• Home

• Spiritual Life
• Fellowship
• Mission

• Work Activities
  • Candleshop
  • Garden & Field
  • Hand and Hoe
  • Human Care
  • Medical Practice
  • Metal and Woodshop
  • Pottery
  • Printshop
  • Weavery

• Co-workers
• Students
• Visitors
• Members
• Volunteers

• Mercury Press

• Contact Us

Fellowship
Brochure
2.6MB

Co-workers

It can be said that all who live in the community are co-workers where ever possible. Where the older person can make a contribution, this is valued. It was a thrill, for example, when one of the ninety-year old members made articles in the pottery, and the articles sold at the gift shop. This ninety-year old individual had been a productive member of society for many years, was widowed, and had a number of illnesses. He felt whole and a worthwhile community member when he was able to make a lovely clay article that sold. At the other end of the age spectrum, a young three or four year old may make morning rounds with an older co-worker in the care setting. The co-worker and the child, in making morning rounds, may bid good morning to a “grandmother” or “grandfather”, water the flowers and/or empty the waste basket—- and sometimes report that grandma or granddad are in need of help. It has to be said however, that the community always tries to keep a consciousness that the young and old are there to be helped where needed. For the most part, it is the mid-lifer who has the task to render service to the very young and the very old.

Those who are full time co-workers are usually in mid-life, but do not have to be—- it all depends upon health, capacity, ability, and the willingness to serve. There are those co-workers who live in the community, and those who live outside the community. For the most part, co-workers are encouraged to live in, but the community could not be sustained without help from those who do not live within the confines of the community. For all, the serving of those in need is generally intense and demanding. A search for personal growth, a sense of self-worth, a desire to be altruistic, a seeking of intimate human relations, and a desire to serve is important. The joy of service, the sense of fulfillment, and the quest for human depth is all part of the reward for serving such a community based work. In this setting co-working asks as a fundament that there is a devotion to life, to one’s fellow man, to one’s loved ones, and even to strangers.

The economic needs of co-workers vary. It is hoped that with an altruistic bent, the desire to serve others is present and is greater than the desire for self-service. This co-working mode then asks that the community take a responsibility for each co-worker and the co-worker takes a responsibility for the community. For the most part co-workers need stipends, but the stipend is not related to the work done. Work, service, is dissociated from the needs of the co-worker. The community offers supports (housing, meals, cars, etc) that are not only monetary. When there are families, then the economic needs of spouse and children have to be considered. Today the longevity of the co-worker and the older person has to be taken into consideration, and therefore, economic planning for the end of life is part and parcel of the economics of the community.

Children of preschool age are taken up in the Child’s Garden, specially evolved for their care in the community. When school age arrives then the children attend the local Waldorf School. There are some exceptions of course.

Important for the co-worker is that with the passage of time, the gaining of skills, the taking on of responsibility in daily life, is the taking up responsibility for the community as a whole. With age and maturity the hope is for a given co-worker to be able to have an increasing overview of the functioning of the community, and not just for a specific task or specific tasks. Those who stay but a short time of course do not take up such responsibilities. Over the thirty some years of this communities existence, there has grown a core of co-workers who share essential administrative responsibilities with the Trustees of the Rudolf Steiner Fellowship Foundation, the legally responsible agent for the community. This means that an ever increasing number of individuals have come to help maintain the social forms of the community. Much effort has to be expended to keep social forms alive, and not let policy directives become uppermost.