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Bard Theological Conference and Festival Reflection | September 01, 2005

(Photo: Stefano Russo)

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Neale Donald Walsch, author of "What God Wants," creator of the worldwide Humanity’s Team spiritual movement and one of the conference's keynote speakers, receives a “Greatest Vision” award at Bard College for his "extraordinary contribution to the advancement of the New Spirituality.”

Dear Friends From Around the World,

This is an important e-mail that we believe will take a few minutes to read. If you have five minutes to read it now, then we encourage you to do so. If you don't, then we encourage you to bookmark it or print it out until you think you'll have the time to give it your full attention.

We've just returned from our Humanity's Team international conference and Global Council meeting at Bard College in New York state and want to briefly share some experiences, actions taken and plans for the future.

The international conference, "Seeds of Transformation: Toward a Spiritual Renaissance in a Time of Fundamental Change," was, in a phrase, an extraordinary experience! It's not possible to express the fullness of what took place or to recount the unique experiences that people had, but we would like to share a bit of what happened when more than 300 people from six continents and dozens of countries, from within and beyond Humanity's Team, came together.

We were an amazing assemblage of speakers, artists, entertainers, poets, business people, laborers, academics, students, religious leaders, spiritual activists, scientists, indigenous people and, of course, teammates and those exploring Humanity's Team -- a wonderfully diverse collection of people from many walks of life. But our message was the same: "We are all One. Let's experience and express our Oneness in our daily living." The event inspired so many wonderful expressions of our Oneness that it is difficult to know where to start. It was so beautiful, uplifting and, yes, emotional!

Becoming the Change

In the beautiful and peaceful campus setting of Bard College, in New York's exquisite and spiritual Hudson Valley region, we came together to educate and connect with ourselves and each other and to harness and channel the collective energy of ourselves in our Oneness to progress the Humanity's Team movement forward.

Most of us who were there agree that during that weekend, we became the change we wished to see in the world. We were spreading joy and sharing love. We were choosing to live our lives as demonstrations of our highest and grandest beliefs. We were demonstrating through our very being -- for ourselves and for others -- what living the New Spirituality could be like. And in that grand state of being -- in that state of love -- we also met with each other, shared information, enhanced relationships, inspired each other, inspired people who'd never heard of Humanity's Team -- and had fun -- all in the interest of creating the experience of the joy of Oneness!

Humanity's Team co-hosted and co-presented the conference with the renowned Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. We emphasized throughout the weekend that Humanity's Team is becoming the vanguard movement focusing on belief systems about God and about life. Greenpeace may be the vanguard organization for environmental justice in the world, we said. Humanity's Team is becoming the vanguard movement -- an active, collaborative movement -- focusing on belief systems about God and about life.

Speakers, Networking, Music

The keynote address on our opening night, Friday, was given by the Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., dean of the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He brought people to their feet as he described "Religion on the Cusp of a New Spirituality" and articulated the spiritual leadership exhibited by historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Neale Donald Walsch gave several presentations over the three days and brought a standing ovation when he described a world hungry to experience and express itself from a whole new understanding of God and what Life Itself is really about.

Paul Ferrini shared inspirations brought to him specifically for our conference and our movement -- in particular, that it is time to put down our books and to venture out into the world as the Light, as healers and as spiritual activists. We need not feel "ready," he said; we must only feel willing. If we are truly willing, he said, then we will be guided and supported in the work we do.

A Humanity's Team networking area was set up in which communities, states and countries from around the world colorfully showcased major projects, initiatives, themes and plans. Australia, Canada, Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Italy, Nepal, the Netherlands, Japan, Peru, the Philippines, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, Wales and many, many other countries were represented. We filled three rooms to overflowing. This was one of the best attended and most fun stops at the conference! Special thanks to Humanity's Team U.S. for organizing this!

We also had many individual Humanity's Team speakers giving presentations. John and Trish Gallagher, teammate and human resources coordinators, respectively, facilitated a seminar about the concept of "functional teams" (more about this concept later); Diego Cornejo, interim geography coordinator for Central and South America, Mexico and the Caribbean, and country coordinator for Ecuador, spoke about the benefits of experiential spiritual education; Eiko Hayakawa, country coordinator for Japan, described the peaceful, natural and spontaneous evolution of Humanity�s Team in her country from one teammate a year ago to more than 90 teammates and five active local communities today; Nicole Aknin, country coordinator for France, spoke about the role of education in the process of implementing peace on our planet; Dick Halloran, spiritual legal steward, facilitated a workshop on discovering aspects of yourself that you may have forgotten; George Lockett, country coordinator for Wales, gave a guided meditation that balanced people's energies and brought healing and peace; Duysal Askun, worldwide teams facilitator, geography coordinator for Eastern Europe and Asia/Pacific, and country coordinator for Turkey, spoke about the growing awareness of the similar aims of psychology and the New Spirituality; Peter Matthies, coordinator for conscious commerce and strategy, spoke about creating a "spirit-based business"; and Bill Koerner, worldwide information technology coordinator, focused on the technology planned and used by Humanity�s Team to meet its mission.

Many outside experts also spoke, including Bruce Chilton, director of the Institute of Advanced Theology, whose presentations included a talk about the need for a "spiritual resurrection" as humanity moves toward the New Spirituality; author-scholar-filmmaker Phil Cousineau, who gave a multimedia presentation about the sudden rise in spiritual pilgrimages as a reflection of the New Spirituality trend; religious and spiritual researcher Robert Forman, who described Humanity's Team as an integral part of an emerging worldwide grassroots-spirituality movement driven by a fundamentally new form of spirituality, focused on the personal, experiential and transcendental; artist-mystic Alex Grey, who gave an illustrated talk about art as an expression of spirit, consciousness, love and transformation; mythic scholar Stephen Larsen, who discussed the phenomenon of dualistic thinking in monotheistic religions and how fundamentalism is an outgrowth of this dualism; theologian Carol Ochs, whose inspiring talk about finding God in our own stories noted that our lives are as important as any life that has been lived (God does not create "bit players," she said); and physics professor Arthur Zajonc, who illuminated the emerging reconciliation of science and spirituality and what he believes this means to Western civilization.

Other events included a fascinating panel discussion -- with Bruce Chilton, Carol Ochs and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, chief executive of the American Sufi Muslim Association (moderated by Neale) -- about the commonalities and differences among Judaism, Christianity and Islam; a rare public talk by 91-year-old William Commanda, the most senior Elder from the Algonquin Nation, who offered his vision of a Circle of All Nations, in which all races and cultures solve their problems, face to face, in a "talking circle"; a special meditation and dialogue led by the co-conveners of the Spiritual Caucus at the United Nations; and an powerfully emotive and touching outdoor ecumenical prayer service, celebrated by the Rev. Betsy Stang and a remarkable gathering of religious and spiritual leaders and musicians from a wide variety of faith and wisdom traditions.

Each evening was capped with musical entertainment. Folk musicians Jay Ungar and Molly Mason played a rousing concert on opening night and the spiritual British ensemble Bliss gave a stunning performance on the weekend's final evening. Faith Rivera, Nafeesa Monroe, Ali Handal and Harold Payne, who had come early to entertain the Humanity's Team Global Council, were enhanced by fellow musicians Gerald White and Mark Romero in a heart-stirring outdoor performance, "Standing as One," Saturday night. The artists were joined in a few numbers by teammate Lisa Firestone. We are so blessed that all these talented musicians -- and others who performed in the ecumenical service and as part of our "spiritual experiences" throughout the weekend -- felt called to entertain and inspire us! A variety of exceptional visual artists was also drawn to Bard, exhibiting paintings and sculptures of religious and spiritual figures and imagery in a special conference art gallery we created. Separate spaces were also created for a special meditation room and a room devoted to the great, elliptical World Peace Labyrinth, developed for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Many thanks to Gerry Harrington, the visionary behind the conference and its chief organizer, for his 18 months of loyal, diligent and reliable servant leadership in bringing the conference to life. We also thank Bea Boes, our spiritual accountant, for keeping her good, steady hand on the till; Bill Koerner, for his yeoman service in keeping us technologically functional throughout; the dozens of volunteers who were essential to the event's smooth operation; Carolyn Bonnington, the volunteer coordinator; Ann Fody, the event planner; and the many, many other people too numerous to name here who contributed their time and abundance to this event.

Global Council Meeting

The Humanity's Team Global Council, composed of country coordinators from all over the world and members of the worldwide team, converged on Bard the weekend before the conference and met for five days. This was a landmark meeting, where our governance structure -- composed of a Council of Trustees, Worldwide Coordinator, Worldwide Outreach Team, Worldwide Services & Support Team and, of course, a Global Council -- was approved.

The council agreed the governance structure would follow a "4 C's" program, focusing on Consciousness, Collaboration, Consensus and Communication. The 4 C's will be central to our process of creating plans and implementing them across the movement. We also created a vision of a "chaordic" system, grounded on the Five Steps to Peace, which we agreed to grow into. This envisioned chaordic system is self-organizing, self-governing, adaptive, nonlinear and complex; harmoniously blending characteristics of chaos and order so that it is dominated by neither. It is, in effect, existing in a phase between order and chaos.

Many initiatives were also developed. One of them was "functional teams," or teams with specific, functional purposes or goals, such as communication, education, translation and abundance creation. Functional teams work with each other and with other functional teams in a "chaordic" fashion. Each team member commits to full participation, trust, open communication, clear roles, risk-taking -- and a healthy social/"business" balance.

Other initiatives were also developed. All of them are now beginning to span the globe. They will serve as invitations to people to participate in Humanity's Team based on interests and background and will fully empower teammates around the world to create organization and outreach at every level of Humanity's Team.

Over the course of our five-day council meeting, we significantly expanded our vision, plans and commitment to the movement. By the time the meeting was over, "we were all walking 10 feet off the ground," as worldwide coordinator Steve Farrell put it. Our next Global Council meeting will take place in about nine months.

Thank you to Duysal Askun, Gerry Harrington, U.S. coordinator Ceci Schulte, coordinating associate for the U.S. (and Western U.S. coordinator) Keith Garrison and all the country coordinators and members of the Worldwide Team for their assistance in putting together a fabulous Global Council meeting!

Humanity's Team Award

One last thing the Global Council decided to create was a Humanity's Team award for extraordinary contribution to the advancement of the New Spirituality. This is a key new initiative designed to identify and celebrate real leadership in the world that progresses the agenda of Humanity's Team and the New Spirituality. The council believes that the collective planetary change needed now is catalyzed by strong and effective personal leadership. The council gave its inaugural award to Neale Donald Walsch at the closing night of the international conference. Special congratulations and thanks to Neale for bringing his special form of leadership to the world!

That's all for now! We will be in touch soon.

With love, appreciation and gratitude,
Humanity's Team Worldwide Team

Posted by admin at September 1, 2005 01:40 PM


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