The archives of the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre, now held by the Canton of Vaud, are an endless source of precious information. Swiss archivist Eliane Stallybrass describes the work to preserve Caux’s history for the future, which began with the determination of one woman.

Erika Utzinger (photo top in the light-green pullover) did not make much noise. She probably never spoke from the platform in the Caux Palace, but her work has put the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre on the map for generations to come.

As a full-time worker with Moral Re-Armament (now Initiatives of Change/IofC), she did secretarial work for several people (men!) for many years. She saw all the documents they were handling and was convinced they should not be lost.

In 1961 she started collecting every written document she could lay her hands on: letters, reports, newspapers….

She found a place in the third floor corridor of the Caux Palace, next to the offices, to store these documents. Serge Borel from Switzerland helped her by constructing shelves and a system of hanging files, which she labelled. She started to put every paper in the right place, by year, by subject, by person. It was a huge job. She took a course in dealing with archives. Patiently, year after year, she collected everything that was lying around, creating an extraordinary fund of international material.

She did not make much noise. But her work has put the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre on the map for generations to come.

 

It was not always easy for her. People could not understand why she was doing it. It seemed more important to deal with the present than the past. But when they needed a document, many just marched into the archives and helped themselves, much to Erika’s despair.

In 1997, I left full-time work with IofC and looked for a job. It was hard. But the archivist of the city of Geneva, Micheline Tripet, who had worked with Moral Re-Armament in its early days in Caux, helped me to find a job sorting papers for a well-known Geneva family.

At the beginning I was not too excited. Archives were old papers in a stuffy place! But I discovered how fascinating it could be. One of IofC’s pioneers in Switzerland, Daniel Mottu, also asked me to deal with his papers.

So I got curious about the Caux archives and visited the place where Erika was working so diligently. She hoped I would take over from her. I had to disappoint her. Then Micheline came up with the suggestion that we could give our archives to the Vaud Cantonal Archives (ACV). We had had no clue that that was a possibility.

At the beginning I was not too excited. Archives were old papers in a stuffy place! But I discovered how fascinating it could be.

We invited the director of the ACV, Gilbert Coutaz, to Caux. He looked at the metres of hanging files, and said he would take the lot. So Erika and I spent two years indexing all the documents according to the ACV’s rules and finally gave the first 160 linear metres to the Vaud Archives in 2002.

 

 

A wonderful event took place with local authorities present and Erika was duly thanked. Gilbert Coutaz said, ‘Moral Re-Armament is returning to Vaud soil.’ Cornelio Sommaruga, who as President of the Swiss Initiatives of Change Foundation at that time had supported the project, welcomed it as evidence of IofC’s willingness to be open and transparent.

We have now reached 200 metres, and there is more to go. When Gilbert Coutaz discovered that we had films, recordings of meetings, the words and music of 548 songs, and so much more, he encouraged us to give everything. Now I am dealing with the photos which is a headache sometimes, as many carry no details of who is in them, when they were taken and by whom!

 

 

We are already seeing the fruit of this work. Several students have done research on Moral Re-Armament in the Vaud Archives. The latest is Cyril Michaud, who has just completed his doctoral thesis on ‘Moral Re-Armament on Swiss soil. From 1932 to 1969’. This is the first of two theses financed by the Swiss Federal Fund for Scientific Research. The second, by Audrey Bonvin, covers the period from 1970 onwards and will be presented in a few weeks’ time.

Initiatives of Change and the Caux Conference and Seminar Centre are truly becoming part of history.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos: Initiatives of Change and Eliane Stallybrass
• Newspaper article: 24 heures (28 February 2002)

At the turn of the century, Cornelio Sommaruga was President of the Caux Foundation and later of IofC International. Andrew Stallybrass worked alongside him in Geneva. He writes:

I first met Cornelio Sommaruga at a private dinner party. He was then head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and was just back from Cuba, where he’d met with Fidel Castro, in the middle of the night, just before leaving.

In 1999, after he left the Red Cross, he became President of the Caux Foundation. He played an important role in the change of Moral Re-Armament’s name to Initiatives of Change (IofC) in 2001 and in the creation in 2002 of IofC International, of which he became the first President.

His commitment to IofC and the Caux conferences, especially those related to human security, led many in international circles to re-evaluate this hard-to-classify movement. Several times in Geneva, I have heard people say, ‘If Cornelio’s involved, I’ll need to take another look!’

If Cornelio's involved, I'll need to take another look.

We worked together in the IofC Geneva office, close to the United Nations, and in sight of his old ICRC headquarters. One morning, when we exchanged the usual pleasantries, I informed him that I was a little shaken – my wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer. The next day, she received a handwritten card from him, and he’d won my deep gratitude and affection.

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Sommaruga is a tall, broad, imposing physical presence, who greets everyone with ‘Grüss Gott’. He explains that the greeting, typical in Austria, Bavaria and eastern Switzerland, invokes the third presence in every encounter. ‘We’re not alone in this world,’ he says. He has friends on every continent. He knows the world – and the world knows him!

We’re not alone in this world.

Sommaruga’s roots are in Tessin, the Italian-speaking canton of Switzerland. He was born in 1932, the first of six children in a Swiss diplomatic family posted to Rome. He feels that his two strongest formative influences were his parents’ Christian faith, and the Scout movement. His first humanitarian commitment was volunteering to help the infirm on pilgrimages to Lourdes.

He held dual Swiss and Italian nationality until he was 20. His father sent him to a private school so that he did not have to join the fascist youth movement in Mussolini’s Italy. For two years during the war, his father stayed on in Rome, while the rest of the family lived just across the Swiss border in Lugano. Both parents helped Jews to escape persecution – his father filling the children’s beds in Rome with fugitives, and his mother helping refugees to settle in Switzerland. These experiences gave him a ‘special attention’ for the Holocaust and Jewish people.

Today, coming up to 90, he is struggling to recover from Long Covid. The walls of his room in a convalescent home carry pictures of his six children and 16 grandchildren, who gather once a year over Whitsun, filling the best part of a small hotel.

Sommaruga remains Honorary President of the IofC International Association. He speaks of ‘the wonderful international network of motivated people’, but sees the need for more transparency between national groups.

He introduced the theme of ‘globalizing responsibility for human security’ to the Caux conferences. He worries that the world gives too little attention to the root causes of violence: ‘the vast economic and social disparities between and within states; the legal and illegal transfers of weapons and particularly small arms’. Civil society must try to counteract these forces, he believes. 

‘It needs a multilateral, intercultural and inter-religious approach,’ he stresses. But, he repeats, we are never alone. 'The power that gave us free will can inspire those of good will to work for a better future. There are more people than you think inspired by God or conscience working for true and lasting peace.’ Sommaruga is convinced that each of us has ‘an ethical responsibility to work for reconciliation through forgiveness and justice’, starting with ourselves.

My Caux image of Sommaruga is of him serving ice cream at the desert buffet in the dining room, and laughing. It’s important to serve, and be seen to serve.

The power that gave us free will can inspire those of good will to work for a better future.

 

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo Somalia: ICRC / Pierre Boussel
• Photo 2006: Isabelle Mermindo
• All other photos: Initiatives of Change

Around the turn of the Millennium, many young Ukrainians came to Caux. Some of them took leadership in Foundations for Freedom (F4F), a programme for young people which offered courses in the values which underpin democracy (read also our story about Erik Andren). Among them were Angela Starovoytova and Kostiantyn Ploskyi, who first came to Caux in 2000.

In later years F4F was registered in Ukraine, where its Healing the Past project brought together people from the country’s divided communities. F4F was also a catalyst for Ukraine’s Participative Budgeting initiative, which involves people in some 230 cities in determining how their municipal budgets are spent.

Angela Starovoytova writes:

When I first came to Caux, in 2000, I had already been involved with Initiatives of Change (IofC) for some years, organizing Foundation for Freedom courses in the Ukraine. I had just spent a year in the UK with IofC. Everywhere I went everyone told me how great Caux was. This created a big doubt in me: how was it possible for something to be so perfect?

I arrived at the beginning of the summer and was one of the last people to leave at the end. Polishing silver before the conference began, I made friends with a French man in his 60s or 70s. We talked about everything – men, relationships, values, quiet times. I remember him telling me never to lower my standards: that still drives me.

I came out of the summer with the clear idea that Caux was not as ideal as it looked. You could be lonely among all these people. Everyone smiled at me but I did not believe they were sincere. Maybe I spoiled my summer by trying to prove to myself that Caux was not as great as I had been told.

I remember him telling me never to lower my standards: that still drives me. 

The next year I came with a different attitude. I wanted to find out what made people so comfortable at Caux that they opened up. I started to understand why people were smiling at me and to believe that they were sincere. I became one of them: welcoming people wherever I encountered them. As I served in the different departments of the house and helped with conferences, I became a host. 

Over a span of 20 years, Caux has been a place of renewal and inspiration, which sends me home with new energy and resources. I now work in dialogue facilitation, using methods like Non Violent Communication and space for reflection.

My experiences at Caux showed me how, when people have a safe container around them, they start to talk heart to heart. Everything that I do in my work is about creating the atmosphere where people can take off their political masks and become human beings.

Caux has been a place of renewal and inspiration, which sends me home with new energy and resources.

Kostiantyn Ploskyi remembers:

My friend and I arrived in Montreux late at night – I think it was in 2000. We didn’t know how to get to Caux, so we went to the police station, and sat there for two or three hours until they rang and arranged for someone to collect us. We didn’t want to pay for a taxi, so we got the police to help us.

This was typical of my attitude as a 25-year-old. My central idea in life was to consume – to take from everyone around me. My reasons for getting involved with Foundations for Freedom (F4C) were primarily selfish.

The people in Caux realized what I was like, but they still accepted me. I refused to contribute towards the expense of my stay but I was invited back again and again. Finally I was also touched. All these Caux visits were small steps to my opening up to faith.

A few years later, I was one of the team organizing a session on Service, Responsibility and Leadership. I had to speak from the platform and didn’t know what to say. I spent an hour in the shower thinking about it, and realized that I should apologize to friends whom I felt I had betrayed. 

The people in Caux realized what I was like, but they still accepted me.

Facing this – and speaking about it in the meeting – was a big turning point. I had always been the good guy, smiling, joking. This was the first time I was open.

In 2006 I took part in an international Initiatives of Change meeting in Malaysia. By then I was managing a big project back in Ukraine. I was well paid, but I had no peace inside. One evening after the meeting I escaped to a night club. I stayed there all night, while my hosts worried about what had happened to me.  

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On the long flight home, some clear messages came to my mind about how I was living. I realized that I would probably like to change my life.

But I couldn’t change. From time to time I had a time of quiet reflection in the morning, and eventually, after resisting the thought for a long time, I decided to apologize to girls who I had used, with no thought of a relationship. I began to feel a bit of real freedom.

I realized that I would probably like to change my life.

Then, after going on a Christian retreat, I had the thought that I should apologize to the donor organizations which I had cheated. It took me months to write to them.

When the Ukrainian representative of one of these organizations invited me to his office, I thought I would go to prison. But he thanked me and we spent two hours talking about our personal challenges. That was another bit of freedom.  

After that I started to attend Mass on Sundays. Looking back, I can see that the trip from Malaysia to Ukraine was the point when I actually found faith. Without that I would never have accepted that what I was doing was wrong. When my wife and I got married, we married in church. We now have four children.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Portrait Kostiantyn: Kostiantyn Ploskyi
• Portrait Angela: photographer unknown
• Photo Angela with WIC participants: Diana Topan
• Portrait Angela: photographer unknown
• Photos F4F in Ukraine 2019: Claude Bourdin
• Photo circle in Caux gardens: Initiatives of Change
• Photo top Angela: Anton Iemelianov

It was a Red-Letter Day in July 1999 when more than 40 young Latin Americans burst through the front door of Mountain House, Caux, and hugged everyone in sight. Gente Que Avanza (GQA) had arrived – and Caux would never be quite the same again.

‘I was at Geneva Airport when the group arrived – and cascaded through the reception area with such exuberant singing that even the Swiss security officials were tapping their feet!’ remembers Helen Duigan of Pretoria, South Africa, whose youngest son, Francois, was part of this cast of young people. ‘I felt such gratitude – this was a miracle unfolding.’

Gente Que Avanza had already established itself across Latin America as a movement dedicated to helping young people find a life purpose based on integrity and the values and world vision that came out of Moral Re-Armament (MRA, now Intiatives of Change). For some 30 years it had toured the continent with a mix of musical, dance and cultural programmes, inspiring young people to mine their talents and place them at the service of society.

‘The idea for the Caux experience started in December 1998 at our home, Waaigras, outside Pretoria,’ says Francois Duigan, who had joined the GQA cast in 1996. ‘I was back from Latin America for a few weeks and a friend from Sweden, Gunnar Söderlund, was holidaying with us with his family. As we talked about what I had been doing, the idea came up that some of the cast might visit Caux.

‘I think it came from Gunnar, with his broad thinking and mighty vision, and he was ready to run with it. I went back to Latin America with the task of floating the idea with the cast and other members of the Coordination (the cast’s planning body).’

Fabiana Villavicencio, a member of the Coordination at the time, remembers: ‘Gunnar came to Santiago where we were touring in early 1999 and launched the idea at one of our meetings. Our eyes sparkled with the possibility. We immediately started dreaming about it, even though it seemed impossible.’

At first, the idea was to send a smaller group of 10 people, but Gunnar was adamant that the whole group of about 40 should go. He said that if the idea was right, the money would be found to get them all to Caux.

Exciting as the idea was, the decision to go was not an easy one, says Fabiana. In the 1960s there had been a break between Moral Re-Armament and the cast, and for some this past was still painful and unhealed. ‘Nonetheless, we knew that if it was something of God, and if we kept an open spirit, everything would happen as he intended.’ 

Then, finally, it was happening! ‘We had the money to finance five people and then 10, 15, 30, 40,’ says Fabiana. ‘It was incredible! It wasn’t only the fact of leaving the continent for an undreamed-of adventure, but the possibility that nobody from the group would be left out.’

It was incredible. Nobody from the group would be left out.

Francois again: ‘Our arrival in the beautiful setting above Lake Geneva was out of this world. The reception was so warm and enthusiastic, we were oblivious of any division or hurt that existed. We danced and sang and made as much noise as young Latin Americans do! We got involved in the day-to-day work groups at Caux and interacted with people from all over the world. For each of us, it was the experience of a lifetime.’

And the long-term impact of this extraordinary visit? ‘The reconciliation that took place between GQA and MRA/IofC,’ says Fabiana. ‘The request for forgiveness that Jeanette Alonso, one of our founders, shared with everyone in the big room was a great example of humility and honesty in living our call concretely.’

Today, the close relationship between Gente Que Avanza and Initiatives of Change is a visible sign of what started with that visit to Waaigras in December 1998.

For each of us, it was the experience of a lifetime.

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Watch a video presentation of Gente Que Avanza in Portugese.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos dancers and Ismar and Fabiana: T Hazell
• Photos group in Caux gardens and performing in the Main Hall: Emmy Barrios
• Photo Caux kitchen: Marta Hermosilla
• Photo top black and white: Initiatives of Change
• All other photos: photographer unknown
• Video Presentaction Gente Que Avanza on Youtube: fhechogqa

When Ningali Cullen came to Caux in 1998, she brought news of a growing people’s movement in Australia to acknowledge the truth about their history.

Ningali was removed from her family at the age of four under government policies aimed at assimilating Aboriginal people into the white Australian community. ‘I was raised on a mission,’ she said. ‘I trained as a nurse, and did all the things accepted by a society which wanted us different from what we were born – Aboriginal. For years I didn’t know where I belonged.’

At the age of 28 she found her mother. But soon after, her mother, treated with racial hostility in an Australian country town, wandered off into the desert and was never seen again. For Ningali, the trauma began again.

Tens of thousands of Aboriginal children were removed, some as recently as the 1970s. Most white Australians saw the policy as well-intentioned and benign. Then in 1997 an inquiry into the removal policies exposed the tragic outcomes.

‘Hearing the stories of 500 Aboriginal people has changed me,’ said the chair of the inquiry, Sir Ronald Wilson, ‘and if it can change me, it can change Australia.’ He called for a Sorry Day, to apologize to the Aboriginal community. The Government rejected the proposal.

However, as Ningali said at Caux, ‘Twelve months after the release of the report a national Sorry Day was held in Australia. And I’m pleased to say it was people-initiated.’ The Government’s refusal to apologize had spurred a million Australians into action, and hundreds of community events brought Aboriginal and white Australians together in sorrow, apology and a commitment to build a new relationship.

If it can change me, it can change Australia.

‘The national Sorry Day was the final thing in my healing, because it gave recognition to the pain,’ Ningali said. ‘It gave us permission to grieve together. Talking, listening, sharing together – that’s my vision for Australia.’

It gave us permission to grieve together. Talking, listening, sharing together – that’s my vision for Australia.

On her return home from Caux, Ningali met with Stolen Generations representatives from across Australia, and urged that they seize the moment to heal the wounds caused by the separation policies. Many agreed with her, and soon the Stolen Generations invited the people of Australia to join a Journey of Healing and take on the work of healing which the Government ignored.

Throughout the following 10 years many thousands of people worked for healing in a myriad of practical ways. In 1999 Ningali was elected to chair the Journey of Healing, and gave forthright leadership in a campaign which, by enlisting people across the political spectrum, won respect even among many government MPs.

Every year Stolen Generations leaders came to Caux, shared their struggle and gained new ideas.

In 2007 the Australian Government was defeated in national elections and the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, announced that he would make the apology. ‘Will the Opposition join me?’ he asked. After heated debate the party – which for 11 years had opposed an apology – changed their policy.

The unanimous parliamentary apology was a profoundly moving event for Australia, watched by millions throughout the country. It enabled several billion dollars to go into transforming the social condition of Aboriginal Australia.

When Kevin Rudd visited Caux in 2012, he spoke of the ‘critical preparatory’ community groundwork of Sorry Day and the Journey of Healing at a time when the political obstacles seemed insurmountable. ‘That foundation was necessary for it to catch fire with the community at large.’ Much credit for that work must go to Ningali Cullen.

This story is told in greater detail in ‘Sorry and Beyond: Healing the Stolen Generations’ by Brian Butler and John Bond, published this year by the Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, with a foreword by Kevin Rudd. It is also available worldwide as an electronic book.

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Watch Kevin Rudd speaking in Caux in 2013: The Australian Apology: The Process of Healing

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Watch more:

• The Apology, produced by Indigenous Film Services, 2014
• Sorry, Kevin Rudd's Apology to "The Stolen Generation", Channel 10 (on YouTube)

Read more:

• Sorry and Beyond by John Bond and Brian Butler
• If Everyone Cared, Autobiography of Margaret Tucker

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo top: Ningali Cullen with renowned Aboriginal footballer Michael Long: John Bond
• Photo top left: Ningali Cullen speaking: photographer unknown
• Photo Sorry Day Committee 2004: photographer unknown
• Video Kevin Rudd on the Australian Apology: The Process of Healing: Initiatives of Change

Since the 1930s, one theme running through the work of Initiatives of Change has been supporting indigenous peoples in their search for justice and recognition.

Among the 450 people who gathered in Caux in 1997 for a conference on ‘Healing the Past and Forging the Future’ were the Māori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, and the wife of New Zealand’s prime minister, Joan Bolger, leading a delegation of Māori and Pakeha (non-Māori). They spoke of New Zealand’s progress towards restoring for the wrongs done to Māori people since colonization.

The founding document of New Zealand is the Treaty of Waitangi, signed in 1840 between Queen Victoria and the Māori people. It was meant to lay a basis for government by consent rather than by conquest, and to protect Māori from unscrupulous land buyers.

However within a few years settlers had exploited the situation, and when Māori eventually united in protest, their action was seen as rebellion and brutally crushed by the British army. Millions of acres were confiscated.

The loss of land greatly weakened Māori self-identity and subsequent policies aimed at assimilation further destroyed Māori culture. Although a renaissance had begun to take place, the issue of land was still a major grievance. The Waitangi Tribunal, set up in 1975, began to address this issue, but progress was slow and something new was needed.

The incoming New Zealand government of 1990, led by Jim Bolger, announced its intention to attempt to settle all Māori claims before the tribunal by the year 2000. Although they did not achieve this aim, huge progress was made.

A landmark was the settlement in 1994 with the Waikato Tainui tribal confederation, compensating them for vast tracts of land confiscated in the 1860s. Queen Elizabeth gave royal assent in person, on a visit to Wellington in 1995, when she apologized for the original breach of the Treaty of Waitangi.

We must put the sadness of the past behind us.

‘Some restitution has been made and our people are moving forward again,’ Dame Te Atairangikaahu told the Caux conference. ‘We must put the sadness of the past behind us and must move into development mode from grievance mode so that we no longer pass the grievance on to another generation.’ The progress brought new faith and hope ‘for the unity in peace of Māori, Pakeha and all people of our beloved country, Aotearoa’.

We must move into development mode from grievance mode.

Joan Bolger said that the signing of the settlement with the Tainui had been ‘one of the most unforgettable days of my life’. She spoke of the great courage of the people of Tainui in making the agreement, not just for the present but for coming generations. ‘Today we pray to God for the grace to continue the settlement process so that succeeding generations can live in dignity and harmony.’

In 1999, the government minister who had been in charge of these negotiations, Douglas Graham, also came to Caux. ‘It’s an honourable thing to say what we did to you is wrong and we unreservedly apologize,’ he said. ‘Governments are not good at admitting where they have been wrong.’

Dame Te Atairangikaahu’s relationship with Initiatives of Change (IofC) went back to her teens, when in 1956 her father, King Koroki, welcomed Frank Buchman, the initiator of Initiatives of Change, onto his marae. Māori representatives took part in many international IofC campaigns in the following decades.

When the Māori Queen and Joan Bolger met for the first time in the Prime Minister's residence in 1991, a senior Māori elder and advisor to the Queen expressed gratitude for the role Initiatives of Change had played in enabling Māori values and culture to become more widely known and appreciated around the world.

It’s an honourable thing to say what we did to you is wrong and we unreservedly apologize.

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Discover the story of another Māori who visited Caux: 1971: Canan Wi Te Tau Huata - 'It felt as if a ton had fallen from my back'

Read more about Initiatives of Change and its work in New Zealand in Mick Lennon's book The Whole Round Earth to Span

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photos (except top banner and photo with Princess Helen): Initiatives of Change
• Photo top: Rob Lancaster (Whatumoana Paki, the Maori Queen, Prof Timoti Karetu, Joan Bolger, Rosa Birch)
• Photo with Princess Helen: from Mick Lennon, The Whole Round Earth to Span, distributed by Grosvenor Books, 1999 (p.65)

One of the enduring images of the 50th anniversary of the Initiatives of Change conference centre in 1996 is that of the Dalai Lama greeting the 90-year-old Cardinal Franz König.

Cardinal Franz König, Archbishop of Vienna between 1956 and 1985, had been an enthusiastic participant in Caux conferences since the early 1970s. ‘On each of my visits to Caux I learn something new, thanks to the great openness of mind of each person I meet,’ he told a conference in 1979. ‘Even as a bishop, I too need change, a “review of life”. The living example of those I see here inspires me.’

Even as a bishop, I too need change.

At the time, König was head of the Catholic church’s efforts to build bridges with the communist countries of Eastern Europe, holding the title of Secretary for Non-Believers. This, he quipped on one occasion, was not the reason he came to Caux.

I am convinced that the spirit of God is at work here.

‘Since the end of the second world war, Caux has been a place where people of different races, political opinions and classes have come together, often from seats of conflict that were threatening the peace of the world,’ he said in 1987. ‘Again and again a breakthrough has happened. I am convinced that the spirit of God is at work here.’

As Archbishop of Vienna, he was known for his efforts to restore relations between Austria’s Social Democrats and the Catholic Church, which had been ruptured during the Nazi times. He and Bruno Kreisky, Federal Chancellor from 1970 to 1983, maintained a dialogue of utmost respect, despite serious differences over some issues.

He was also active in the global ecumenical movement after the Second Vatican Council, and in particular built bridges with the Eastern Orthodox churches. His commitment to building relationships with other religions was recognized by Muslim theologians when he was invited to lecture at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, a centre of Islamic scholarship.

In the 1960s and 1970s some leaders of the Catholic Church regarded Moral Re-Armament (now Initiatives of Change) with a certain skepticism, but König accepted invitations to Caux with interest. He clearly felt at home there, serving coffee to startled breakfasters and engaging deeply with those he met. His pastoral calling shone through all his encounters.

Much depends on changing our heart and thinking.

During one conference, he had breakfast with a group of young people. One came from an extremely difficult family background, had had a troubled youth and had found a new beginning in her life. König was deeply impressed by her story. After breakfast, to the surprise of his hosts, he asked if he could take the roses from the table. He handed them to this young woman, with his best wishes for her future.

In the 1980s, the Cardinal called on Caux to bring people together to address the environmental challenges facing the world. This led to a series of dialogues at Caux on the preservation of creation, attended by scientists and theologians as well voices from politics, industry and environmental journalism.

‘God has put the desire to create into his creature,’ König told the opening session of the dialogue in 1989. ‘Could it be a key for the future to awaken in each individual the desire to become creative in the preservation of Creation?’

He returned to the theme of the environment in his speech for Caux’s 50th anniversary. ‘There is a serious danger that progress in technology and communications will destroy mankind and his world. So much depends on changing our heart and thinking.’

‘In the last resort,’ he said at Caux in 1993, ‘we always come back to human beings and their spiritual search. We don’t just have a dark side – we also have a bright side. We can aim for good as well as for evil.’

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Andrew Stallybrass remembers:

One evening, I walked down to supper in the Caux dining room with a Irish Protestant friend. He’d just been meeting with a group of British and was sad, angry, bitter even, that they’d talked about their national problems without once mentioning Ireland – at a time when the Troubles were in full swing.

I’d been elsewhere, and I had a supper planned, but wondered if I should cancel to try to repair an angry and bruised heart. My Irish friend went off and sat down alone at a small table against the wall.

I was aware that Cardinal König, just arrived from Vienna, was standing near me, and I could see a table of important people waiting for him in the bay window. Just before they saw him, he made a beeline for my Irish friend.

The two of them had supper together and the group waiting for him rightly felt that they couldn’t interrupt! The next day, the Irish friend told me that the evening had been a miracle of healing for him.

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo with Dalai Lama in 1986: Greg Williams
• Photos with Father Bots etc + Philippe Mottu: Danielle Maillefer
• All other photos: Initiatives of Change
• Photo top with Karl Mitterdörfer in Caux, 1979

In the early 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, large numbers of Eastern and Central Europeans came to the Initiatives of Change (IofC) conferences in Caux. Many, like Marta Dąbrowska from Poland, were young people who had grown up behind the Iron Curtain and were eager to explore the world.

Marta, now an associate professor at the Institute of English Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, first came to Caux as an interpreter in 1992.

‘I knew nothing about interpreting,’ she says. ‘But I knew there were a lot of Poles at Caux, and that their English was probably worse than mine. I made a lot of mistakes, but it was a good environment to learn the skill. But being in the booth or interpreting at meals did not allow me to grasp the essence of Caux fully. I wanted to know more.’

She finds it hard to put her finger on what kept bringing her back after the interpreting was no longer needed. The beautiful scenery? The resonances with her Christian faith and the spirit of service instilled in her by her years in the scouting movement? The friendships she made? A sense of being a part of something greater?

Whatever the reason, Marta has returned to Caux every summer since – except for 2003, 2007 and the years of the pandemic. ‘For me, summer comes and Caux comes – they are inseparable,’ she says.

Caux has always been a place where I can breathe, where I can be myself.

Over the years she has volunteered as an interpreter, as office assistant and manager and on the team which sorts out who sleeps where. She has helped to plan conferences – especially those focused on the creative arts – and for three years was part of the Caux Preparation Group, coordinating Caux’s summer programme. In 2020 she was elected to the International Council of IofC.

‘Caux became my second home and family, a place I felt responsible for,’ she says. ‘It has always been a place where I can breathe, where I can be myself and not feel under pressure to live up to my role of a professor. The beauty of the place, its serenity, is extremely powerful for me.’

In 1995, conference participants were offered a free day to walk in the mountains. Marta found herself the only woman in a group which included some Russian journalists. ‘Having been brought up under Communism, I had a kind of subconscious hate of Russians, an uneasy feeling about them. I knew Russian from school, but I wasn’t so keen on using it, so we barely spoke.’

I realized they were human just like the rest of us.

As they headed up and up, Marta realized to her alarm that they were going to climb the Dent de Jaman, a sheer tooth-shaped mountain. It was so steep she had to climb on all fours. ‘I was really scared. Those Russian guys helped me get to the top. I realized they were human just like the rest of us.’

Another important encounter was with Heinz and Gisela Krieg. ‘For me as a Pole meeting a German who had been involved in the war was quite an experience. He was taking all the steps he could to bring reconcilation between our countries. We visited each other and for many years they used to phone me on 1 September, the anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939, just to tell me that they remembered.’ In 1998, with others, they brought together Poles and Germans for a conference in Krzyżowa.

After its launch in 1993, Marta became involved with Foundations for Freedom, which ran courses for young East and Central Europeans on the personal values which underpin democracy. She co-organized its first regional meeting in Krakow in 1995. 

‘In those days there were so many young Eastern Europeans involved,’ she says. Some continued their involvement with IofC, but others did not. She asks herself why.

‘They were young, they had energy, they were either studying or just graduated, they were curious about the world. They were attracted to the novelty of Caux, the excitement. But then life took over – getting jobs, establishing families.’ Money was also a barrier, once Caux started charging fees for participation, rather than simply encouraging donations. ‘Those who still come work behind the scenes in Caux, providing a service so that we can afford to stay in Caux.’

And so, why did she keep coming? She speaks of the care she received, from people from all over the world. ‘They didn’t just talk about love and unselfishness, they lived it. When people are angels to you, you feel that there is good in the world and you want to pass it on.’

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo top, Heinz and Gisela Krieg: Initiatives of Change
• Photo portrait and 1995: Marta Dabrowska
• Photo Marta in Caux 2017: Ismar Villavicencio