August 22, 2026 World Subud Council recap

We had a very good zoom meeting starting with sharing about the in-person Council meeting in Rungan Sari. We heard from zone representatives, international helpers, and the various affiliate and subcommittee people who attended. Comments included:

• Zone representatives would like to pursue meeting by area separate from the Council meetings, including the International Helpers who travel in their zones
• It seemed evident that we have made progress in working with guidance and harmony
• How do we continue to put into practice what we received at the meeting?
• We felt very comfortable with each other, and could share openly
• The agenda was better balanced with space for arising ideas and discussions
• The exploration of working together as a dewan was good and we felt the proof of this after our testing and discussions
• During our zoom Council meetings, can we break out and do testing if it is felt necessary?
• The kejiwaan sessions at the start of the meeting, and every morning, provided a spiritual foundation for the work and discussions
• The International Helpers felt one with the Council

Then Arifin Konrad, ISC Chair, provided information on the varied areas of attention for the International Subud Committee:

Artificial Intelligence (AI): we really don’t know how it is being used in Subud, especially with publicly available large language models. Is it clear: don’t share any Bapak or Ibu Rahayu talks with AI. However, AI can be useful to be able to categorize and search the massive amount of Archives material using an agent that is not in any way connected to the Internet. Humphrey related that the agent could summarize digital files that would take a human archivist years to achieve.

Archives Subcommittee: these dedicated people have not really found their way to a productive and harmonious group. Arifin is arranging for an in-person meeting to do testing and find a positive way forward. The subcommittee organization, mission, policies and procedures will be reviewed. The subcommittee will discuss the “Living Archives” plan that has been in place since 2018.

Subud Britain is establishing an Archive in leased property; a digital archivist, Robert Saunders, has already been appointed. This is a joint project between the country and WSA.

WCOT August Meeting Highlights (Hamid DaSilva): Last week the entire world congress team met on zoom. Each area is really taking responsibility and achieving progress. The program and venues team (Valentin Pizzi and Konrad Maimer) have met with all congress stakeholders and started putting together the draft daily program in an application designed by Luthfi Bustillo. Arifin and Rifka, along with the international helpers will be reviewing the WSA/ISC/IH components of the program.

Starting in September, smaller groups of WCOT teams will meet together for a week at a time to address all the important issues needed for a successful event. Registration starts July 2027, so we all feel the congress is “right around the corner!”

At the recent Subud Britain Gathering, Hamid was able to find people to lead the family, child and youth programs. They have experience in national and world congress events. We want very safe and professional personnel for this congress area.

Next week Hamid meets with SDivine on the placement on the land behind the hotel for the two latihan modular structures.

2027 World Subud Council Meeting, South Africa (Sharif Quiblier): Sharif visited the site presented at the Rungan Sari meeting and found it was too spread out and there would be many other activities during our meeting. He found a better site (26 Degrees South) that “feels right” – compact with a friendly staff – and sent a revised proposal. Arifin has reviewed it and the site has all the necessary components; however this meeting is more expensive than the two previous ones: with airfares, $120,000, whereas the others were around $80,000. We need to do fundraising. We can’t leave the next dewan with low funds for their meetings.

We don’t yet have dates for the 2027 meeting as there may be a reduction in cost with “low season” months.

Council meeting fundraising, including funds to support members in zones 5 and 6 to attend: Rifka, Arifin, Yosef, Emanuel and Sharif will hold a meeting to discuss various fundraising ideas. Planning for visas will also be addressed. This will be on the next meeting agenda for further development.

The next Council meeting is planned for the weekend of September 19, with a possible kejiwaan session. The International Helpers will report back on this.

My sincere thanks to all the World Subud Council members who work so diligently and with guidance from their latihan – it shows in our activities and harmony.