The New Republic - the Servant-Nation from now on

After a long period of deliberation and inactivity, it is essential to look at a dynamic revival of the Mondcivitan Republic (Commonwealth of World Citizens).

The original constitution was suspended as it did not prove possible at that time to construct a nation on these lines. An executive was set up and the affairs handed over to the Hugh & Helene Schonfield World Service Trust.

Based on the experiences from the past and in order to ensure a full contemplation of all the aspects of building a Holy Servant Nation, it became apparent that our approach has to be bottom up before it can be top down.

Nations come to being usually over many hundreds or thousands of years and emerge of their own accord. They are not a matter of design but the result of the common course of groups of individuals, families and groups with a common destiny or need for protection.

In the case of those nations like the Hebrews, who felt they had a purpose to fulfil, the design of the structures of the nation was left open to experiment. This has been the line the Mondcivitan Republic has taken since its inception. We were to be 'the guinea pigs of our own experiment' as Hugh Schonfield put it so metaphorically. Some of our experiments failed. One of these was the governmental structure given in the original constitution which proved to be difficult to implement at the time due to the inherent problems of communication in a nation without territory. A lot has happened in the world since then, technological evolutions which would have made this task much easier to implement perhaps.

However, the problems were not only to do with communication but also with the issues involved with commitment. In a democratic hierarchically structured and governed nation, decisions are delegated to elected representatives who are then made responsible for making the appropriate decisions. The electorate can show its approval or not at the next ballot box. In the meantime, the electorate have no governmental function to fulfil.

This meant, in the case of our Republic, that individual citizens were left without a task to fulfil apart from providing funding through a taxation system which would not provide them with any personal benefits. This was probably within the scope of those idealistically minded citizens who supported the Republic in the first place but they were left wondering how the Republic would use those funds to further World Peace and Brotherhood. They were little aware that the small sums raised were hardly sufficient to pay the salaries of a minimal administrative staff.

However, the greatest disadvantage of this situation was that it was not in accord with a nation claiming to be a 'Servant Nation of Mankind'. This aspiration requires a dramatic change and development in the lives and characters of individuals because it can only stake a claim to being this through being a nation of servants with that ideal.

This had already become apparent by 1976 and was expressed in the so-called 'Aldingen Declaration' which stated, for example: ?the Servant-People can only evolve as a valid and living organism and its members achieve identity, through direct and personal involvement in service.?

Thus the evolutionary nature of this idea was becoming more and more obvious. The problem remained as to how to give some substance to it without it just disintegrating into vague platitudes.

With the transfer of the Mondcivitan and IAL archives from London to Germany, the process of archiving these unique and important documents in the website (www.schonfield.org) of the Hugh & Helene Schonfield World Service Trust was commenced in 2004. The culture of any nation is bound up in its history and it is important that this be preserved and made available to the public.

However, it is not sufficient just to live in the past, despite its uniqueness and importance. It is essential to build upon past experience and be part of a living entity. Thus at the end of 2004 a new initiative was brought into being in the form of the International Leadership and Business Society (www.ilbs.org). It was felt that the call of our times insisted that we build the concept of service in business as an important foundation stone of a revival of the Servant Nation concept. The world situation in terms of the distribution of wealth, the demands on raw materials and the considerations of the environment make the implication of business men and women in the founding of a new world absolutely imperative. The idea is expressed in the society's mission statement:

We believe that one of the principal aims of business is to be a dynamic motor for positive change in society and the development of the human individual.

There is no doubt scope for initiatives in other areas of society and it is hoped that men and women will arise to take up the banner in their respective areas in the name of the Servant Nation. The distinction with this approach over altruism is that every effort can help each and every one of us to be better servants of mankind whilst we create building blocks for a nation of people dedicated to serve humanity.

Whereas, under the original conception, agencies of the Republic were built after its establishment, the new Republic will be built by individual men and women from below acting on their own initiative.

So it may be questioned how all these efforts are to be united. At this juncture it is important to stress that, while putting the original structures of the constitution to one side, the original intentions and in particular the Principles of the Republic have at no time been called into question. In fact, on the contrary, the Principles become the core rallying point. In order to stress their importance they are personalised such that the first person singular is used to replace the first person plural. The principles thus become primarily a self declaration not under the control of third parties but to be lived by. The 'I' takes precedence, the 'we' becomes implicit in the group. This recalls Buber's statement, 'The Way of Man':

Man cannot search for peace anywhere else except within himself, until he has found it.

First, when man has found peace within himself, will he be in a position to search for it in the whole world.

As a concession to structure, ILBS is organised in the form of chapters. Individuals sharing the vision and willing to abide by the principles are invited to create local chapters of like-minded persons. We envisage that this can eventually lead to chapters of Mondcivitans and that spokesmen and women able to represent the interests of mankind and the Servant Nation in reality will become apparent.

The role of such chapters and individuals is to build relationships of those willing to live by the simple principles and to help each other and those around them in any way within their means. This is not a religion but neither does it lack spirituality. The priority is to build a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself. It opens its arms to all who are not against us and seeks to understand and inform those who are.

Thus the activities can include the promotion of knowledge, information and physical and financial help to those in need. As this people gain the respect of those in whose midst they live, they should be required to develop the skills needed in arbitration and making peace which they have founded in their own lives.

Steve Engelking, June 2006.

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