Page 6 - C.A.L.L. #45 - Summer 2019

The return of ICSA

Jan Martin Bang
26/05/19

It’s the coffee bar in the mornings, and the bar in the evenings. That’s where the real action
is during ICSA conferences.

There is a certain magic that happens when you bring people together face to face. It’s very

hard to predict, and impossible to plan what kind of relationships may be formed when
individuals get to know each other. So much is up to chance, who you happen to stand next to,
a remark overheard, a word in a different language.

In 2004 I happened to sit next to a young researcher who was studying Camphill and the
Catholic Worker movement. Being a member of Camphill myself, and a Catholic, I was of
course interested in what
he had to tell me. His
research appeared as a
book, and later we became
friends and colleagues,
and in a few weeks Dan
th
McKanan will open the 13
ICSA conference in
upstate New York. A
chance meeting developed
into a collegial friendship!

This conference will also be a game changer for me personally. In the 25 years that I have
lived in intentional community, two thirds have been as a Kibbutz member in Israel, the rest
as a Camphill member in Norway. When I first came into contact with Camphill I recognised
that here was a very special kind of community. During my years in Kibbutz Gezer I wanted

the kibbutz to learn more about Camphill, and during my time in Camphill I wanted Camphill to
learn more about Kibbutz.

This year the ICSA is holding its conference in two Camphill communities, with a large
number of speakers from the kibbutz movement, as well as many representatives from the
Catholic Worker and L’Arche.

I am very excited about this conference, and hope to meet many readers of CALL.

See you there in the coffee bar!