Baarn, 3 November 2022

Dearly beloved sister, brother, young person,

Due to the positive response we received to our 100-day letter and because we feel the desire to share some things with you again, we are writing you this 200-day letter. Perhaps you are wondering how we are doing or what we are doing? In a new column in The Current, we take turns writing about what we are currently concerned with. We hope that this will also help you get to know us a little better each time.

Inspiring district meetings
The district meetings are now behind us. They offered great opportunities to meet each other and that happened so very much between young and old. They gave us the opportunity to personally explain the video 'Simplicity, direction and variation' and answer a number of questions. You will read a review of these district meetings in the newsletter that will appear on 7 November. During all the meetings, we were asked if such meetings could be held more often. Yes indeed 😊if the desire is there, please look together for suitable opportunities.

Need for a clear vision and its comprehensible elaboration
There were many questions and it was not possible to answer all of them during the district meetings. We will come back to how we will do that. Many questions were about the direction in which we want the Society to develop. The video 'Simplicity, direction and variation' shows our thoughts on this. But there is more to say about it. We keep the core of our ideology and we move towards a greater variety of forms and moments where people can meet to inspire each other to live from religious-humanist values. There are already concrete examples of new forms and moments of meeting; we are currently mapping them out. We will tell you more about them at the national New Year Service on 15 January and at the Easter Gathering on 9 April.

Inspiring movement in motion
At Pentecost, the beautiful card set ‘Inspiring movement in motion' was distributed to pastors and local youth coordinators, and it included an interactive presentation. We also referred to it twice in the Weekly Letter. We would like to bring this material and the accompanying theme sheet ‘Inspiring movement in motion’ to your attention once again. The theme sheet, the card set and presentation offer many opportunities to engage in conversation, for example on Sunday mornings. Also with youth and young people.

Where we are
Until Easter, at the bottom of the weekly letter was noted which Community the apostle was visiting that Sunday. Pastor changes were also mentioned there. We are looking for other ways to inform you about this because we find the Weekly Letter - a personal letter intended for inspiration and delving - less suitable for this purpose and because we would like to give the information wider coverage. In the 100-day letter, we shared with you that we are abandoning the fixed regularity of visits to Communities, that we want to work demand-oriented. The feedback we have since received from pastors confirms that this is in line with the need in Communities. We can visit you during a Sunday Service, but also at other times that contribute to closeness (e.g. an afternoon for the elderly or Second Youth Group Day), delving (e.g. a seminar of the Van Oosbreestichting) or inspiration (e.g. a rehearsal of the national orchestra or a pastors' meeting). Your needs can be shared with the (district) pastor.

Writing the Weekly Letter
In our Society, the Weekly Letter has an important, cultural value. Words are chosen that can touch your soul, if you want to and (perhaps) dare to let them. It is a letter that is about life and love. One that invites thought, that hopefully inspires, enthuses, comforts and offers perspective. Writing the Weekly Letter was primarily the apostle's task. And it is one of the tasks that has been transferred to us. From a desire to do it even more jointly, we have asked the carers of the general Sunday Services to write the Weekly Letter for the Services they conduct. We also think the diversity is enriching. On 8 September, we sent you an explanatory letter about this.

Messages of passing
Since we sometimes get questions about it, we think it would be good to inform you about how we deal with obituaries. When we receive an obituary, we respond to it, usually with a card expressing our condolences. If we receive a message through a pastor/coordinator, we reply to the pastor/coodinator. If we receive both an obituary and a message from the Community, we respond to both the obituary and the message from the Community. We think this way of working best suits the way we are informed.

300-day letter
Next year, in our 300-day letter (11 February), we will write about the three aspects of spiritual care: being near, inspiration and delving, and how we intend to pay attention to them. We will also explain developments in districts and take a closer look at Communities considering a different, appropriate way of housing.

How to reach us
You can email us at nziere@apgen.nl and/or mvanderwal@apgen.nl. Mail can be sent to: Apostolic Society, for the attention of: N. Ziere and/or M. van der Wal, PO Box 116, 3740 AC Baarn. If you write to both of us, in principle one of us will respond. If you would like to speak to one of us, please make an appointment through Inge Poot: ipoot@apgen.nl.

With warm regards, your

Brother Marten van der Wal

Sister Nanda Ziere