May 2011 - Subud Voice

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I N N E R V O I C E Change is grace Inner Voice welcomes stories and letters. Please send to Ilaina Lennard, NEW E-MAIL: ilaine.l@blueyonder.co.uk Ilaina (Ilaine for the e-mail) can be contacted at her NEW ADDRESS: 8 Sissinghurst Grove, Up Hatherley, Cheltenham, Glos. GL51 3FA UK NEW TEL NO: (+44) (0)1242 707 701 Extracts from Patricia Lacey’s interview with Wilbert Verheyen. Wilbert was a Franciscan priest who joined Subud and later became Chairman of Susila Dharma International (SDIA),which co-ordinates Subud's humanitarian activities. He died several years ago. He was a remarkable man, as his story shows... Patricia: May I ask, were you always with the Franciscan order? Wilbert: I was very interested in St. Francis of Assisi when I was young, and I got a picture of him standing on the globe. I thought he was kicking a ball, and I became a fanatic soccer player, because of the connection with my name! So when I felt I should like to become a priest it had to be the Franciscan order. To become a priest, after six years of studying you had to become a novitiate. After two years of studying philosophy and four years of theology, then came the ordination as a priest. One year after the ordination we studied the science of how to do missionary work, ‘missiology’ and after that we were called by our boss, ‘the provincial of the Franciscan order’, as we called him. I felt deep in my heart that I would like to go to New Guinea, but you can never tell where you will be assigned. You have promised to be obedient. Patricia: What attracted you to New Guinea? Wilbert: Adventure! Yah. That was a remote unknown part of the globe. Patricia: Was New Guinea fairly wild? Wilbert: Yes, cannibalism and headhunting. We knew that from the Dutch who had been there before and were told of the cannibalism and murdering of other people. Patricia: How many whites were there? What about your work there as a Franciscan? What were you doing? Wilbert: One day the bishop asked me ‘We Franciscans are not yet in the Highlands of New Guinea. Are you willing to go there?’ I answered, ‘Oh, yes!’ that was in 1958, and there we had to more or less bring peace. We also tried to put everything on the map. There was not at the time a good complete map. Our main work was to bring peace between the tribes. Patricia: Did you also try to teach them religion? ‘ ’ What attracted me to New Guinea?... Adventure! It was a remote, unknown part of the globe... Wilbert: No. These people were totally different from the other groups. They had a very strong culture. I know I am going against conventional religious thinking, but I was convinced they were monotheists, not animists. Monotheism is a deep, deep secret there; strictly forbidden. I had people around me asking, ‘Why are you coming here?’ The first man who was interested in me was the man who adopted me there. He was a chief of one of the tribes. As long as you are good with the chiefs, as I was, everything is fine! I was always protected by the big chief. At my new centre where I built my first real house, one day the chief came to me with two other big chiefs. He walked all around the house to make sure no one was listening. Then we four stood shoulder to shoulder, and he slowly opened a package wrapped in banana leaves. It took a long time to open it. I saw that it was a piece of bamboo and it had a mysterious sign on it! I said ‘Yes, I saw it! I saw it!’ The chief said excitedly ‘He saw it. He saw it!’ meaningfully to the others. I don’t know exactly what it meant, SUBUD VOICE PAGE 12 MAY 2011
ut it was a kind of initiation. Afterwards I started a clinic and school. All the children came to the school. The clinic was fine! Patricia: Did you have a nurse for the clinic? Wilbert: Yes. I educated and trained one of the boys. He was very good. Training was always the first thing I did in trying to help without weapons… I carried no weapons. Normally when I tried to help I used – instead of weapons – my books and first aid materials, syringes, help for wounds and such. We used a medicine that at the time was comparable to penicillin for this kind of thing. When I arrived at a new village even before reaching it, you could smell the wounds already. I would give an injection to the wounded, and after three days the rotten pus would be gone and a nice layer of skin would have begun to form. My boy – he was my nurse - had a house next to my clinic. We worked together and had an average of 125 people a day at the clinic. ‘Even though Finding Subud I was successful, Patricia: How long did you stay in New Guinea? ’ I came to feel Wilbert: I arrived in July 1958 and left in 1971. Thirteen years. that inwardly Patricia: What was the next stage in your life? I was so very empty! Wilbert: I was very successful in the work. The Bishop was very pleased with me. But even though I was successful, I came to feel that inwardly I was so very empty! So empty! I had not known it. I had not been really aware of it, then one day I imagined myself 80 years old and felt afraid. What if I had been eighty and doing only this work all of those years? Then I realised how truly empty I felt! At that moment I read a booklet by Dietrich Bonhoffer, a Protestant minister who died in a concentration camp in Germany. There was a memorable sentence in it. ‘Change is grace. Stagnation is sin’. It became clear to me that I had to change. But how and what? There was no one to talk to about my loneliness, my emptiness. Wilbert went as a missionary to Irian Jaya, a remote and unknown place The same month the Superior of the Franciscans came from Indonesia. He asked, ‘who will come back with me?’ I was the first one. I said ‘I’m going with you!’ The people and my colleagues said ‘You can’t do that.’ But I was determined and so I went back with him. So I came to Jakarta with the Franciscan Superior. We arrived at 11.0clock in Jakarta. It was coffee time! I got my coffee, and then I saw the national newspaper of Indonesia, distributed by the Franciscans. I opened it and saw a small article stating that yesterday the President of Indonesia had opened the Subud World Congress. I immediately felt, ‘that is it. That is why I am here’. I didn’t talk with my colleagues, I went instead straight to the two houseboys and asked them where Cilandak was, as Cilandak was mentioned in the newspaper article. They said it was in the south. I had no rest anymore. I went directly out and asked someone, ‘Where is the south?’ And was told ‘At the end of this road.’ It was a big road to Bandung. SUBUD VOICE PAGE 13 MAY 2011
Page 1 and 2: ® In this issue Five Finger Exerci
Page 3 and 4: At the time of the meeting, we will
Page 5 and 6: I feel almost guilty From Edward Wr
Page 7 and 8: together discussing things and maki
Page 9 and 10: from all over the world was positiv
Page 11: FAVOURITE PHOTOS Brighton Beach Ros
Page 15 and 16: of people. It was my first contact
Page 17 and 18: that time it was still very remote
Page 19 and 20: New WSA accountant and bank account
Page 21 and 22: Youth update on two events Hello ag
Page 23 and 24: Changes at Subud Voice Harris Smart
Page 25: A D V E R T I S E M E N T S BAPAK

May 2011 - Subud Voice

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