An article from "CentreCOMM", August 1990 ...

The Centre has turned 21......
What next?
by Rev Mario Schoenmaker

When the Rev Colin Read and I commenced The Centre in 1969 we had a vision: a vision of a community of people, a club, where freedom existed, freedom with responsibility, freedom with thoughtfulness for others, where we trusted one another, where we could be free, where we had no "no entry" signs. So when we inaugurated The Centre in Perth, we started it with a philosophy of freedom, but we soon came to the appalling conclusion that this wasn't possible. People, specifically outsiders, would come in and take advantage of the situation, so we had to go back to the old ways. We had to create a framework, where we hadn't wanted a framework at all.

The problem we had then is the problem we have in evolution at the present: that each soul has become separate from every other soul. This separation occurred over the last four hundred years, ever since the Renaissance, and come to a real head over the last thirty years. Each and every one of us has our own opinions, our own understandings and these don't always go together. As a consequence, of course, there is confusion, and we can hardly understand or agree with each other. I am writing here in terms of the whole world. It's the reason why we have the tremendous problems we see today in politics, economics, ethnic cultures, relationships and in many other areas. But we must try to look beyond all that and see how we can operate in the future.

At present, a framework is still necessary in our society and within The Centre, but we need to look beyond that. I personally am looking at whether it is possible for The Centre, which has always been at the forefront, always been the one to start new things and experiment, whether we can again instigate something new. I want to see how we can depart from some of the old things that we are so used to, and dare to enter into a new area and new expression that's totally ours and that belongs to our age and to the future, and which has little to do with the past and with the old.

I was reminded of that in a small book I was reading where the author, who used to be my colleague, participated in ancient fire dances as they used to be done thousands of years ago. I thought, "Yes, it is good to experiment, but this is going back. It's not creating anything new." It might be nice, but it has nothing to do with the future. We are people of today and the age of tomorrow who cannot and may not do this type of thing. We are modern people, even though we will probably be looked up as barbaric next century. Yet the fact remains that we must go forward.

I want to be associated with a community who dares to go forward into this newness, into this vision that we began with in 1969. It's a vision of freedom and trust and openness and beingness with one another. There is no threat, no fear for one another, and love can then be a flowing thing, rather than a sexual thing.

The other area I am looking at is in terms of the structure itself, the structure of The Centre as a whole. Our church as we have it today, with its hierarchy and its beautiful ceremonies is perhaps satisfying at the present, but it won't be satisfying in another thirty or forty years. Renewal must be a continual thing. We must always be open to the continual newness.

In 1969 we dared to break away from the traditional forms of worship and instigate something new, which we still have at present and with which we have been very successful. Yet I look around and see that we are settling down very nicely into a pattern that's very comfortable for us. It's certainly comfortable for me. I certainly personally don't want to change at all, but the very fact remains that we are in danger of becoming static. Therefore a new and fresh vision of the future is essential.

In terms of occult teaching, for instance, I have noticed that we are even becoming crystallised in our teachings. Nothing new is coming forward, unless I bring it in. But there is so much still to discover! In the New Testament, there are so many issues coming before us. They just leap before your eyes if you really look at it.

What we have to do is free ourselves from the past. And we, in Australia, in the southern hemisphere, must also loosen ourselves from the northern hemisphere. We must say to the northern hemisphere: "Thank you very much for what you have given to us, but it is no longer valid." We are still living in the occult teachings of the northern hemisphere, which, in many ways, have no relevancy here. Has Christmas any relevancy here in terms of the northern hemisphere, where our seasons are completely the other way around? And yet we celebrate Christmas and Easter and all the festivals which belong to the old. St John's Day, which lauds in the summer in the north, and which has a tremendous occult meaning, has no meaning here, because here it lauds in the winter. And it's the same with Michaelmas in September which is supposed to commence the Autumn in the north, but for us it is the beginning of summer time. It's all the other way around. We have to start learning how to free ourselves from the cycles which have been imposed upon us by the northern hemisphere. We have to say, "What you have given us is very nice, but we have to start interpreting it and expressing it where we are, that is, in the southern hemisphere of the world, where everything is different." These are the things I am looking at.

In 1970 I dared to declare that the Christian church was a dying concern, and I still believe that. I believe that the church is, in fact, dead, and that we're only waiting for the corpse to be buried. But we are continuing the same thing here! We have a lovely church. We all look beautiful in our gowns and it's all very wonderful, but isn't it time that we start asking one another, "What are we creating for the future? What are we opening up in the future for our youngsters and for those with whom we come in contact? Is the church in its limited expression valid for the future? Are there other ways in which we can express our deep religious feelings?"

That's not doing away with the validity of the cosmic mass or anything of that kind. I am talking about the framework. We have to look at a different framework which will bring us a step further and which will make us, again, pioneers.

Other churches in the early part of our history always followed in our footsteps. They couldn't do it themselves; we were the pioneers and led the way. And even though they may not like us, the fact remains that at present many of my former colleagues are coming back to me and wanting to become part of The Centre. I often have to say, "No. You haven't been trained in occultism long enough to take a stand here. All you bring with you is the rubbish from the old church and we don't want that. If you want to be part of us, come and sit in the back seat and learn the ABC of esoteric Christianity."

What I am trying to express here is that The Centre as we have it today will not exist in another twenty or thirty years in the same form as it does now. It will not and it must not. If it is then you have stultified.

What we need is a freedom of worship, a freedom of expressing, a freedom of coming together. Jesus said," Where two or three are gathered, there I am in the midst." What is wrong with three or four people suddenly celebrating a Mass on a Monday morning and upsetting the staff here at the ICA? What's wrong with some people coming together during the day and using the little meditation and healing chapel?

What people also have to learn is that clairvoyance is something for yourself whereby you can examine and explore the cosmos. It is for you, so that you know first hand and can then teach others what you have experienced in the eternal. That's what clairvoyance is really for. Clairvoyance is not to give you a little reading, however valuable that may be, or to give full moon readings, however valuable that may be, because that doesn't teach people to think and act from their own inner self and take their own inner responsibilities.

So Full Moon Services will most likely disappear from our agenda this year. I have also already indicated to my staff that I will do not more spiritual readings, except for those I feel are needed. If I want to lead you into the newness of what I see the future will be, then these are steps I have to take. However painful this may be to me, I think in the long run you will find that it is very helpful because you are then thrown on your own resources and your thinking capacity. We, then, as your leaders, can teach you how to develop that spiritual thinking within your soul and how you can really enter into the cosmos by your own initiative and derive from it the truths that I pronounce to you because of my ability to do this.

By no means, in the future, do I see that I shall be the only one that can do this. I think those who really aspire to this, can and must enter into these areas, if we as a Centre are to have nay influence at all in the future and in the moulding, somehow, of the consciousness of those around about us.

I hope you will think about all this and in your heart say, "Right, I am going to develop that inner consciousness by which I can also experience what Mario experiences and what others experience in the world." Then, I feel that we as the founders have fulfilled the task for which we have been called into this world. Then we have made souls alive who can actually go forward with authority.

Authority always lies in that which you experience yourself. It never lies in what somebody else told you. If you have experienced it yourself then the doubt is gone, as there is no doubt in my soul, because I know.

I would like you to live with my vision for the future. I would like you to aspire with me into that newness. Let us at times try different things, things that may, perhaps, be slightly away from Centre orthodoxy, and in that sense come to the renewal we all desperately need.

May God bless you all real good.