After the Summer University
Global Grace Village – Creating Models for a Future without War

http://www.tamera.org/index.php?id=624&L=0 (slideshow and text)

The Summer University of Tamera was a gathering of visionary spirits and peace workers from all around the world. There were moving insights about the situation in the world by authentic reports and experiences of involved people from many countries. Compassion with the fate of other people in the world led to a deeper connection among the participants; the common will arose to help and to “become the change.” We also looked into visions of a different future – a humane society inspired by utopian models of communities who develop a new unified and truthful relationship between humans, toward nature and toward the divine. After the Summer University, 96 people went on a Vision Quest.

Sometimes it seemed that different, parallel lines of pilgrimages crossed each other’s paths in Tamera – under the shade pavilion of the Aonda, in the Stone Circle, in the Aula.
Among the 400 participants of the Summer University, there were people like the musician, Claudio – who heard about Tamera in the slums of Sao Paolo and made the impossible possible, raising the money for the trip and coming for six weeks to Tamera.
And Fernando Quiganas, a young representative of the Nasa tribe from Colombia – a native tribe which fight with nonviolent methods for their land and their culture. Fernando had been fasting for days in the rainforest to prepare for his trip to Europe.
Then there was a group from Mexico who no longer want to stand by and helplessly watch the increasing violence of the state and drug traffic, who followed the hope to find a new perspective in Tamera.
There was also Beyond Boundaries from USA, a small group who for one year will visit different projects in the world and bear witness to the emergence of a new age.
Add to that about 200 interested people from Portugal, including some of our neighbors, who came especially for the Open Weekend.

Dieter Duhm: “The real help for people from indigenous cultures, from the slums, from South America, Tibet and other place is the rising consciousness to belong not only to their local tribes but also to a planetary community. The encounters which took place here, the resonance that was created, made it more and more obvious that this planetary community exists.“

We give thanks…
To Starhawk, from San Francisco, for her deep commitment to nature and social justice, and to her powerful full moon ritual.
To Sami Awad and the team from the Holy Land Trust from Bethlehem in Palestine, who could deepen the human and factual base for the planned Peace Research Village in the Middle East (PRV).
To Lama Thubten Wangchen, who represented the lovable and open soul of Tibet and its strong call for freedom.
To the artist John Devaraj from India, for his work with children and his powerful creative contributions for peace.
To Padre Javier Giraldo and the other important members of the Peace Community San José de Apartadó in Colombia.
To Alfredo Cunhal, the owner of one of the biggest organic farms in Portugal, who gave us a vision of a farmer which has become a caretaker of the Earth.
To Jürgen Kleinwächter and the team of the SolarVillage who inspired many people with their rapidly developing construction site for the Test Field.
To Mara Vollmer and Martin Winiecki for leading a six-week camp on the youth place in which young peace workers could study the main thoughts of a Movement for a Free Earth. To all musicians, artists, ecologists, political activists, and the coworkers of the horse project who, behind the scenes, showed many people a way to trust in Creation again. To the children´s place and many others.
And very special thanks to the founders Tamera, Dieter Duhm and Sabine Lichtenfels, who, with their spirit and engagement, always set a benchmark for thoughts and actions which really have the power to change.

How can we continue what we have learned here?

During the Summer University many people came in contact with a concrete utopia and a new perspective for their way of living. So some questions were asked many times, like how can we continue what we have learned here? How can Tamera support us in doing so? Where do we learn to create stable communities? What kind of actions can make a change and how can we really help? How does a global movement emerge?
Tamera will work on these questions in the next months. We will think about perspectives and offers for further peace studies and networking on the way to a Global Campus and a network for peace workers worldwide.

Vision Quest

A few days after the Summer University, 96 people – co-workers, students and guests – went on a Vision Quest. For four days and nights, in the heat of the summer, in the dry and dusty land around Tamera, people between 18 and 66 years from many different countries and cultures, all of them alone under a tree only having water and a blanket with them, asked the most important question: Where does Creation want to see me? What is my deepest call?
They were guided and protected by Ofer Israeli, Sabine Lichtenfels, and their teams. Unusual encounters with animals, plants and the elements showed that the all of nature helps when people again start to look for the original connection to the divine. The intensity of the Vision Quest encompassed the whole site and again and again moved it from a place of bustling activity to the frequency of silent awareness.