unacknowledged background of many of the movements discussed in previous lectures, as well as the ways in which biodynamics can join more fully with the other movements in working toward a future of sustainable agriculture. It will also draw heavily on Eco-Alchemy -by Dan McKanan
Sunday April 8th
9 to 10:30 -working in groups – harvesting impressions, sharing etc.
10:30 –coffee break
11 to 12 -closing contributions by speakers for each working group, panelists etc. – 8 prepared contributions of 10 minutes each
12 to 12.45 - sharing, future planning etc.