Carl Stauffer, CSP Academic Driector (Photo: Kathy Aquilina)

As the newly appointed Academic Director of the Caux Scholars Program (CSP), I was invited to enter a world of unknown surprises. Caux, as a movement and as a structure, in many ways remains a mystery both to those inside and those outside its reach and influence. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful, welcoming mystery that opens up before you with each step you take - like the grand elegance of the Caux Palace that draws you in as you enter its spacious hallways. This being my first year at Caux, I felt this mystery in three distinct ways – deep reflection, accompaniment and encounters of serendipity.

When I stepped out onto the awaiting balcony of my room for the first time, the breath-taking beauty of the view before me was stunning and I knew in my spirit that my stay at Caux would foster many times of joyous worship, silent prayer and awesome reflection. Leaving behind a hectic family and travel schedule and the hurriedness of a full academic and teaching load I found a sacred solace in watching the sun rise every morning casting its golden hews across a sprawling Lake Geneva and the glorious snow-capped precipices of the Alps. Caux provided a time of “deep calling to deep” in my faith-walk – a season of renewal that I was thirsting for.

Scholars engage in an exercise led by Carl Stauffer (Photo: Kathy Aquilina)

While there would be much to say about the exceptional, gifted group of 19 scholars that came to CSP this year and their energetic engagement with the content of the course on "Exploring Justice:Transitional, Restorative and Indigenous Applications," it would be negligible of me not to mention the ‘whole-life’ connections and bonds that were forged while at Caux. I am convinced these will represent transformative markers – points of turning – in the lives of many of the scholars. My privilege was to walk alongside, to accompany these scholars in these various learning moments. I will never forget the long walks, the late night talks at the Caux Cafe, the times of processing relationships, future directions, and life callings that I shared with many over that time.

The central pull of Caux as an international “meeting place” – a space of warm hospitality - is both amazing and contagious. Who would have guessed that at my first meal after arriving I would be reunited with long-time African friends from South Africa and that together we would spontaneously break into song and dance as we reminisced about life in the historic transition from Apartheid to democracy? Later, we were able to perform a number of South African struggle songs for the opening ceremony of the Caux summer program. Another serendipitous encounter that was truly inspirational was meeting Elizabeth a gracious women of 80 years who has been coming to Caux for 50 years straight. Her legacy is not only in leaving her delicate touches of beauty and color in the magnificent floral arrangements throughout the palace, but it is also in her consistent commitment to Caux and all that it stands for.

May the ‘flow of Caux’ continue.