KIT Vol XXVII No2 -Apr2015 -HighRes 1-35MB

KIT The Keep In Touch NewsletterVolume XXVII No. 2 April 2015

The KIT Newsletter editorial staff welcomes all suggested contributions for publication in the Newsletter fromsubscribers and readers, but whether a given submission meets the criteria for publication is at the sole

discretion of the editors. While priority will be given to original contributions by people with past Bruderhofconnections, any letters, articles or reports which the editors deem to be of historical or personal interest or to

offer new perspectives on issues of particular relevance to the ex-Bruderhof Newsletter readership, may beincluded as well. The editors may suggest to the authors changes to improve their presentation.

Have you subscribed to the KIT Newsletter via email?And have you made your KIT Newsletter subscription/donation payment this year?

Please find details on the last page.

CONTENTS:Passing on the KIT Newsletter Editorship by Susanna Alves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Seeking a New Editor by Raphael Vowles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Observations on the Bruderhof and KIT by Charlie Lamar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2The Banana Bull by William Bridgwater. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Announcing OUR PRIMAVERA PHOTOS on flickr by Raphael Vowles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Reminders and an Invitation:The Bulstrode Gathering by Andy Harries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Our Friendly Crossways Reunion by Al Hinkey, Maeve Whitty and Virginia Cuenca Loewenthal. 10An Invitation by Andy Harries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Remembering our dear ones who have gone from this life:Balthasar (Balz) Trmpi by Elisabeth Bohlken Zumpe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Karen Greenwood by Margot Purcell. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Remembering Margaret by Elisabeth Bohlken Zumpe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12My Memories of Margaret by Catherine (Jefferies) Rendle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Margaret Adlington remembered by Joy MacDonald. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Memories of Margaret by Andy Harries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Treasured Memories by Carol (Beels) Beck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Thanksgiving Celebration for Margaret by Carol (Beels) Beck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Margarets Thanksgiving Service by Andy Harries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Address Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Contact Us. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Passing on the KIT Newsletter Editorshipby Susanna AlvesDear Readers, Sadly, it has become rather pressing that I withdraw from the job of KIT Newsletter Editor which I took on inFebruary of 2014. The reasons are personal and private, but based mainly on health issues.

It would be tremendous if someone from among the readership volunteered to take on the editing job. I promisethat it is highly interesting. Each submission contains surprises, just as the personalities behind the articles arediverse and dissimilar, despite the similarities of a Bruderhof upbringing and conditioning for most of us.

KIT The Keep In Touch Newsletter Vol. XXVII No. 2 April 2015

The KIT Newsletter needs written contributions; its survival depends on you and your goodwill! It wouldtherefore be particularly welcome, in my opinion, if you sent in stories to the new Editor about your firstexperiences after you departed from the Bruderhof, or about anything else that occurs to you in that connection orsomehow connects with that Community.

Please Keep In Touch and keep the Newsletter alive and pulsing!I wish everybody all the best.

Seeking a New Editorby Raphael VowlesThank you Susanna for your efforts as Editor these last many KIT Newsletters, and a job well done. I join theNewsletter Production Team in wishing you all the best for the future.

The Team is now looking for a Volunteer to take on the crucial Editors role. Is that person YOU? Please contactany of the Team see last page to consider how you might take on this task.

The essential job requirements are:C a vision of what the Newsletter might be in the future;C moderate computer literacy with a willingness to learn;C people skills to manage and edit copy from contributing authors.Please circulate this message widely to give us the best chance of finding a replacement. Susanna has kindly

offered to discuss details of the editorship with you if you decide to volunteer. Why not contact her directly byemail: [email protected]

Linda Jackson will act temporarily, pending the appointment of the new Editor.Could YOU be the next Editor? Do let us know. It is a rewarding job, helping us all to Keep In Touch.

Observations on the Bruderhof and KITby Charlie LamarThe Bruderhof has always owed its appeal to the way it appears to reconcile the two polar opposites ofWestern Civilization most deeply in conflict atheistic Communism and Christian religious believership.Long before the Bruderhof, Karl Marx, along with all his many predecessors and followers had beendriving the liberals of Western Civilization in the direction of atheism but not the liberals of theBruderhof, who came off either as mystical socialists, or socialist mystics, take your pick. But the only wayBruderhofers could enact that dazzling synthesis of the sacred and secular was by turning their backs onthe two most important advances of the Protestant Reformation: the equal standing of individual religiousbelievers before God, and the primacy of personal spiritual experience over and above group-regulatedfaith.

The Hutterite example the Bruderhof was modeled on began at a crucial but very different moment inhistory. Hutterite Communism was derived from certain verses in the Bible in which the early Christianswere said to have shared all their goods. Hutterite nonviolence was likewise an attempt to follow anapostolic restriction also found in the Bible wherein Jesus most dedicated followers were instructed todisengage from all secular controversies. The Hutterites of the 16th century were a rebuke to the statechurches because they were both socially egalitarian as believers before God and nonviolent before manin that they refused to be conscripted in the feudal religious wars. Their Communism also amounted to anegalitarian social gesture because they shared everything.

In the Bruderhof and elsewhere, the Hutterite kind of nonviolence has often been confused with an ideathat motivates many modern conscientious objectors: the idea that force and violence (in and of itselfinherently bad) must be equated. To that way of thinking, the more enlightened human being or society(...If God is on our side, hell stop the next war! and by the way, who is this god anyway?) will refuseto contend with a less enlightened human being or society on principle. This idea is a corollary of anotheridea also very popular in the 20th century, which is that choice isnt real, and life is inherently meaningless.That dreadful prospect is embedded in Marxism, of course, which is itself based on the atheistic idea thatenergy and matter are all that is real.

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The idea that all contention is inherently bad is what made the Bruderhof possible in the first place, andthen made it meaningless. The Bruderhof took the ideas of refusing to disagree because of the supposednobility of non-self-assertion; the idea of sharing all their material goods as a symbol of a shared dedication;the apostolic restriction on engaging in secular controversy; a conscientious objection to soldiering; theidea that mortal life is an absolute value, and the idea of their own special importance as a cosmicintermediary between heaven and earth and boiled them all up together in a seething cauldron that wasglamorous, mysterious and intriguing, but ultimately meaningless. None of its constituent ideas were basedin reality.

The idea that mortal life is of an absolute value is most certainly delusional. If mortal life were of anabsolute value, human beings would never die, and it would be impossible to kill them.

So the amazing Bruderhof reconciliation of the spiritual and the material could only look as though itwere working as long as the members of the Bruderhof were willing to dissemble their personal freedomof conscience and their equality as believers before God. And dissemble they did. All the intellectualinconsistencies mystically papered over in the Bruderhof were matters of active and very scrupulouspretense.

I remember one occasion at Woodcrest when the children were given a special outing which took us toa Dairy Queen two or three miles from the Community. One of our chaperones approached the servicewindow bearing solemn religious witness to the fact that we had no money. Then George Burleson pulledout a wad of cash and bought us all ice-cream cones.

I studied the face of the chaperone, looking for signs of guilt or chagrin but I saw only the expressionof someone trying to do the right thing. If anyone studied my face, they might have recognized theastonishment of someone who just realized that not a single word his allegedly upright and moral religiouscaretakers ever said could necessarily be taken at face value.

But who in the Bruderhof knew what they were doing as they engaged in all this dissembling? I livedthere and I cant tell you. I have no idea who really knew what they were doing, or if anyone actually did.Its easy to theorize that the plain Brothers were sincere, and fancy ones were not, but I doubt that wasalways the case. Im sure their sincerity varied with age, mental acuity, sanity and cultural indoctrinationjust as it does everywhere, but the older I get the more Im convinced that the deception intelligent peoplecan practice on themselves varies directly in proportion to their IQ, if not exponentially so. But thats notsomething I thought about when I was there although there was plenty of evidence for it.

By Eberhard Arnolds day the best strains of Protestantism Quakers, for example had long beensocially egalitarian as believers, and raised the standard of personal spiritual experience high over groupregimented faith. But with only one pot of money for the Brothers and Sisters and all their families to liveon, the Bruderhof was forced to re-embrace the idea that a group of true religious believers would all windup believing exactly the same things, or, in effect, following the same leader. They made a fetish of it.Bruderhof decisions all had to be unanimous.

How?The miraculous unanimity allegedly came about by means of a holy miracle renewed every day in the

Brotherhood. There was no such thing as a minority opinion in the Bruderhof because there didnt haveto be. There was always a recurrent holy miracle of unanimity in the Brotherhood instead. They didnt haveto have voting as the Hutterites do, because if you got in the way of the holy miracle in the Bruderhof, theyjust kicked you out. So the Bruderhof replaced personal spiritual experience with yet another brand-name,off-the-shelf, group-standardized version of truth, and made no allowance for different personal approachesto life and to God which first make it possible, and then make it absolutely necessary for people to agreeto disagree, as they must if they are each to discover truth for themselves. In other words, the Bruderhofturned the clock back on every bit of the actual and potential enlightenment in the Protestant Reformation.

With one pot of money, one standardized religion for the whole group, no diversity of opinion and abuilt-in secret service which could count on the enthusiastic cooperation of almost everyone there, theBruderhof was a far more completely socialistic outfit than China or the Soviet Union could even dream

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of being. A humble, considerate, agreeable person who is willing to compromise with others but whohappens to be involved in a purely socialistic enterprise will never enjoy any personal autonomy at all, noteven in matters of conscience, and he will never get anywhere near a leadership position. All he can do isbow to the party in power unless and until he escapes from the system.

The leader of a purely socialistic enterprise is caught in exactly the same trap, although his only optionis different. The leader of a socialistic system can only be sure of his freedom as long as he remains incomplete control of the entire enterprise. So what Heini Arnold had to do in order to make sure no onecould ever supplant him as they had almost done in Paraguay, was to produce the most glamorous andintriguing vessel of religious esotericism he possibly could and then identify that shining vessel withhimself, and himself alone so closely, that being on the Heini-team would be the only way to keep yourselfin the right spirit and avoid getting kicked out. And at doing just that, Heini Arnold most definitelysucceeded.

But where does this fall in the scheme of things? Is this what the world really needs, or only anotherentry in a crowded field of primitives who all think they are special; another massive vicarious egotrip onthe part of a thoroughly dominated and deeply deluded chosen few? By all accounts its not whatEberhard Arnold wanted, but discretionary freedom invested in the hands of a single anointed despot, andmental and moral, if not physical slavery for everyone else was inherent, automatic and inevitable in whathe set up. And not because of Heini, not because of the Americans, not because of anyone in particular.Without either Heini or the Americans, somebody else would inevitably have come along and done exactlythe same thing. Why? Because the Bruderhof was even more completely monolithic and totalitarian thanMarxist Communism ever was, and because the holy miracle of unanimity in the Brotherhood was neverever real.

There is all the difference in the world between laying down your life in a witness to values, andtolerantly submitting to evil, but the two are often confused. The good kind of nonviolence requires themost extreme self-assertion. Whether someones efforts amount to the good kind of nonviolence or notdepends on the values the individual is responding to. Some people devote themselves to collectivism asan expression of caring to the extent that they try to avoid all disagreement on principle. But there can beno meaning to the life of anyone who always assents and never disagrees. A situation which someone likethat is involved in will tend to deteriorate, if only because his own participation in the situation ismeaningless entirely apart from anything else. All his good intentions will only work against him.

The upshot of all this mystification the Bruderhof engages in is that no Bruderhofer ever can actuallythink in a philosophic sense, unless and until he is thinking of leaving. Even so, Bruderhofers still thinkin the sense that they can plot courses of action appropriate to their unspiritual lights, and calculate thenear-term psychological and material outcomes very accurately. And to that end they have more thanenough money to purchase the best legal advice.

As time passed and the Bruderhof movement deteriorated, it has tried to renew its cachet by ever moreaudacious apparent reconciliations of the secular left with traditional religious believership in its bizarrechoice of iconic outside heroes, having become a champion of Mumia Abu-Jamal, and even gangsters all the while its supposedly Anabaptist leaders hobnob with Catholic prelates, and even (allegedly) thePope.

That said, life is always reborn.Back when one of the Borgia Popes was so egregious as to father a child whose paternal and maternal

grandparents were the same two individuals, most Catholics were only innocently along for the Romanride, having been born to it, and not necessarily anything like their leader. I suppose it might be somewhatthe same for some of the more naive people currently born-Bruderhof.

How and when individual Bruderhofers found out they would have to compromise their consciencesor pay a very high price had to have been a different story each time, but it must have been a consciousprocess to some extent, at least for the prospective members who joined from outside, because of the waythey were hazed in the process of joining at least at Woodcrest. Most of those who joined having grown

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up there did have to know that dissent could bring about their exile from all they knew and loved, but Idont think they necessarily realized that joining the Brotherhood would mean moral compromise eventhough the Bruderhof was always an all-or-nothing trap that forced people to make compromises.

Ramon Sender was at Woodcrest at the same time I was there as a boy, and he published somethingabout this problem from an adult, born-outside-the-Bruderhof perspective in a KIT Newsletter in 1994:

* 11/29/94: I believe that in connection with some recent testimony from a seeking Christianbrother (and Bhof graduate.) I have been able to put my finger on the corruption at the heartof the Bruderhof. What is it? It involves the vow taken at Baptism always to speak out if onesees that the Church is moving in the wrong direction. The irony is, if one speaks out, one isslammed into church discipline and THEN the truth comes out. And what is the truth? Thatthe REAL baptism is not the baptism by water upon confession, but a baptism by the fire ofchurch discipline, i.e. by the new members willingness to surrender to church disciplinewhether applied correctly or not. You must be willing to be crucified by the Servants for thesake of your brothers sins, the rationale being that, since we are all sinners anyway in the eyesof God, what does it matter if it was this particular brother in question that erred or not? The tragedy is that what dies in this crucifixion is the voice of the individual conscience and truth. What emerges from the surrender to the will of the leadership (Whether I amactually guilty or not, I am guilty because we are all guilty and I must submit to the Servantssuperior vision.) is a hollowed-out husk of a person, completely malleable by the leadership. The Bruderhof leadership is very skilled at helping the new brother through the baptism bywater upon confession of his sins. They are equally adept at manipulating the brother throughchurch discipline and the baptism by fire whereby the individual conscience is forced intoa posture of total surrender. But they are equally skilled at making sure that the new brothernever receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit but remains forever a worm, forever out of directtouch with God, constantly reminded of this fact and open to being manipulated at the whimsof the hierarchy. It sounds horrible and the truth of the situation is that it is horrible. It hasbeen extremely interesting to hear this brother tell his story, because he is very clear-sighted,and sees exactly how, step by step, he was led towards the Servants goal of denouncing thevoice of God in his own conscience (my words). He also pointed out, however, that thisbaptism by fire process is not completely conscious on the part of the leadership. It is morelike, Now its your turn to experience what I experienced when I was out. It parallels theinitiation rituals practiced in boys schools or fraternities. But in terms of the teachings ofChrist, it is an abomination and sadistic heresy. The heresy that one must allow church authorities to crucify oneself in order to faithfullyfollow Christs example can be refuted by Scripture, and here I quote from a moreknowledgeable friend: Accepting false accusation in imitation of Christ is easy to rebut. Christ never agreed withthe accusers that he was guilty of the false charges they made. He said to Pilate ...therefor hewho betrayed me to you hath the greater sin... implying that the false charges were sinful.Jesus said the devil is a liar and the father of lies, implying that untruth is of the devil... He saidI am the way, the truth and the life... implying that what is not of the truth is not from Him...He defended himself vigorously against the charges of the Pharisees and Saducees. Jesussuffered for the sins of the world but not in order that religious authorities could inflictsuffering on others... that is a diabolical twisting of the Christian doctrine. Jesus very certainlysaid, Inasmuch as you did it (i.e. anything) to one of the least of these my brethren, you didit unto me. If the Bruderhof authorities want to claim the right to make false accusations inthe name of Jesus for the sake of His humility, then there is no further arguing with them...They havent a leg to stand on according to Scripture... One could go on and on. There is also

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For freedom Christ has set you free. He did not die for you so that you can be enslaved byreligious authorities.

*When ejected ex-Bruderhofers begin their new lives outside, they inevitably confront the issue of

whether to replace the Bruderhof with something else or to create a facsimile Bruderhof to keep on livingin Bruderhof-wise as much as they can. But since you cannot replace something you arent even aware of,the issue resolves itself naturally. Ex-Bruderhofers never replace the parts of their Bruderhof mindset theyarent consciously aware of enough to evaluate, and then perhaps want to change.

Those who joined as adults from outside had all evaluated the Bruderhof from outside of it at one point,and then, upon reflection, decided on joining because they thought it embodied an ideal. So if they wereejected, they could reevaluate the mental steps they took when they joined in the light of what happenedafter they did. Those who came to the Bruderhof as partly grown children also had something pre-Bruderhof they could look back on and compare and contrast. But none of this is true of sabras. And hereI should say that I only know about the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's cohort of Bruderhof sabras.

The 1940's, 1950's and 1960's cohort of sabras were brought up without any way to validate theirpersonal perceptions of right and wrong except via an archetypal group which in and of themselves theycould not replace. And thats just one way the exposure of born-in-the-Bruderhof children to their parentscommunal religion showed itself deadly. So how do the differences between sabra ex-Bruderhofers andborn outside ex-Bruderhofers actually play out?

A picture is worth a thousand words.If you look at pictures of young people from anywhere all over the world you see lovely spirited pictures,

and when you look at pictures of Bruderhof young people from the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's, you seepictures of young people at least as beautiful and spirited, if not more so, than any pictures of young peopleyou ever saw anywhere else. But there was a catch for the beautiful Bruderhof youngsters. These beautifulchildren had to be that beautiful, that spiritual, that stunningly elite. Their parents were supposed to be thespiritual aristocracy of the planet, and these beautiful children were allegedly the proof. So these royalchildren, like all royals, were trapped in their royalty, and they had to be very careful about all that they did.

They were expected to grow up as committed to the Bruderhof cause as holy martyrs would be, so therewas no ordinary humanity these youngsters could choose. They couldnt be human the way people outsidethe Community are human and still look themselves in the mirror, because the world outside the Bruderhofwas a putative cesspool of unredeemed evil, just as the world outside the Garden of Eden was for Adamand Eve in some interpretations of the story. So there was nowhere for these children to go between theirsplendid spiritual royalty and the outer darkness. But these Bruderhof youngsters all knew a secret.Although they may not have consciously known that they knew it, they did know, and the only way tosurvive in the Bruderhof was never to tell.

Their secret was they were human.The tribe these Bruderhof youngsters belonged to both ritually and factually since birth did not have a

stable traditional culture which had evolved over time. It had an intellectually derived, hence artificial one,very prone to cataclysmic changes, and its operational dynamics resembled those of 15th century England,the late Roman Empire or the Soviet Union. So just like the late Roman Empire or the Soviet Union, theBruderhof was periodically convulsed by purges of exile caused by power struggles within its holyleadership. So much like Ann Boleyn, these beautiful children knew that an adverse decision could bemade about their places in the beautiful Garden at any moment.

The decision would be highly political. You couldnt defend yourself. You wouldnt know what to say.Nor was there any safety in refusing to discuss your status or the status of anyone else if called on to do so,lest you become an outcast for refusing to help. So each of the radiantly happy children in the oldBruderhof photographs, at least the intelligent ones, knew at the moment the shutter was snapped that anyexposure of their humanity could lead to disaster, and it could be swift. For if anyone deserved Ausschluss,they all did simply for being human.

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The children werent brought up to make up their own minds like stubborn little Anabaptist goats, butto follow along in childlike fashion like good little Catholic sheep who, once they had proven themselvesreliably conformist, could be safely promoted to shepherd. They were brought up believing that there wereno shadows, no gradations, no grey areas in life, only the light, and the outer darkness: Right spiritup; wrong spirit down. Right spirit on; wrong spirit off. Right spirit in; wrong spirit out. Right spirit thrilling dynamic brotherhood; wrong spirit an ostracism from the holy tribe so completethat it amounted to cultural, social, emotional, familial, sexual and of course spiritual blackmail. Andalthough they were all expected to know exactly what the accepted tribal right and wrong was at all timesso as to keep in the right spirit, all Bruderhof children knew that ordinary individuals played no rolewhatsoever in deciding what the accepted tribal right and wrong was to be except in very extremecircumstances. That was the job of the Servants who ran the whole group.

How many Bruderhof children ever grew up wholly unpressured, with an Anabaptist privilege to maketheir minds up freely about the Bruderhof once they became adults? Not many. The pressures they wereunder to excel were a lot like the pressures in traditional aristocratic families or the very wealthy, exceptthat the social controls werent operated by their own parents, but by the Bruderhof Servants who ran thetribunals of ritual sexual purity, etc. So with the default limits to their moral horizons preset at the officeof a Servant of the Word in control of a Brotherhood, how many sabra ex-Bruderhofers were likely to goon to confront on a gut level the question of whether their childhood belief in a standardized versionof righteousness for everyone in a group, that everyone in the right spirit had a bounden duty to enforce,was actually legitimate or even possible?

The sabra children in the massive cohort of 1950's and 1960's Bruderhof ejects were all well aware ofthe controversies that wracked their Communities at the time, so they knew that different points of viewabout right and wrong were possible, and indeed actually existed. But that isnt to say that they had anyway of knowing that credible or holy alternatives to the Bruderhof itself which could legitimately validatesuch alternative concepts of right and wrong or truth and falsehood were also possible as well.

Ex-Bruderhof sabras may think that they want to destroy anything that resembles the terriblebrotherhoods of exclusion they remember and dread, but when they get together, thats all they eventuallycreate. At the KIT weekend festivals of ethnic tribal celebration, what the people attending can andcannot do, even what they can and cannot wear while they are there has become a matter of who it mightplease or offend rather than anything principled or objective.

That wasnt always the case. I remember the first time the issue of what you could wear at a KITConference came up. For the record, it was when Elizabeth Bohlken Zumpe and Miriam Arnold Holmesgot their pictures taken prancing around with Kopftuchs on. Where are those photos now, by the way? Ithink they belong with the Colin Sharp photos in Raphaels flickr archive.

In any case, while ex-Bruderhofers may pine for an air castle Garden of Eden brotherhood such as theyfondly remember under a fragrant lapacho in Isla Margarita, abstract principles like freedom of expressionwhich could set them free in a better garden have no more place in their air castle brotherhoods than theydid in the Bruderhof although personalities (my sandpit buddies who could but have so far not yetthrown me in the shit of humanity !) still very much do.

Sabra ex-Bruderhofers still retain the vestiges of a deeply internalized belief which might well be calledracist that they come from a holy society which must be kept ritually and biologically separate from therest of humanity. And in this holy society there was never any way to deal with disagreements about rightand wrong, or anything else except as meaningless personality conflicts to be smoothed over in ritualaccommodations to group unity, lest they bring about yet another spate of spiritual ethnic cleansing. TheBruderhof argot you sometimes still hear wherein matters of conflict are supposedly resolved or clearedonly means that the problems have been smoothed over and dropped. And even atheist ex-Bruderhoferscan unknowingly fulfill the office of priests whose relationships with each other are ritually sacramental.

In a raw experiential sense, the sabra children in the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's cohort of Bruderhof ejectswere more Bruderhof than anyone else at the time. They knew (and still know) the Bruderhof from the

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inside out. But many of those now active in KIT seem to be among the last to comprehend the Bruderhofanalytically or intellectually because they dont have any perspective on the Bruderhof from the outsidein, nor do they have any way to gain such a perspective unless and until they investigate themselvesanalytically, in other words from the inside out. That isnt easy for anyone, least of all for them, becausethey embody all the Bruderhof contradictions personally. And the most crucial contradiction for any childin the Bruderhof, especially those born there, is the mother of all Bruderhof contradictions: thecontradiction between love, and the love that cuts like a knife.

We all know that Bruderhof children didnt really belong to their parents. They belonged to theirparents holy tribe which was supposedly a lot more important than they were. The childrens connectionto their parents was shaped, not only by how well their parents taught them what was expected, but by howwell their parents protected them from Bruderhof danger, and how much their parents knowingly orunknowingly exposed them to Bruderhof tyranny. One way Bruderhof parents could protect their childrenwas by concealing their humanity. Another way was to speak up on their behalf. But the parents abilityto do these things very much depended on their position within the tribe.

At the beginning of every child-parent relationship, the children most certainly do love their parents, butthey dont love them unconditionally. They cant. Unconditional love only becomes possible later in life.At first, children love their parents helplessly and desperately, albeit with very charming enthusiasm andmany other helpful assists given them by Mother Nature.

Of course at the beginning of the child-parent relationship the parents hopefully do love their childrenunconditionally, but for parents in the Bruderhof that wasnt supposed to be the case. The parents had allsworn to love the Bruderhof more than they loved their children. Nor was it as though they had sworn tolove God more than their children. They had sworn to love the Bruderhof more than either their spouse ortheir children. As a result, all personal relationships in the Bruderhof, even the biologic ones, were onlyritual facsimiles of what real human relationships, un-conflicted by shadow, can be.

Ex-Bruderhofers are all likely to have reservoirs of fear about betrayal and issues with trust and self-respect because something they believed in at one point, turned out to be evil. But at the heart of the terrorsabra ex-Bruderhofers can face is a far deeper fear, and this fear has a wicked double edge to it. On the onehand, because the Bruderhof turned out to be evil, the sabras original childhood love for their parentsmight also turn out to be a love for something evil, or worse yet, meaningless. On the other hand, it maybe that it is they who were indeed evil, and their parents, if they were still loyal to the Bruderhof, weregood, just as the Bruderhof alleged.

When a conflict like that remains unresolved, there will be hell to pay until it is. So ex-Bruderhofersadjust in many different, more or less effective ways. Some, in a rictus of denial; some by putting both theBruderhof and their parents in perspective as human failures to one degree or another; some by trying tocreate a quasi-Bruderhof to be comfortable in (often as Servants of the Word); some point fingers; somepine with nostalgia; some sniff the corks of all the empty Bruderhof wine bottles they find, exclaiming,Oh, what a vintage year that was! Some take a long unblinking look.

Many of the ex-Bruderhofers still involved in whats left of Ramon Senders Keep In Touch ex-Bruderhof network which he instigated in the late 1980's the weekend conferences, the KIT Newsletter,the Hummer electronic bulletin board seem not to have come to terms with the idea that although the waythey were connected with each other in the Bruderhof was very deeply felt and real, it was also very highlycompromised from the get-go. Many of them appear to be terminally uncomfortable with anyone whodoesnt share the belief that the way they were connected to each other in the Bruderhof was by an un-conflicted spiritual love, and they only remain friends with those who honor an implicit and unspoken pactto conceal their mutual humanity left over from you-know-where.

So to that extent KIT has been almost as big a failure as the Bruderhof, in my opinion. Nevertheless, mycontinued interest consists in the hope of making it a more instructive one.

8


The Banana Bullby William BridgwaterWe are in the late fifties. I had returned to Primavera from a logging camp on the Curuguaty River fortreatment of an injury. My companion Daniel Meier stayed on.

The Curuguaty is a tributary to the Jeju River which feeds into the Paraguay River.We were hauling logs from the jungle to the river where they were turned into rafts using empty 200 litre

petrol barrels for flotation.The rafts were floated down the Jeju to the Paraguay River to be loaded onto vessels for export.I stayed in Primavera working with Josua Dreher in the cow stall and lending a hand on the cattle ranch

when required.One day Harry Barron told Hans Zimmermann and me that a bull was creating havoc in his beloved

banana plantation at the far end of the Orangewood in Isla Margarita.We offered to take a look, and a few days later we went off to try to catch the beast. We succeeded in

lassoing it, but before we could tie it up, the lasso caught a tree stump and snapped. The bull, now furious,took off into the woods, a long piece of the lasso still attached.

We knew wed have to finish the job, but needed reinforcement. At the time, George Mercoucheff withhis wife and sweet little daughter Olga were staying at the Hof.

George, with lots of experience from years on various ranches, was the ideal companion. He gladlyagreed to join the party.

Off we went. Once located and cornered, the bull attacked and pushed Georges mare up against a fence.Luckily, George had managed to dismount. The horse sustained no serious damage but obviously did notlike the treatment..

We were able to distract and catch the bull and tie him to a tree. The plan was to bring one of our trainedoxen, a collejero, tie him to the bull and let him lead him back home.

However, before leaving, George, who was still upset with what the bull had done to his horse, went tosay a few parting words. We dont know what he said or did, but the bull dropped down stone dead andhad to be butchered on the spot.

When late that afternoon we arrived at the Hof with a cargo of fresh meat, Harry was happy, whilstothers scolded us for having killed the prime bull of the herd. Pure Bullshit, or, as the saying goes: Undankist der Welten Lohn.

Announcing OUR PRIMAVERA PHOTOS on flickrby Raphael VowlesI am pleased to announce the arrival of a public photo archive on the flickr website. These are the picturesdiscussed over the years variously as Constantins Photos, Renatus Klvers CD 2007, and BenCavannas Collection.

Thank you to Ben Cavanna, Renatus Klver, Linda Jackson and Adolf Wegner for your efforts atmaking these pictures available. A remarkable collection!

So readers, if YOU have sets of photographs that you wish to have incorporated on this website forposterity, please contact me with details on [email protected] or anyone else of the Volunteerswho produce the KIT Newsletter see names and addresses on the last page, under Contact Us. Anyhelp identifying people, places and dates will be appreciated.

Here is the public photo archive:Go to https://www.flickr.com/KITexBruderhofCCI/ , then click the ALBUMS tab.To view a short Help Video on HowToUse the flickr site, see and click on the COPYRIGHT

album. Enjoy!

9


Bulstrode Manor

REMINDERS:

This is a reminder for the Bulstrode Gathering. Please make a note in your diaries!Date: Saturday, April 25th, 2015To all ex-Bruderhofers and friends by Andy HarriesI have been able to once again book the room at Bulstrode Manor which we had last year and a few times before.It is available from 11:00am to 5:00pm.

WEC International have kindly allowed us the useof the diningroom at the back, with access to hot waterso we can prepare our own drinks. We will bring thebasics: milk, sugar, tea, coffee and juice. Werecommend bringing some food along, which weusually share. As we did last time, we can sit outsideon the veranda with free access to the lovely BulstrodePark and grounds. No smoking indoors, please, noalcohol, and do not leave litter anywhere.

We will have a collection for a voluntarycontribution for WEC, as a thank you for theirkindness of allowing us once again the use of theirroom and grounds.

They have asked me to put out a sheet of paper atreception for everybody to sign on arrival. This is alegal requirement, in case of fire. If you enter through the main front door, reception will be on the right. Beforethat, also on the right, are the toilets.

Please pass this information on to anybody who might not hear or read about it.

FRIENDLY CROSSWAYS REUNION Friday, August 21, through Sunday, August 23, 2015At Friendly Crossways Retreat Center Harvard, MA (near Boston)Weekend cost per person, including food, is $120 for dorms/camping, limited semi-private rooms available for$150/person. Deposits of $80/person are due by May 31.

There will be lots of time to share our lives, both past and present, as well as cook, eat, hike, sing, and playtogether. The get-together is very informal and relaxed. For additional information contact:

Maeve Whitty [email protected] 617-230-3219Al Hinkey [email protected] 215-848-70341901 JOHN F KENNEDY BLVD, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 Sven Maas [email protected] 570-994-0735Please make checks payable to Allen Hinkey and mail to above address. You can pay by credit card through

PayPal. Go to www.paypal.com and click on send money. Enter my email address and click on friends andfamily, not goods or services. You will be directed to set up a PayPal account if you do not have one. You willneed to enter your email address and pick a password. It is fast and easy.

For additional information, give one of us a call.

An Invitationby Andy HarriesTwo of us are planning to do some walking up Titterstone and The Beechwood, and another day up BrownBurf (Clee) Hill at Wheathill this summer in early July. I am not sure of the exact dates yet. If anybodywould like to join us or find out more, let me know. You will need to be a reasonably fit walker.

Tel: 01264 353800 Email: [email protected]

10


Monika and Balz Trmpi with their Children, Primavera, ca. 1947L-R Gabriele on Monikas lap, Emmy, Annemone,

Beate with Balz, and front: Ebbo.

Balthasar (Balz) Trmpi 4th December, 1914 9th March, 2015by Elisabeth Bohlken ZumpeIn 1935, Balz a young Swiss teacher arrived for a visit in Liechtenstein, his violin tucked under his arm.He was walking along towards Silum when he saw a pretty girl picking flowers in a meadow. He stared,thinking: This is who my future wife ought to be! It was seventeen-year-old Monika, daughter of EberhardArnold.

Balz was impressed by the community life and had many good discussions with Eberhard, who died thatsame year. When Eberhards casket arrived at the Rhn Bruderhof and the sobbing Monika laid her handson it, Balz placed his hand on hers and, as he said, never let go again.

Balz and Monika used to take me along for walks through the alpine meadows when I was a toddler.One of my first memories is of a lovely warm day; they were lying in the soft grass, me seated on Balzstummy trying to put Gentians into the buttonhole of his jacket.

He was a teacher with heart andsoul. When we arrived in IslaMargarita, Primavera, in May 1941,there was no school. We childrenhad to help with the small ones, helpfeed them, help in the kitchen andwith thatching roofs. That meant westood in a mud-pit; the adults handedus bushels of straw, we dipped thecut end in the mud and Brothers thenthrew the bunches up to the roof forthatching.

But Balz declared that all childrenhad a right to be schooled. So withthe older boys Ullu and PeterKeiderling, Walla von Hollander,Christoph Boller and ChristophMathis, Jakob Gneiting and others he cleared two forested areas, onefor a kindergarten, the other for aschool. We six- and seven-year-oldswere taken into Balzs strict carebecause he felt that we had runpretty wild. While small ranchos were being built as classrooms no walls, just a roof we sat outside onlogs.

He taught us songs. He danced with us. We learned to write in the sand using twigs, and arithmetic by repeating the multiplication tables. He taught us fractions using oranges. We had no books; Balz made usmemorize numbers, words, verses and songs. He taught us what to do if we were bitten by a snake, howto bandage someone hurt by falling from a tree, or stung by wasps. The forests were full of monkeys,toucans, parrots, flowers and beauty, but also insects, ants, snakes and wild beasts.

The Trmpi family left the Bruderhof in 1960 as a result of changes in the leadership. Monika died onApril 13, 2010 and Balz struggled on bravely, with some of his children living close by.

He turned one-hundred last December. Suffering from painful sores on his feet, hospitalization becamenecessary. In January, he was moved to a nursing home where he died peacefully on 9th March. He wasburied on Monday the 16th, next to his wife Monika.

His was a long and interesting life which touched many hearts and minds. I am thankful to have knownhim.

11


Karen, Mark, Glen and EricFamily photo taken in 2013

Circa 1960-1961: Back L-R: Prisca, Margaret,Audrey-Ann, Thomas, Peter.

Front L-R: Sidney and Mary (Jefferies family)

Karen Greenwoodby Margot PurcellKaren Marie Greenwood passed

away on February 23, 2015 at theage of fifty-five after an extendedillness. Karen was the wife of GlenGreenwood, son of Bob and KathyGreenwood. Glen and Karen lived inNY and enjoyed thirty-four years ofmarriage. They had one little babyboy, Joel, who was stillborn. Theyadopted two boys, Eric and Mark,who brought much joy to their livesand made her a proud mother.

Just one year ago she was helpingto plan Mark and Katrinas weddingand was honored to make Katrinaswedding dress. A lovely, intimateceremony was held at their homewith both families in attendance.Glen tells me that Karen enjoyed the early days of KIT and getting to know all the strange characters likeMe and why we are the way we are. I was very lucky to have her as my wife. Beth, his sister, said, Sheloved to quilt. She did a wonderful job of raising her two adopted boys. She was a cheerful positive person,despite huge health problems.

Karen was employed as a medical receptionist at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown. She enjoyedbeing a volunteer as a teaching assistant at Mount Markham Central School, helping young students tolearn how to read. She will be remembered as a loving, caring and helpful person. She had such a beautifulsmile that many remember her by. She loved her family and was always there for them in good times orbad. She will be missed by her family, her two brothers and their wives, many nephews and nieces, as wellas many friends.

If you would like to send a greeting to Glen, his address is 180 Stone Road, West Winfield, NY 13491.

Remembering Margaretby Elisabeth Bohlken ZumpeI remember Margaret well as a brave little girl along with hercousin Elizabeth when there was a polio epidemic in Wheathill.Those were really difficult times, but the two little girls wereamazing. They were very sure they were held in the hands ofJesus while their mothers and family members didnt know howto divide themselves between the sick children in hospital witha lighter form of polio, the rest of their families at home, and theBrotherhood who wanted to help but realized they werehelpless. All this is hard to imagine today, but the distances weregreat, and our transportation capacity, poor, to say the least.

As I remember, it was Ursel Lacey who stood out as a strongperson for everyone. She was knowledgeable, but also serene andlovable, and she spread peace around her which was helpful toeveryone as a foothold. She did all in her power as a Bruderhof

12


Margaret Rachel AdlingtonPhotograph taken by Margot Purcell at the

Friendly Crossways Gathering in 1991

Margaret Adlington, 2014

nurse to let the children know that we were with them in the hospital, even though it was physicallyimpossible for us to see them daily.

I have warm memories of Margaret as a child, of Margaret as a young girl and as an adult and motherwhen I met her again at the Friendly Croosroads KIT Gathering in 1991.

Our memories will keep her just as alive as the twinkle she had in her eyes all her life. She was specialand will be missed. But I am sure that she is where she believed she would be with her husband, her babyson and her parents. It is so special and wonderful that her two daughters were able to nurse her and bewith her through this time.

My Memories of Margaretby Catherine (Jefferies) RendleMargaret Rachel Adlington was born to Thomas and Audrey Ann Jefferies on 8th February, 1947. Mummytold me that the winter was particularly harsh up in the Clee Hills of Shropshire, as indeed it was

throughout the country and was remembered as such. Ibelieve the birth was difficult and it was very difficult to getDr. Hodges, our local General Practitioner, or midwiferyservices through. However, Margaret was born safely. Ihave no further details than those above.

Margaret was thirteen months younger than myself. Iwas born on January 1st, 1946. As sisters, we playedhappily together and welcomed four other additions to ourfamily.

In 1953, Margaret, Prisca and Peter Jefferies, ElizabethJohnson, Derek Wardle, David, Paul and some otherscontracted Polio which, at that time, was not preventabledue to not having a vaccination developed. They were atthe local Copthorne and Oswestry Hospitals.

Margaret was a fairly quiet, thoughtful child, I believe,enjoying family, kindergarten and later school life. Unlikeme, I dont remember any rebellious streak. She was veryloyal to me. I remember a time when she retrievedsomething for me that Ihad dropped whilstswinging, and her headgot hit by the swing forthe effort.

In the Bruderhof Community we were separated by being differentage groups at kindergarten and school, so didnt see much of eachother during weekdays. In the evenings we had to be in bed before ourparents went to communal supper followed by meetings. There wasalways an evening watch assigned, some of whom were stricter thanothers, to keep an eye on the children left at home. I can remember thatafter lights out when we were small, this was a paraffin lamp orcandle we would beg her to tell us stories. She was always very goodat this and also obliging.

As a family, I believe we had some very happy times. Mummy wasvery good with us and we were willing sponges for reading all thebooks she would recommend. She had high values in manners and alsodeportment getting us girls to walk tall with books on our heads.

13


Margaret and Elizabeth Simons, 2014

At Margaret and Peters old family home in Dorset, 2006.L-R Ben, Margaret, Peter, Rosie Sumner-Johnson and Dan

As is, my rebellious streak took me out of my family. After spending months with Klaus and HeidiBarths little family, and then some months in 1960 in a Bruderhof in Germany, I went to stay inHuddersfield with my uncle Tom and his wife. He was my mothers brother, and a Methodist Minister.

When I returned to my family in around 1962, my parents had left the Community and were living ina small farm cottage on an agricultural college near Lincoln. Life was very hard, particularly for my parents.Dad worked with farm machinery by day whilst taking evening classes at night to better his position,eventually becoming a lecturer at Reaseheath Agricultural College, near Nantwich, Cheshire. Motherreturned to teaching.

Money was very tight. My mother hadenjoyed a fairly privileged childhood so thatcooking and washing etc for a large family wasa challenge which she nevertheless acceptedsuccessfully, although the strain of it caused herembarrassment shortage of money and herfirst prolapsed disc.

Margaret attended the local high school,achieving her GCE. She also worked someevenings and weekends as a mothers help to avery nice family. She seemed to fit in well to lifeoutside the Bruderhof and at eighteen enrolledas a student nurse at Kings College Hospital inLondon. Joy Johnson was there too at that time,

and introduced her to Peter Adlington, a registrar in ENT, at the same hospital. They went on to marry andmoved to Poole in Dorset were he gained a post as Consultant. From then on she went on to have threechildren, Tony, Abigail and Rebecca.

Tony was only given to them for a few short weeks, dying from cot death. This was devastating for Peterand Margaret. They sought comfort and support from Peters close friend and army chaplain. I rememberwhen I heard this terrible news; I had rung home, full of joy having been successful in my interview tobecome a ward sister there was a silence and Mummy passed on the sad news. I was devastated,especially as my exuberance was dashed. We were all deeply affected.

My children from my firstmarriage Tim and Theresa werearound the same age as Abigail andRebecca. We spent many holidays attheir home in Poole and later inHorton Hollow near Wimborne.Margaret was like a second motherto my children, as around 1976, mymarriage broke up, and after a shortperiod with my parents in DarvellCommunity, Robertsbridge, webought a house in Hastings, EastSussex.

As I couldnt return to nursingwith a very young family, I hostedlanguage students who came to study English at local language schools.

During this time we were quite poor and I suffered my first prolapsed disc. Margaret invited my childrenand my brother Peter drove them down whilst I was in hospital. We also spent a couple of Christmases withher family. Favourite visits were to the New Forest and the Isle of White.

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At Jefferies Siblings Get-Together at Priscas house, 2014:Back L-R Celia (Sidneys wife), Colin (Catherines husband), Mary, Sidney,Prisca and Judith (Peters wife); Front L-R Catherine, Peter Hall (Priscas

husband), Margaret and Peter

After Abigail and Rebecca left home to do their training and follow their own professions, Peter andMargaret enjoyed a happy retirement. They had a flat in London, so could easily commute and enjoyLondons social life and visit their children.

Abigail married Richard, and Luke was born to them while they had their flat in Kensington. Margaretvisited them frequently, staying at her flat and helping with Grandma delights of babysitting and takingLuke out. I remember accompanying her on one such visit. Margaret delighted in all her grandchildren andwas able to pass on her own experiences, her wealth of songs and games often remembered from our ownchildhood, and garlands for birthdays even the birthday stick and posies for the boys. She was a verywell loved grandmother to Luke, Peter, Lydia and Mary.

Her daughter and Richard moved to Wootton-St. Lawrence, Hampshire, and Peter and Margaret soonfollowed, selling their lovely home in Dorset. They soon settled down in their new village and Church,where they made many friends andMargaret became Church Warden.Their life was enriched by havingtheir daughter and grandchildrenliving a short distance away, being avillage their children often walkedand cycled to visit their grandpa andgrandma to enjoy all the delightsprovided. Margaret was able to helpwith babysitting, school runs andother activities a growing family wasengaged in.

Her husband Peter, around fifteenyears her senior, started to suffer anAlzheimers type illness, probablybefore their move to Basingstoke.This deteriorated gradually and wasdiagnosed as Picks Disease.Margaret supported him verylovingly at home, encouraging asmuch independence as possible. He doted on her, and his children and grandchildren were a constantdelight. They all loved to be involved in Grandpas care.

Margaret Adlington rememberedby Joy MacDonaldWe have just spent a day with many family and friends of Margaret, daughter of Thomas and Audrey AnnJefferies. For Bob and me, our first stop was to collect daughter Fiona, then to Basingstoke railway stationto collect Carol (Beels) Beck before a short countryside drive to the little village of Wootton-St. Lawrenceand its quintessential small medieval St. Lawrence church for Margarets Thanksgiving Service.

Margarets eldest daughter, Abigail, who lives with her husband and four school age children in thevillage just a short walk away from Margarets home, read a lovely life story that she and her youngersister Rebecca had written as a tribute to their mother and also their father Peter, who died three years ago.

Margarets childhood years were spent at Wheathill, where her love of nature and music and childrenand Jesus encompassed her wish to become a nurse and move to the Primavera hospital in Paraguay.

Abigail then moved on to read about Margaret meeting her future husband, Peter, an E.N.T. ConsultantPhysician, while she was a student nurse. She continued by describing the years following their marriagewhich were spent in Dorset bringing up their children. She then spoke of Margarets gradually deepeningreligious life and beliefs.

15


At Callow Lane PondL-R John Holland, Margaret Adlington and her sister

Mary

Time for a Picnic: L-R Gudrun Harris, John Holland,Margaret Adlington, Eunice Lord, Dorothy Ann Ellison

After the service, her family and friends gathered round the grave where both Peter and Margaret hadbeen laid to rest and sang songs which had meant so much to Margaret and to those of us who had livedin the Bruderhof. The songs were: People Look East, Wer Leuchtet uns denn, When He Cometh,Winter has Gone, For the Golden Corn, God made the shy, the wild ones, Evening Star up Yonder,and finally the lovely three part round, Goodnight to You All.

The peaceful churchyard was carpeted with drifts of snowdrops, including all around Peter andMargarets graves. It reminded me that in Wheathill, snowdrops were Margarets special February birthdayflowers, and her birthday garland always featured snowdrops.

We then walked the short distance to her home for a couple of hours, reconnecting with family andfriends, and remembering Margaret.

The weather was better than expected, much sunshine, just a light wind and later just a few flurries ofsnow while we were at Peter and Margarets home surrounded by the undulating Hampshire farmland withits hedgerows and small clumps of trees.

Memories of Margaretby Andy HarriesI feel so sad that Margaret has gone. Gudrun and I gotto know her well in the last years since she lost herhusband. It just happened that I had planned a visit toWheathill for some walking and put out an invite toanybody who might want to join me. Margaret andher sister Mary came, as well as John Holland.Margaret was enthusiastic about seeing Wheathillagain and wanted me to tell her about some of theplaces of her childhood when we were there, becauseshe was quite young when she left and couldntremember a lot.

The two sisters wore Wellies because of troubleswith their feet, and I was amazed at how theymanaged; first up muddy Callow Lane, where westopped at Callow Lane Pond which holds manymemories from our school days; then right up the steep side of Titterstone Hill, which is quite a toughclimb.

We had a picnic lunch at the top with a wonderfulview down to Wheathill Farm. A few others joined;they had driven round the back of Titterstone towhere one can park near the quarry. The four of usthen carried on across the moor to Cleeton St Maryand on to the beechwood, with another picnic stopthere, then down the hill through the heather. Asschoolchildren we used to pick heather here, tying itinto small bundles to be sold at the BirminghamBullring Market. Then on across fields passingSilvington, through Love Lane and the Banks fields tohave a look at the Bromdon burial ground, beforewalking back through Lower Bromdon and up TheDrive. It was a really good day. People who havelived at Wheathill will know the places we went to.

16


The Views of Brown Clee and Callow LaneL-R Margaret Adlington, Gudrun Harries, Eunice

Lord

A Red Admiral Butterfly

Margaret asked if she could join me on some of my walks near home. She came on two walks, both ofabout eleven miles, and she managed very well, although it is quite a distance. I will never forget herenthusiasm about plants and flowers; she was constantly pointing out flowers and flowering trees. I learneda lot. She told me how Cecilia Paul used to teach them about flowers at the Wheathill School on naturewalks, and that increased her interest. She also invited us tovisit her and we went for a walk in the countryside near herhome. She had a lovely house and a beautiful garden. Wehad tea in the garden with scones and jam and whippedcream, a very nice, proper English tea.

Margaret also came to visit us, and we went visiting herat another time. This time, before returning to her place fortea, we went with her to the Church where Jane Austenused to go when she was growing up, which is very closeby.

We had one veryinteresting experience.We were having tea inher garden whenMargaret pointed out two butterflies in an old wheelbarrow, but shedidnt know what species they were, nor did we. They kept their wingsclosed all the time and looked all black. She said they had been therealready the day before. We were intrigued and puzzled. Some timelater we noticed that one of them had disappeared but we never saw itgoing; then suddenly the second one flew off and we saw immediatelythat it was a Red Admiral, a large brightly coloured butterfly.

She was going to visit us again last year but then became too ill. We will miss her a lot. She was a lovelyperson. We will be thinking of all her family in the coming days and weeks.

Treasured Memoriesby Carol (Beels) BeckIt feels like I have known Margaret since childhood, but actually we just started getting to know each otherthrough KIT gatherings and then meeting up, as we both lived in the South of England. We quickly foundwe were very at ease together and had lots to share.

We have a family connection through my brother Michael Beels who married Stella Withers some thirty-seven years ago (mother Daisy was sister of Thomas Jefferies, Margarets father). Michael and Stella stilllive in the Bruderhof and as far as I know, all their children are inside.

To this day I am touched how Margaret wrote and then phoned me after both my parents died (Francisand Sylvia Beels), even though she had not known them personally.

When I was going to a singing weekend in Dorset, not far from where the Adlingtons were then living,Margaret and Peter made me so welcome. The first grandchild, Luke (about one-and-a-half years old) wasstaying with them for the weekend, and Margaret was in seventh heaven looking after him. It was a fullmoon, and Margaret carried Luke from their lovely garden into the woods beyond. His eyes were shiningand he was awestruck.

When I came down the wooden staircase in the morning, there was a real evergreen Advent garlandhanging from the ceiling, suspended with red ribbons, one of the four red Advent candles silently burning.It was such a beautiful First Advent surprise. Advent, for most adults and children in the Bruderhof, wasalways an especially beautiful experience. Margaret continued all these years to keep the meaning andbeauty of this tradition alive for her family.

17


In 2013, again during Advent, I was invited by Margaret to stay; this time near Basingstoke. Again thisfresh evergreen garland with lit candles was hanging in the hall to celebrate Advent and welcome all whoentered.

I happened to have been given a spare copy of the old red Christmas Songbook that we used in theBruderhof. I knew how much Margaret loved the songs from our upbringing, so I thought she might likeit. Well, her joy knew no bounds. Even a year later she mentioned it in her last Christmas greeting. Shewrote on 11th December 2014: Just a year since your Advent visit... that precious songbook which sobeautifully set the music for an unexpected Christmas experience. And so it has gone on, one blessingfollowing another.

Within days of me visiting with Margaret in December 2013, her serious illness had been diagnosed.Margaret was not even sure at the time if she had more than a few weeks to live. It amazed me that she wasso open and accepting of whatever Gods will (Margarets words) was to be, given that only a weekearlier she had no idea anything was wrong.

A year ago, and then again this year, Margaret had hoped to invite a few ex-Bruderhof members to singChristmas songs, but sadly she was not well enough to make it happen. During Advent 2013 Margaret toldme that the family with her children and grandchildren gathered every Sunday evening to sing Christmassongs and celebrate Advent. How beautiful and meaningful! Margaret had such a genuine, animated beliefin the Christian teachings which she continued to keep alive, sharing what was precious to most of usgrowing up in the Bruderhof, such as the festivals, but especially Advent and Christmas. Margaret tookwhat was true and beautiful from our heritage and made it come alive for the next two generations in herfamily.

How very sad and seemingly unnecessary that Margaret (who had such a living Christian faith), herhusband Peter and children and grandchildren, were not able to have the kind of family contact withMargarets parents Thomas and Audrey Ann once the latter had returned to the Bruderhof, which wouldsurely have given much joy to all sides.

As my thoughts and feelings keep going back, what I was privileged to experience and learn when beingwith Margaret was that she was genuinely living out loving kindness, friendship, compassion,understanding, not just to family and friends but to people struggling or less fortunate than herself. It wasa privilege to know her and I treasure the times spent together.

Thanksgiving Celebration for Margaretby Carol (Beels) BeckI just want to add a few words to what Joy MacDonald has already written.As we entered the churchyard bathed in sunlight, there on the right was a spread of snowdrops over an areaof about six to seven by two to three meters. While the people were gathering in the Church in preparation,familiar hymns chosen by Margaret were played beautifully on the organ. I understand Margaret also chosethe readings and songs for the service. It was a joyous occasion in spite of the very real loss.

At the end of the service, within a few yards of the entrance to the Church, about fifteen to twentypeople, mostly extended family and ex-Bruderhof members, gathered to sing, surrounding the grave. Onit were clumps of snowdrops and a vase with yellow little flowers (Anemones?) and more snowdrops.Three generations from the Jefferies and Johnson families were present. At the end of the singing, one ofthe third-generation lively little two- to three-year-old Jefferies, with the help of her mother, placed somemore snowdrops on the grave.

The songs sung had been put together with much care (by Elizabeth) in a booklet with a picture on thecover of snowdrops in the snow. This gathering was a very lovely part of the goodbye to Margaret. Iunderstand that, when Margaret asked for the singing of loved songs from our Bruderhof past, she had saidshed be watching and smiling, laughing from above.

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Snowdrops and Anemones on Margarets Grave

The Church behind the Graveyardwith Margarets Grave

Margarets Bromdon Gate, and theCountryside behind her House

The Bromdon Gate:A close-up of the Latch

Margarets Thanksgiving Serviceby Andy HarriesGudrun and I attended Margarets thanksgiving service inthe small village where Margaret lived. It was a really nice

day. There were manypeople at the service,which shows howmuch she was likedand appreciated. Itmade a change that weex-Bruderhofers were just a small minority there; most of the peoplewere from other backgrounds. It really was a celebration of her life. Iespecially liked what one of Margarets daughters read out, about herlife from her early childhood days at Wheathill, right through to thepresent.

A group of us then stood round her grave as she had requested andsang some songs. Elisabeth and others had liaised the event withMargarets daughters and they had printed out the songs Margaretwished us to sing. Margarethad said that when we sangfor her she would be inheaven listening. It was a

really nice experience. I found one of the songs, Evening Starup Yonder, especially meaningful, with very fitting words anda beautiful tune.

We then walked the short distance to Margarets house forrefreshments, which again was very nice, with a chance to talk tomany old friends and make some new ones. A most enjoyableday.

On the way there I took some photos of the Bromdon Gate.Margaret had visited Wheathill some time ago with some familymembers and had managed to acquire one of the few Bromdon Gates still tosurvive. Wheathill meant a lot to her and especially the gate, because her fatherwas the engineer and was much involved in the designing and manufacturing ofthe Bromdon Products: farm gates, bale sledges, cattle crushes and other items.

I took some photos of the gate as we approached, then I walked into the fieldto take some more with the light behind me. I noticed people were still coming sotook more pictures with them approaching the gate.

On the way back, I took a few more close-ups of the gate latch; it is of coursethe patented latch which made the gate special. Its not easy to see how it works, but if one holds the latchup, pushes the bolt into the hole in the post and then pushes the latch down, it lifts the gate up slightly totake the weight off the hinges. That is what the gate was all about. I was one of those who used to deliverthe Bromdon Products all over the country with our lorry.

Change of Address: Julie Barth 4212 East Park Blvd Port Clinton, OH 43452 USAEmail address and phone number remain the same

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KIT Vol XXVII No2 -Apr2015 -HighRes 1-35MB

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