Rosemary Hurwitz, 2004 IPS alumna, wrote about her experience at the Awakened World 2012 conference in Italy. She discusses the interfaith dialogue that occurred between lay and religious teachers and authors in many faith traditions.
The AWAKENED WORLD 2012 CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 13-22
The convening organizations of this experience were:
The Association for Global New Thought;
Michael Beckwith, Barbara Fields, CA
The International Interreligious Peace Council;
Jim Kenney, Chicago, IL
The Interreligious Engagement Project;
There were approximately 250 people (4 buses) from all around the world who attended this conference. Representatives, including educators, authors and people from several walks of life from South Africa, Africa, USA, India, China, Japan, and Europe, Israel, Italy spent five days together near Rome at Mondomigliore Spiritual Retreat Center in Rocca de Pappa, Italy. Three days were spent in the Florence, Italy area at the Hilton Florence Metropole Hotel. There were press conferences held in both the city halls of Rome and Florence.
The structure of the conference was set up with large group Plenary in the morning, which identified our topics and mutual calls to action. We then broke into smaller groups with interfaith dialogue facilitated by core leaders and assistants.
The most powerful part of the experience was simply sharing in a global commons of oneness with all of these people from different cultures and faiths; Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Christians represented and in the large plenary and the small groups which reported back to the large group on our mission and calls to action on the following domains;
- Reconciling With the Other
- Embracing the Earth
- Transforming Society
- Rediscovering the Sacred
It will not surprise you to hear many of us wanted the same things, peace, social justice and clean air. We enjoyed stimulating dialogue and learned more of the Global Commons. We had a camaraderie that was beyond anything I have ever experienced.
We have a follow up web page and many of us would like to continue to work with specific calls to action on the above domains listed.
Connect with Rosemary at rosepetalmusic@aol.com or at www.spiritdrivenliving.com
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