The Convergence Magazine Issue 2 - September 2018

P r e s e n t s

THE

September 2018

THE

CONVERGENCE

ROAD 2020 TO

In this issue: Return to Country of Mungo Man

U Day Ethiopia: Land of Origins UNITY EARTH Champion Award ~ Amb. Mussie Hailu

The Convergence Magazine September 2018 - Issue 2 “The Road to 2020”

Contributing Editors, Issue 2 Ben Bowler • Yanni Maniates, MS • Kurt Johnson, PhD Managing Editor • Rev. Shannon M. Winters, MS Graphic Layout & Design • David M. Winters

Welcome to The Convergence magazine!

The Convergence magazine serves the amazing work that is ongoing with the UNITY EARTH network, a global collective of change-makers who, through experiences and spiritual practices, are creating greater harmony among our human family and with Earth itself, towards the cultivation of planetary consciousness and peace. The Convergence features contributions that strengthen and connect weaving of unity within the colorful diversity of the Human Family and with the ecosystems that sustain us. Honoring all traditions and lineages, UNITY EARTH is inspired by the collective wisdom of humanity to foster community, connect cultures and cultivate peace.

UNITY EARTH: One people: many cultures One planet: many challenges One colorful diverse human family The opinions expressed in this issue do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher or editors of The Convergence Magazine.

Except for fair use extracts with full credit, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher.

We make every effort to obtain proper permission to reproduce images. Images and artwork that do not include a citation for use where they appear in The Convergence are from Pixabay. Please contact us with any information related to the rights holder of an image source that is not credited.

The editors of The Convergence gratefully acknowledge Daryl Henderson, Rev. Deborah Moldow, Erik Rabasca, Rajiv Sankarlall, and Joshua Smith for their photographic contributions in this issue. ©2018 UNITY EARTH All rights reserved.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome from UNITY EARTH

by Ben Bowler................................................................................................................................................................. 5-7 The UNITY EARTH Vision: 1 + 1 = ONE

by Yanni Maniates..........................................................................................................................................................8-9

MUNGO MAN When Mungo Man Came Home

by Jim Bowler............................................................................................................................................................... 10-13 Indigeneity and Harmony

by Peter Blaze Corcoran and Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz............................................................... 14-16 The Return to Country of Mungo Man: A Journey to the Country of the Heart

by Jeff Vander Clute.................................................................................................................................................. 17-20

ETHIOPIA Ambassador Mussie Hailu Receives First UNITY EARTH Champion Award

by The Editors................................................................................................................................................................... 21 U Day Ethiopia 2018: A Convergence of Fire in the Land of Origins In Celebration of World Interfaith Harmony Week January 30 - February 7, 2018

by Rev. Deborah Moldow........................................................................................................................................ 22-38 Remembering U Day Festival, Ethiopia 2018 - “Spreading The Golden Rule”

by Mussie Hailu.......................................................................................................................................................... 39-40 The Advent Of A New Global Civilization

by Chief Phil Lane....................................................................................................................................................... 41-42 A Native American’s Journey to U Day Ethiopia

by Lyla June Johnston.............................................................................................................................................. 43-44 My “Unraveling Experience Of U Day 2018 - Ethiopia Land Of Origins

by Pato Banton........................................................................................................................................................... 45-46

Upcoming Convergences on the Road to 2020 U Day 2019 Festival - India, “Land of Spirituality”

by Dr. A. K. Merchant................................................................................................................................................ 48-49 Inspiring Resilience

by Zuleikha........................................................................................................................................................................ 49 U Day Festival and Jerusalem, Center of the World

by Gabriel Hagai.............................................................................................................................................................. 50 The Crestone Convergence and UNITY EARTH’s Tradition of “Convergence Events”

by Dr. Kurt Johnson....................................................................................................................................................51-52 Directory..................................................................................................................................................................... 54-57

Welcome From UNITY EARTH Ben Bowler

The Road to 2020 was conceived as an interlinking series of events, connecting across the globe and intending to give greater visibility and vitality to the world unity movement. A powerful launch event at the The Church Center for the United Nations (UN), Tillman Chapel in New York City on October 26, 2016, brought together visionaries, artists, spiritual practitioners, activists and people of good will to commemorate the UN Week of Spirituality, Values & Global Concerns while launching the global initiative of the Road to 2020.

The next step on the “Road” was the intensely powerful “Crestone Convergence” in Crestone, Colorado. The place itself is an extraordinary experiment in interspiritual community living. This five-day event during July 2017 brought together an international gathering of activists and thought leaders to “converge” with the

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iconic Mungo Man was discovered in 1974 and changed our understanding of human occupation of Australia, setting the date of the first arrivals back well beyond 40,000 years. Not only did this discovery radically alter our view of human history, but this Mungo Man, a fully modern articulated skeleton, was found buried amidst red pellets of ochre, an earthy pigment still widely used in important ceremonies by Aboriginals today. This evidence of sacred ceremony, a clear indication of spiritual consciousness stretching back beyond 40,000 years of uninterrupted culture makes Mungo Man a true spiritual ancestor, not only for his Aboriginal descendants but in a very real way for all modern humans.

From 1974 until 2018, the remains of Mungo Man were housed in the Australian National University in Canberra.

They were removed without consultation of the

local spiritual communities who have been living examples of interfaith cooperation, selfreliance and eco-spirituality for many decades. The event comprised of powerful ceremonies, interactive discussions, workshops, presentations and celebratory musical performances.

The general themes were the spiritual unity of humanity and sacred ecology, as we explored how we can better live in harmony with each other, the natural world and the elements themselves.

Aboriginal people, which was a cause for much consternation.

However, the great service rendered by science in revealing the immense antiquity of Aboriginal presence in Australia is something that has been recognised by many Aboriginal elders, even while speaking of the pain caused by the removal of human remains.

Science was able to validate what Aboriginal people had long known through their cultural stories: that they have been on this country forever, since the Dreaming began.

The first major public event on the Road to 2020 was the “Return to Country of Mungo Man” in a remote region of Australia. The

The campaign to repatriate the human remains of Mungo Man was, after long years, finally successful and the date was set for

November 2018. Our focus at UNITY EARTH was to honour his Return to Country with cultural song and dance in a public performance. We intended to give visibility to this unique moment, honour this great Ancestral Spirit and acknowledge the sophisticated and extraordinarily ancient culture of Aboriginal people. Too long have Aboriginal Australians been massacred, disempowered, marginalised, abused and degraded. Here was an opportunity to take a step towards healing the gaping hole in Australia’s heart, by a deep and sincere recognition of Mungo Man and his people.

With this clear intention set, a remarkable team assembled itself through a series of synchronistic encounters to execute the vision. Shane Howard, a legendary Australian Musician, steeped forward as Musical Director. Sam Cook, a prodigious Event Manager and former Young Aboriginal of the Year, stepped in as Event Director. Dwayne Mallard, a young aboriginal visionary and activist, came forward as Cultural Connector and roamed the entire country for months, weaving connections, raising awareness and building relationships including with major funders. Bill Pheasant came on board as media and PR manager, an important role which relied upon Bill’s many years of experience and sensitivity in this space. The collaboration was only possible with the strong support and active participation of the Aboriginal Elders responsible for the repatriation, Auntie Mary Pappin, Michael Young, Ernest Mitchel, Patsy Winch and everyone at the Aboriginal Advisory Group of the World Heritage Area.

Any one of us involved will tell you that it was a miracle how it all came together. The budget needed for the free public “Return to Country Commemorative Event” in Mildura was $220,000.

This was cobbled together in just a few months of Crowd Funding and some major donations secured by Dwayne from the Federal Government and the Healing Foundation. The event itself included dance groups, musicians and indigenous “Lore”men and women (cultural leaders) from across Australia. They came from the four directions. UNITY EARTH also had some international guests participating including Dr. Mindahi Bastida, a Mexican Shamanic Leader from the Center for Earth Ethics, Evolutionary Leaders Jeff Vander Clute and Lori Leyden, as well as Professor Peter Blaze Corcoran from Florida Gulf Coast

University. Having these international visitors bearing witness and speaking at the event was an important element, as what was being commemorated was not just for Australia but for First Peoples everywhere and for all humanity.

The Return to Country Commemorative event on November 18 happened the day after Mungo Man had been returned to Lake Mungo and reunited with Mungo Lady in great ceremony and with powerful spiritual emotion. The November 18 event included Aboriginal Musical Legend Archie Roach, Aboriginal Dancers from Across Australia, as well as many up and coming Aboriginal Artists. The spiritual energy of this celebratory moment on a perfect Spring evening in Mildura under the Milky Way and the Southern Cross will long be remembered by all who were present. Professor Jim Bowler, who had “discovered” both Mungo Man and Mungo Lady referred to the evening’s festivities as a Coronation. With such a lyrical expression he captured the remarkable spirit of what occurred that night. For many of us it was an important step towards truth telling, healing and right human relationship. As it’s deepest level it was an outpouring of mystical spiritual energy and an experience of profound unity and transformation. Perhaps this was the only way we could have truly inaugurated the Road to 2020 series of global public events—by honouring the world’s oldest living culture, facilitating a little healing to the heart of a nation and listening deeply to the spiritual and ecological message in our collective ancestral past.

The next step on the Road to 2020 was to Ethiopia for “U Day 2018 Ethiopia: Land of Origins,” February 2018. This extraordinary spiritual event was the second U Day Festival, the inaugural U Day having been held in Thailand in December 2012.

U Day 2018 Ethiopia: Land of Origins brought together a delegation of Aboriginal Australians from the Mungo Event, 10 Thai Buddhist Monks, a delegation of interfaith leaders from India, Indigenous leaders from around the world as well as musicians, artist, evolutionary leaders, entrepreneurs and film makers from many countries. The eight-day event began with a miraculous interspiritual (multi-traditional) “Convergence of Fire” ceremony in Lalibela on February 2, the night of the super-

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blood-blue moon. This was a ceremony that all present shall never forget, for all eternity.

Our experience visiting the monolithic churches and the Orthodox Ethiopian monks and priests was exceptionally beautifully and profound. The head monk of Lalibela, in his farewell greeting, anointed our U Day caravan as “70 Apostles of Peace and Love.” I’d say he summed up the vibe well.

Then we flew back to Addis Ababa for the historic event at the African Union. For the first time Aboriginal people from Australia, Mexican Shamans, Thai Buddhist Monks and religious representatives of diverse faiths addressed the continental forum, in the context of World Interfaith Harmony Week. This extraordinary experience, composed by our URI Partners, in particular the incomparable Ambassador Mussie Hailu, was attended by the Ethiopian President and by the Patriarch of the Orthodox Ethiopian Church as well as other major religious leaders in the country. The photos and the story were front page news the next day in Ethiopia.

The “U-Nite! Concert” was on the Saturday night February 3 at Villa Verde. The U Day Artists including Pato Banton, Rocky Dawuni, Kristin Hoffman, Premik Russel Tubbs, Lyla June, Kwadjo Spiri, Dane Kennedy and Erik Rabasca brought a powerful and inspirational performance, full of heart and love and a beautiful profound sense of hope. That evening in Addis Ababa the heavens opened, and it poured unseasonal, unexpected rain. The locals were convinced it was a blessing brought on by the music, the gathering and the intention of U Day. The final element of U Day Ethiopia was the visit to Shashamane on February 6, Bob Marley’s birthday. Shashamane or “Shash,” as it is known, is a local epicentre for the Rastafarian Movement in Ethiopia, and worldwide. The U Day Family participated in a tribute concert with the noble goal of raising money for the local Rastafarian school. For a lot of the U Day artists it was a real highlight to honour the legendary Bob Marley on his birthday in Shashamane this way. It was a fun and vibrant way to close out U Day 2018 Ethiopia: Land of Origins.

With major events in the United States, Australia and Ethiopia having taken place, we now look ahead towards U Day India 2019 (November 14-24), U Day 2020 Jerusalem (February 1-7) and the seven-city Caravan of Unity Across America (September 1-21, 2020).

“U Day 2019 India: Land of Spiritual Harmony” will consist of an opening ceremony in the holy city of Varanasi, with special events planned in Sarnath, Rishikesh and Ajmer before the major closing events in Delhi itself.

“U Day 2020 Jerusalem & Holy Land” will include events in Jordan, Jerusalem and the West Bank. U Day promises to be a very special and unique sacred gathering in the Holy Land.

Then the final act of the whole Road to 2020 will be the threeweek “Caravan of Unity Across America” in September 2020, beginning on the West Coast and finishing in New York City on the International Day of Peace, September 21. The Caravan will include sacred site visits, ceremonies, musical performances and uplifting presentations by a variety of significant voices.

We are looking forward to seeing you along “The Road” as we collectively scale up the movement of increasing spiritual unityin-diversity, social justice and ecological awareness.

Ben Bowler is Executive Director of UNITY EARTH. He is a serial entrepreneur with a background in sales and marketing.

In 2006 he and his wife Jildou moved to Thailand to volunteer along the Thai-Burma border. In 2008 they founded Blood Foundation together, a NGO focusing on education projects. In 2008 Ben founded Monk for a Month in Chiang Mai offering men and women the opportunity to experience Thai temple life and temporary ordination. In 2010 Ben launched Muslim for a Month in Turkey offering guests a first-hand experience of Turkish Islam and Sufism, underneath the spiritually inclusive banner of Rumi. In 2011 Ben launched World Weavers, offering spiritual immersion programs in Tibetan India, Nepal, Cambodia and Ethiopia. In October 2015 at the Parliament of World’s Religions Ben launched 1GOD.com, an online platform aimed at countering religious fundamentalism, relativism and western materialism. Ben is a Social-Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the prestigious INSEAD Business School and a blogger for the Huffington Post.

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THE UNITY EARTH VISION: 1+1 = ONE

by Yanni Maniates

We are so pleased to share here The UNITY EARTH Vision. It is an edited transcript of the UNITY EARTH Vision video narrated by Global Projects Director Yanni Maniates.

So we are at a time now where we can consciously take our evolution, move it forward and create a new narrative and have a new way of seeing ourselves as a race that can achieve peace and that can live in unity in diversity.

It is meant to communicate the overarching vision that UNITY EARTH has for the “Road to 2020” as well as UNITY EARTH’s vision for all of its projects. Yanni has added additional commentary at the end of the transcription to further expand the vision.

Sure this may sound really idealistic, but that is how anything has ever come to be. It’s begins as an idea and then there are enough people willing to work for it and then ‘Wow,” there is a huge shift.

Watch that UNITY EARTH video here:

Ultimately our belief is that Peace is possible on this planet and so, too, is Equality possible on this planet. This is the vision that we want to communicate to the world. The old vision is more of a di-vision—a sense of scarcity, of lack, of “survival of the fittest,” of taking care of yourself first.

We don’t believe that that is the way the universe really operates.

We have been working with evolutionary biologists who have proven that what makes evolution move forward is cooperation and inclusivity. This is what is driving us to do this work, but we also know that this is not driven by us as individuals; it’s a collective thing. And for those who see it spiritually, it is inspiration coming through. And for others who may see it in a more secular form, it is evolution fulfilling itself.

So, what UNITY EARTH is all about is serving the earth.

We are not just focused on interreligious work, but also on social activism, on eco-spirituality and on ecology. What we are trying to do is to bring together people who see the earth as “One.” It doesn’t matter what their narratives are. It doesn’t matter what their belief systems are. But what matters is that they want to work together to bring the earth together, to bring people together. So, we provide opportunities where people can come together. These could be people who would normally not even look at each other or think of working together, but now they do work together to create a world that works for everyone. Thus proving that what really matters is what our goal together is and not what our beliefs are.

Here I’d like to expand a little more on the text and theme of the transcribed video.

Just imagine that “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” there was an oxygen atom named Ollie Oxygen. And nearby but separated by a vast chasm of fear of the “other,” were two hydrogen atoms named Henry and Henrietta Hydrogen. They all lived in their own little worlds. Ollie only associated with others whose first names began with an “O” and whose last names were Oxygen. While Henry and Henrietta lived in a world where they only associated with those whose first names began with an “H” and whose last names were Hydrogen.

But one day, a new and very special day, all three felt an urge, an evolutionary urge, to have the courage to step over

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that huge chasm of fear and greet their long-lost neighbors.

[Parenthetically, the word “courage” comes from the Latin word “Cor” which means heart]. And when they did, Voila!

They were transformed into “Water!”

They were now so much greater than the sum of their parts.

They made a quantum leap and became so much more than who they were individually and yet they still retained their identities as oxygen and hydrogen, but they were now the fecund ground for all of terrestrial life to blossom. They were a new “ONE.” Quite the amazing transformation occurred to say the least. So, too, is the case “where two or three are gathered...” Something never known before is created. The linear world of 1 + 1 = 2 is now transformed into the quantum world where 1 + 1 = ONE. And this ONE is now a NEW “ONE”—an evolutionary leap.

Let us come together as “ONE” with heart and courage. As we do perhaps we can all discover and experience that it is Love that is behind all of creation and it is Love that is gently nudging us all to take courage and evolve!

Yanni Maniates has been teaching Meditation, Intuitive Development, Healing, Hermetic Wisdom, Ancient Mystery School and Metaphysical subjects for almost 30 years. His intention is to translate ancient wisdom teachings into modern, real-day, life skills.

He has successfully trained hundreds of people to develop their Intuition and taught even more people how to meditate. The primary focus of his work is to help people experience the “still, small voice within” or as he prefers to call it, “The Embrace.” He is the author of six Kindle books on Meditation and Intuition, three Meditation CDs and a myriad of courses. As well, he has been doing “Soul Readings” for decades.

In addition, he is the Global Projects Director for UNITY EARTH and deeply involved in the U Day India 2019 Festival, the Road to 2020 Caravan across the USA and numerous other UNITY EARTH projects. He has been involved in global interfaith work since the late 1970’s. www.insideoutjourneys.com unity.earth

In February 2018 a group of 70 ambassadors for Peace, Compassion and Unity gathered in Ethiopia to celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week with the second ever U Day Festival. Please take a moment to witness and then share this video “Sparks of Hope” with others.

Find out more at: unity.earth/u-day-ethiopia Join UNITY EARTH on the Road to 2020: unity.earth/roadmap-to-2020 Join the UNITY COMMUNITY: unity.earth/unity-community 9

MUNGO MAN

When Mungo Man Came Home

by Jim Bowler

Introduction

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n November 2017 a cluster of diverse people assembled at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Visiting members of three tribal groups from Western New South Wales had travelled the 600 km for this special occasion. They were there to bring home the physical remains of an ancient ancestor, the 40,000-year-old remains of Mungo Man. Discovered and removed from his ancient lakeshore burial in 1974, his bones had spent 40 years in the Australian National University in the service of science, before short-term curatorial transfer to the National Museum in 2015. It was time now to come out of retirement and return home. Alongside representatives of the three tribal groups, the traditional owners, scientists, reporters and many cameras greeted the casket containing the remains emerging from the museum store. A group of young Aboriginal pallbearers carried it through swirling smoke, the traditional Aboriginal cleansing ceremony. This was a moment of great pride for people who had suffered so much destruction, abuse and massacres and the disposition of their lands and children at the hands of white western invaders. Under the gaze of television cameras the remains of Mungo Man were carried from their years of conventional cultural care at the National Museum.

A specially restored early 70’s Chrysler black hearse proudly received the casket for transfer west to a final resting place. It was both a mourning and, simultaneously, a welcoming ceremony. Mourning for this man’s death; celebrating his release from the museum storeroom. Never before had anything like it occurred within the 230 years of white occupation. The atmosphere was electric.

Satellite image of southeastern Australia showing location of Canberra to Lake Mungo, a distance of some 650 km. (Image from Google Earth)

Discovery Who was Mungo Man? In the 1970’s, in the course of my geological studies, I was examining the shores of ancient and dry basins in search of Ice Age evidence—when the climate was very different from today. On the shores of a dry lake basin, Lake Mungo, many items of archaeological interest were eroding. One of major importance involved my 1969 discovery of the first example of human cremation, remains now known as those of Mungo Lady.

Following that discovery, my focus in 1974 took me back to near that site.

Noting the tip of a cranium emerging from eroding sands, I notified my archaeological colleagues in Canberra.

Led by my colleague, the now deceased Dr. Alan Thorne, a team arrived two days later to undertake a salvage excavation.

The November return home was poised as the next chapter of that excavation.Careful sweeping away of the sand cover revealed the skeletal remains of a fully articulated man. Natural erosion had already removed the original cover of some 4 metres of multiple soils and dune sand. This grave was obviously one of great antiquity. An even greater surprise awaited us.

Our attention focused on the very slight differences in what was grave-fill compared to the sands into which the

body was inserted. On close examination, Alan recovered a small component of grave sands and, in his fingers, extracted several firm pelletal grains. Passing them to me for identification, I realised we were looking at ochre! The reddish stain could be traced in grave sands surrounded the bones from cranium to groin. With no natural occurrence of that mineral for more than 100 kilimeteres, this represented a highly complex burial.

Beside the grave, the dark charcoal remnants of a large fire provided yet another intriguing detail in the mortuary ritual. These remains was obviously those of a highly important man of his community.

Rigorous scientific dating technology securely dated the remains to between 40–42,000 years ago. Nothing comparable was known anywhere in Australia—few, if any, elsewhere in the world. A new page in Australian history was opened.

The ochre record with the presence of the fireplace defined a people with highly sophisticated conceptual skills. Anointed by the ochre in the context of ritual fire, adjacent to lakeshore waters, that ritual evoked something beyond death, a sense of something “other.” It evoked a powerful expression of human spirit expressed in meticulous planning bringing earth, ochre, and fire as sacramental expressions of inner spiritual embrace.

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to emulate. “Connection to country”—an identity with special significance, another case of cosmic awareness.

A new energy, in that spirit-based unity of people with the land, is deeply embedded in that notion of culture-nature connection.

It remains there to nourish us today.

Sadly, for those living in the shadow of the rational enlightenment that remains a difficult concept to embrace.

There is an important historic and inspirational element here, in this embrace of Mungo Man, not only for their ancient presence in the land, but even more importantly the obvious embrace of the ritual details of ancient burial. These elements of ochre, fire and ritual burial represent a living tradition, resonating directly with the Lake Mungo sands.

Of Lake Mungo’s various contributions, of ice age climates, of peoples’ legacies, be they of shellfish, fires, multiple stone tools or even human remains, that variety of culture is blended into and exposed here in its natural context. Such information emerges from the library of Nature, its origin and curatorial context. Of this Image of Lake Mungo, an ancient, now dry basin. The burial of Mungo Man was located on the southerly margin of the white crescentic eastern shoreline dune. (Image from Google Earth)

Those people, living in the majesty of sun, stars and lakeside water were people of not just earth connection. That symbolic identification with earth reflected something deeper, a connection with sensed cosmic origins.

On those lake shores, energies of a living culture found home with those of nature.

The burial ritual stood as legacy of a spirit bonded Culture-Nature union.

Cosmic Connection What we saw in the field was but the tip of deeper understanding of what was to come. As news of the discovery spread, tensions arose. From the otherwise silent quarters of the Australian psyche, voices emerged from the three traditional tribal groups, the Barkindji, Mutthi Murtthi and Ngiampa people, the traditional owners of that region. They came to confront the scientists, the face of “the enlightenment people.” Fresh in the memory of previous 11

grave robbing and the cause of science, the alarm bells rang. “Here they go again! Our Aboriginal remains once more treated with disrespect. This is our history not yours!”

What follows involved a conciliatory healing progress. Sitting down together on Lake Mungo Sands, the scientists and traditional owners agreed, each learnt to learn from the other. A genuine accord emerged. All future work would be on a collaborative basis, one defined by mutual agreement. That situation, the first of its kind between scientists and aboriginals, continues today. It sets an example of the wider social accord still awaited in Australia, respectful learning from each other.

Simultaneously, we learnt more of aboriginal connection to country.

Exemplified here in Mungo Man’s burial was a living example of the ancestral identification, a living expression of that Culture-Nature union as an example for us

Skeletal remains of Mungo Man revealed by shallow excavation on southern shores of Lake Mungo. This is the oldest known complete burial in Australia, and with ochre anointing, the oldest modern human in the world with that ritual burial.

greater variety, one item stands out—the ritual ceremony of death. At one time, it is the cremation of that young woman, Mungo Lady. At another it is the ritual burial of Mungo Man. In those events on the lake’s shores, where the living celebrated the dead, nature and culture come together. In that ritual anointing of Mungo Man, the clay of the earth (red ochre) became the link, not only in the passage of life to death, but equally as the link of people to the earth-receiving act, receiving Mungo Man’s body in its final return, in its “coming home.”

In those life-death ceremonies, people were expressing a vital link with their sustaining environment. This ritual act of conscious connecting, connecting to earth, equally involved connection to the totality of sustaining environments, to sun as energy source, to the day-night rhythms, and to the seasons. This was not a one-off singular event. It was part of continued connection of people in a life lived in conscious awareness of the grandeur of Earth, Sun and nighttime stars. It was an ordered expression of none other than the cosmic links of life in the wonders of a life-giving universe.

Conflict to Collaboration: Learning from the Other When a people of the European Enlightenment, empowered by reason, guns and commerce encountered the more spirit-centred pre-enlightenment occupants of this stange land, conflict was inevitable.

Although >60,000 years of human presence has not been without impacts on the land, indigenous connections with nature were in empathy: emotive connection, and identity with their living and sustaining environment.

Central is the Aboriginal connection to country. That connection lies in sharp contrast to the western market value of landscape and the resources in it. While our indigenous cousins can rightly boast of connections with country, we of western origins are as dramatically disconnected. We are a disconnected society, Euro-centric, products of the European Enlightenment. My white ancestors encountered a land and people of pre-enlightened times. And transferring our rational analytical connection with the world, it transformed into a marketplace

value of everything, our intuitive side of life was left only in dark corners of the mind. Beyond art, music and dance the emotive expressions of who we are, the persuasive magnetics of science and technology hold sway over that inner humanity that binds us all.

Battered by consuming forces of economics, the sheer price of living, the deadening effects of our unending television commercials, there is no contemplative time in the day. We remain most frequently isolated individuals, like a flotsam policy of irrelevance. Who cares for me? Who am I? Having lost connection with the land, the power of the supermarket holds sway over any direct link to the farmers and all workers who generate fruits of the land. For many the sheer pressure of life with no one with whom to connect is potentially devastating. Depression spreads like a virus. We are disconnected. Having lost our sense of empathy with the land, we sell it to the highest bidder. Lacking empathy with people, concern for refugees, for indigenous Australians, we are too frequently a disconnected people.

What Mungo Man has Brought We have in Mungo Man’s Culture-Nature connection, a dynamic example of spirit energy. It speaks of that cosmic reality of creation and the place of humans in it. Thirty-six thousand years before the

patriarch Abraham, Mungo Man stands in reminder of that biblical tradition, the foundation on which so much rests. The Genesis story of creation finds parallels in indigenous cultures, that pervasive sense of connection to country and origins within it. Simultaneously, we have our own scientific genesis revelations.

Founded on Darwinian evolution, confirmed today by DNA, the indigenous traditions challenge us to explore the full meaning of those connections. Mungo Man has opened new doors to that reality, new powers to see within.

Power to Imagine We have, in the search for history, wandered vainly through a record of European origins and early Australian encounters with this strange antipodean land, a strange land with strange dark primitive occupants. For more than a generation, schoolchildren had no inkling of any detailed records of those early peoples, and assumed no possibility of the early development of an ancient culture with even the slightest resemblance to our Euro-centric values. Beyond 1788, the arrival of the first European fleet, the past remained a darkened world into which only a few ventured.

Suddenly now, amazing community rituals of some 40,000 years ago raised issues almost beyond belief. A new world opened that was previously beyond imagination.

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The reality that people like us engaged in such complex burial rituals that long ago presented a new challenge. It invited us to engage with that past. The reality of Mungo Man opened new doors—the freedom to imagine.

Power to Believe Simultaneously, and perhaps more importantly, it provided also the power to believe. There was always the possibility of something before and beyond 1788. Archaeologists like John Mulvaney, and others, had begun to open those doors.

But so much archaeology builds on hypotheses the validity and strength of which are often inversely proportional to the evidence.

But here we had incontrovertible evidence secured by scientific data rather than archaeological inference. The reality of that burial, securely dated to 40,000 years, was already beyond doubt. We had an inspirational event in which to believe.

And in that process, not just belief in ancient rituals within the otherwise largely un-humanised land (at least in European imagination), we discovered belief in ourselves. Now able to penetrate that veil of the distant past, in doing so we confirm our own ability to come to terms with it—in other words, to gain new confidence in our engagement with that world of climatic change and to explore without

prejudice the historical record of people in it. Mungo Man has done just that, and more, for those who would listen.

Messages His voice will be heard, a voice crying from the past to inform the present.

What have you done to my land?

What have you done to my people?

the people who live by them. Instead of cultural acceptance, violent dispossesion has rendered these once proud occupants into marginal refugees in their own country.

Internationally, it is said today we are entering a new era in which understanding the wisdom and eco-spirituality of indigenous peoples is a part of a number of positive trends. The Canberra to Mungo journey in November 2017 provided a great occasion to acknowledge his coming home. It challenged us all and is perhaps a part of a global “waking up.” to address the obvious challenges of environmental crisis.

The next day the great occasion was celebrated.

More than 3,000 people asembled in company with Aboriginal singers and dancers from across the country to celebrate the moment.

The land is in pain: the ravages of a European culture imposed on a landscape they did not understand; devastation of indigenous plants and animals. This unique biota, conceived in Gondwanaland and matured in pristine nature, remains to both fascinate, and haunt, us Western invaders. Simultaneously, the Enlightenment tradition—with its rational analysis of everything and value of nothing—has cast into the wilderness the value of indigenous cultures and

In that celebration, Mungo Man’s messages resonated across national boundaries, a healing voice addressing wounds—wounds of land and wounds between people.

They speak of that sacred cosmic reality that binds us all, where Nature and Culture combine to generate that cosmic energy of Creation. As iconic symbol of Nature-Culture union, Mungo Man has the power to change the way we see ourselves in this land. Wider Australia awaits that change.

Prof. James Bowler is a geologist with a lifetime of studies on climatic change in the Australian landscape. On the shores of the ancient basin he named, Lake Mungo, his discovery of ancient human remains led to the establishment of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage area. Two early burial discoveries, Mungo Lady (1969), and Mungo Man (1974), remain today as foundational examples of Australia’s earliest occupants. Their extraordinary ritual burials, cremation on one hand, ritual ochre anointing on the other, testify to earliest cultural sophistication. Mungo Man’s ritual burial resonates today with Australia’s Aboriginal people and their spiritual Connection to Country. That connection stands in stark contrast to the western world’s market economy where rational values deride values of the Spirit. It is time now to return to Aboriginal people an acknowledgment of debt, a return of dignity so drastically deprived by our rational rejection of things spiritual. His son is UNITY EARTH Executive Director Ben Bowler.

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Indigeneity and Harmony

by Peter Blaze Corcoran and Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz

As invited international witnesses, we were deeply honored to participate in two recent historically significant events. We see these as responding to the current civilizational crisis and contributing to harmonization in the world. We feel a critical need to honor indigeneity and to restore harmony to bring peace and unity to Earth for the sake of human beings and all forms of life.

Return to Country of Mungo Man In 1974, the archaeologist Jim Bowler discovered Mungo Man. The remains indicated that he had been an important community leader because he had been buried with extraordinary ritual. The original ancient ceremony had been enacted on the cathedral shores of Lake Mungo in the Australian Outback at least 45,000 years ago.

In our view, the return to country of Mungo Man, after 43 years of separation from his land and resting place, marked a significant reconciliation event in Australian history—but also for humanity.

The discovery of modern human remains from tens of thousands of years ago is just as fascinating as the fact that cremation burials and rituals already existed in their culture. The return also represented the acknowledgment of Aboriginal Australians and their rich ancestral expressions of spiritual and material consciousness.

As members of Center for Earth Ethics and Forum 21 Institute, we traveled to Australia to deliver a message to Aboriginal and Australian peoples that we support the recovery of human dignity and the protection of sacred sites to honor and protect life. To witness the return of Mungo Man was to know what reconciliation is. Righting past wrongs is restorative and generative. It is a way of honoring ancient wisdom in the postmodern age. It dignifies indigenous peoples. Further, it acknowledges that ancestral wisdom in dialogue with modern societies is critical for reconciliation.

In spite of the devastating effects of global colonialism, many indigenous peoples have successfully kept their ancestral practices, cosmologies, and philosophies. These ancient bases of wisdom are known collectively as the life-originating principles.

Through them, we continue to interact with the sacred-spiritual, natural-material, and with other cultures. These life-originating principles have great value as we seek harmony with Creation.

Peace must be achieved not just among human beings but also with Nature and Mother Earth. It is urgent to restrict anthropocentric thought and return to the original principles.

These instruct us as to how to live at peace with Mother Earth and her sacred elements and with nature. Peace and dignity are intertwined principles; human beings can achieve peace and dignity if we go beyond the greed and commodification of “things” and respect life through reciprocal actions. We want to strengthen families, communities, biocultures, Mother Earth, and our relationship with all beings by working together. We need an integrated world based on dialogue, reciprocity, and complementarity that will carry through all future generations.

We must strengthen the work of those who, in continuity with their originating principles, sustain the ancient wisdom and spiritual traditional practices that preserve the sacred balance of Earth. The return to country of Mungo Man was a profound example of this—setting in motion these forces of dignity, harmony, peace, and unity.

The repatriation of Mungo Man and companion Aboriginal remains was momentous. It represented a powerful reconciliation

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seldom found between the dominant and Aboriginal cultures that had been asking for their ancestor’s bones for decades. It was a deeply emotional journey home for those peoples from whom the physical human remains of an important ancestor were taken away carelessly and unceremoniously. The ancestors were returned with the utmost care and high ceremony led by the spiritual elders of the Mutthi Mutthi, Paakantji, Ngyiampaa peoples—and by Mindahi Bastida.

The return of Mungo Man signified for us an ongoing unification process and recovery of dignity for indigenous peoples from Australia and around the world. The repatriation act was very significant for human spiritual and material dignity. This returning of Mungo Man represented an acknowledgment that ancestral wisdom is key for reconciliation with Mother Earth and among humans and other living beings and the sacred elements of life.

We felt that there was at work something much more important as well. There was, through Aboriginal awareness, a wider consciousness of all the elements—the rocks, the animals, and the plants were speaking witness to a unity of life. Participants felt that putting things right with the land and the people was healing and full of meaning and significance. We were moving in the realm of spirit with great force.

We believe in the great significance of safeguarding sacred sites around the world to protect the main sources of Mother Earth’s life. Protecting sacred sites also acknowledges Mother Earth as a major entity upon whom we human beings depend for our survival. This gives us a chance to strengthen our mission to balance human life with Mother Earth. The continuous reciprocity between humanity and Mother Earth dignifies our presence in this world.

Convergence of Fire in the Land of Origins A few weeks after Mungo Man was safely repatriated to his outback Australian country, we had the opportunity to travel to sacred sites in another ancient land, Ethiopia, for spiritual ceremonies and inspirational political and musical events. The “U Day Festival 2018: Convergence of Fire in the Land of Origins” was an initiative of the emerging global network UNITY EARTH. The week-long program included interfaith dialogue, shared spiritual rituals, and musical performance. According to UNITY EARTH, the U Day Festival, which began in 2012, “is an energetic global effort to promote the values of spiritual unity, ecological awareness, and interchurch harmony within a growing planetary consciousness.”

In Lalibela, a most sacred site for the Ethiopian Christian Orthodox faith and location of eleven twelfth-century churches

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Nobel Prize Laureate from neighboring Kenya, wrote, ‘Today we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking so that humanity stops threatening its life support system. We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process to heal our own—indeed to embrace the whole of creation.’ This compassionate embrace is an agency for harmony with all life.

Love, too, is an agency for this harmony. Saint Paul writes in the New Testament: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians, Chapter 3, Verse 14). We can find harmony among differences, because within all life there dwells a unity beyond difference. So this is our work—this week and beyond—to build harmony using all great religious, faith, and spiritual traditions. But we need to go even beyond harmony to search for the unity. The Earth unity, if I may call it that, is the “Divine Order.” hewn from solid stone, Mindahi Bastida conducted the Four Directions ceremony with sixty-four spiritual leaders from different religions and parts of the world. These included representatives of many religions, faiths, and spiritualities— Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Buddhists, Indigenous Peoples, Sufis, Sikhs, Roman Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Bahá’ís, Protestant Christians, and Hindus, among others. This ceremony in the holy place of Lalibela was one of the most remarkable interfaith and interspiritual ceremonies of recent times.

As we build harmony, we have much to learn from the foundational wisdom of indigenous ecological spiritualties. We know that indigenous traditions are the oldest human heritage of Earth spirituality. Events such as the Return to Country of Mungo Man and the Convergence of Fire point hopefully to a future of respecting indigeneity and of restoring harmony for the sake of Mother Earth and all beings.

From Lalibela, we returned to Addis Ababa for a celebration of United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week at the African Union Commission. The theme was “interfaith cooperation to promote a culture of peace, harmony, and human dignity.” Many spoke, including His Excellency, Dr. Mulatu Teshome, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.

We were privileged to express our views on indigeneity and harmony. Mindahi Bastida acknowledged the land of origins and the peoples of Ethiopia and Africa. He stated his belief that, “More and more, it becomes evident that the recovery of harmony, peace, unity, and dignity lies in our return to the sacred origins of the ancestral wisdom where human beings are an integral part of Creation and not the peak of Creation.”

Furthermore, he said, “We need to think and act at local and global levels and consider intergenerational equity.”

Peter Blaze Corcoran also spoke, quoting Wangari Maathai and Saint Paul, “I believe our spiritual work is to create harmony, starting with ecological harmony, which is, of necessity, a foundation for other harmonies. The late, great Wangari Maathai,

Peter Blaze Corcoran, Ed.D, is Senior Fellow at Forum 21 Institute in New York City. He also serves as Senior Advisor to UNITY EARTH in Melbourne, Australia.

In 2017, he retired from a long career as a Professor of Environmental Studies and Environmental Education. His recent scholarship is in Earth Charter ethics and sustainability in higher education.

Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz, Ph.D., is Director of the Original Caretakers Program at the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. He is a collaborator at the office of UNESCO in Quito, Ecuador for the initiative of Spiritual Reserves of Humanity as well as for the Water and Culture Program.

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The Return to Country of Mungo Man:

A Journey to the Country of the Heart

Jeff Vander Clute

There is a great deal of attention being placed nowadays on the theory and practice of awakening consciousness. The truly good news of these times is that spiritual practices are proliferating that can reliably guide the soul home to the knowing and experience of its true abode. One simple and ageless practice, which I discovered essentially through trial and error, is that of showing up consistently in service, saying YES when asked to fulfill a function, often as part of a team, and then surrendering to the Grace that flows when service deepens into selflessness. This practice permeates my inner and outer work, and it has been a radical accelerant on my journey home.

In June 2017, I had the great good fortune to meet Ben Bowler at a gathering of leaders working to bridge divides between science, spirituality, and activism in this time of deepening world crisis. As we sat outside in the early-morning summer sunshine, Ben shared a vision for UNITY EARTH—a living network of people, organizations, and events with a mission of healing humanity and Earth through experiences of actual Unity. One of the events coming up within a few short months was a concert to observe and celebrate a profound healing moment for the nation and peoples of Australia: the “return to country” of Mungo Man. Ben asked if I would be interested in coming to Australia to participate, and without a hesitation I said YES. “Mungo Man” refers to a fully modern human who lived approximately 42,000 years ago on the shores of Lake Mungo, an ancient lake in presentday New South Wales that dried up around 15,000 years ago. The remains of Mungo Man were discovered in 1974 by a young geologist named Dr. Jim Bowler. (Ben Bowler, Dr. Bowler’s son, was almost one year old at the time!) The age of the remains, as well as the ceremonial manner in which Mungo Man had been buried, revealed a much longer history of human habitation in Australia than had previously been recognized by science.

These insights helped to increase awareness of the immense depth of Aboriginal culture, rooted in place, and contributed to a greater respect for the connection between the Aborigines and their land, or country. However, the removal of the bones of Mungo Man, Mungo Lady, and scores of other ancestors for study at a national university also created a terrible wound, and sense of violation at the hands of nonindigenous Australians, for the native Barkindji,Mutthi Mutthi,and Ngiyampaa peoples of the region.

Eventually, healing and reconciliation are possible, even in the most difficult circumstances, and four decades later the remains of Mungo Man and 104 other Aboriginal ancestors were about to be returned to the land from which they had been taken. After years of challenging negotiations—championed by Dr. Bowler himself—amongst scientists, government and university officials, and elders from the affected indigenous communities, Mungo Man was finally on his way home. The “return to country” of Mungo Man was in the process of making both national and international headlines, and this looming moment of cross-cultural healing and unity was calling me to Australia to serve as a sacred witness.

So it was, toward the end of October 2017, that I boarded the long flight to Australia, not understanding the power and true meaning of the land that 17

I was about to set foot upon, and yet knowing somehow that it was very important, even essential, that I be there. After adjusting to the shift in time zones and hemispheres—skipping from autumn to springtime in a mere 14 hours!—I spent two weeks on the Sunshine Coast falling in love with Australia and savoring, with friends and colleagues, what seemed to me like an entirely new world.

Then, rested and refreshed, I was on my way to Mildura, in the state of Victoria, and Mungo National Park, to encounter an entirely ancient world. The experience would prove to be one of the most significant initiations of showing up in service, saying YES, and surrendering to Grace in my life.

Two days before the repatriation of Mungo Man, the UNITY EARTH mob—consisting of the Bowler family, several indigenous brothers and sisters, and guests from North America and around Australia— converged in Mildura, on the banks of the famous Murray River. The next day, the whole lot of us set off to Balranald Aboriginal Cemetery, near the entrance to Mungo National Park, to meet up with the convoy accompanying Mungo Man and the other ancestors on their journey home from Canberra, and to participate in a smoking ceremony commemorating their return to country. In a demonstration of global unity amongst indigenous peoples, Mindahi Bastida Muñoz, a renowned shaman from Mexico and a representative of the Center for Earth Ethics, was invited by the Aboriginal ceremonialists to co-lead the assembled elders, dignitaries, locals, and visitors in a Four Directions ceremony. Subsequently, many of “Mungo 1”, the hearse carrying the remains of Mungo Man at Balranald Aboriginal Cemetery us gathered around “Mungo 1”—a lovingly restored Aboriginal hearse from the 1970s—to pay our respects to Mungo Man and the other ancient ones. After the ceremony, our group departed to take in the magnificence of Mungo National Park, where the repatriation ceremony would occur the following day.

The morning of the repatriation, with a growing sense of being a global family, the UNITY EARTH entourage visited a site by the Mungo Visitor Centre and Meeting Place, where 20,000-year-old human footprints had been discovered and preserved. To walk, literally, in the footsteps of Aboriginal ancestors who lived 1,000 generations ago was truly a meeting of ancient and modern realities. In the process, I sensed the presence of a powerful energy system—a feature of the land itself—that was similar to what I had experienced at sacred sites in the United States.

Intuitively, I was inspired to offer prayers to connect the continents of Australia and North America, for reasons that only my heart understood at the time, but which I now relate to the prophecy of the Condor and the Eagle, according to which the wisdoms of the South and the North will converge in a mutual honoring, leading to the emergence of an enlightened humanity.

20,000-year-old Aboriginal footprints at Mungo National Park

Mindahi Bastida Muñoz takes a photograph of the stunning lake bed of ancient Lake Mungo while Ben Bowler points to where Mungo Man was discovered by his father, Dr. Jim Bowler, in 1974.

Thereafter our group proceeded to the ceremony grounds where we had the incredible privilege of witnessing, in great solemnity, the handover of the remains of Mungo Man and the 104 other ancestors to representatives of the native peoples of the area. The sacred ceremony incorporated speeches of reconciliation from both Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals, traditional dances, music featuring impassioned vocals and didgeridoo that had been composed for the occasion, a sweet song called “Mungo Man” which had come from the land itself, and various signs of auspiciousness from nature, including a lone eagle circling overhead.

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In retrospect, to say that the return to country of Mungo Man was deeply meaningful would be an understatement. It was a shamanic healing of the land and the peoples of the land, which at the same time illuminated now-realistic possibilities of a widespread reawakening to the spirit of place; of national and cross-cultural healing through persistence, collaboration, and love; of reconciliation between Aboriginals and those of European descent, and of indigenous and nonindigenous peoples around the world; and, ultimately, a uniting of the wisdoms of heart and mind, science and spirit, and intuition and reason for the whole human family. On a more personal and interpersonal level, the repatriation was also a tremendous marker and milestone on a long journey of healing for Dr. Bowler and his family, all of whom had experienced in microcosm the struggles and sorrows of the Mungo Man story in their own ways. Surely all of us can relate to the big story of separation and return.

The remains of Mungo Man and 104 other Aboriginal ancestors are carefully removed from “Mungo 1” and finally returned to country in Mungo National Park on November 17, 2017.

In my case, riding back to Mildura in the afterglow of the repatriation ceremony, no words felt adequate for conveying the raw power and meaning of that experience. I had just witnessed the culmination of a long process of healing and reconciliation that was so far beyond the scope of my own journey up to that point. I would need to be with it, to stay present with the memories and sensations, and to let the significance knead its way into my heart and soul over time. I see now that I had been humbled by the ancientness of Mungo Man and Aboriginal culture, and that I was uncomfortably face-to-face with how little I knew about the experiences of other peoples and their traditions. At the same time, I did feel much more connected to the land, and I paid extra attention to the flora and fauna, to the gum trees and scrubby bushes, to the kangaroos and emus, and to the rough road of reddish clay that could turn into impassable mud with a single rainstorm, if nature wished it. There was a deepening reverence for the Sacred.

My last full day in Mildura was focused on supporting preparations for the “Return to Country” concert and festival at Nowingi Place. The event was co-produced by UNITY EARTH, with stellar leadership from Sam Cook, Dwayne Mallard, and so many others.

The concert was to weave dozens of Aboriginal dancers, musicians, and visionaries from all over Australia—including Australia’s most recent representative in the Eurovision Song Contest—and it would all begin with a recognition and honouring of Aboriginal elders from the region. “Return to Country” was an awesomely complex event that I would have been happy to simply witness and appreciate, except that a few hours beforehand, Ben Bowler asked whether I would offer, as one of the international guests, a few words of greeting to the audience immediately following the elders. Still reeling energetically and integrating the impact of the previous day, I gulped and then stepped into the practice: “show up and be of service, say YES, and surrender to the Grace.”

When the time came for me to walk onto the stage with the other international and interstate guests, and then speak into the microphone, the following words emerged, slowly, from my heart:

My name is Jeff Vander Clute. I bring greetings of love and profound respect from America for the traditional owners of this land; for elders, past, present, and future; and for the great nation of Australia. Thank you for showing the way, for leading the way to healing and reconciliation. We, too, in America, celebrate the return of Mungo Man, and we will stand with you [signaling to the elders].

I pray that we all may awaken to our connection to land, to place, and to country. Thank you.

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It was my hope and sense that, with these words, a further connection had been made, bridging hemispheres, lands, and peoples. As if to confirm that intuition, after I had spoken and walked over to join with the group of elders, one of the women leaned over to whisper in my ear about a family member who had visited the United States. I smiled at the joys of human connection across continents, cultures, and, as Mungo Man had beautifully demonstrated, oceans of time.

I wept inwardly with love. And standing there on stage at “Return to Country,” alongside the elders and fellow guests, looking out over a field of healing and celebration filled with thousands of diverse faces… so many having walked paths of suffering and service, and saying YES, in their own lives… there was a moment in which Grace was offered, and finally received within my Heart.

Perhaps we will never understand the workings of Grace, but I can tell you that on November 18, 2017, at Nowingi Place in Mildura, Victoria, on the traditional lands of the Latji Latji and Barkindji peoples, something shifted in me, and for the first time I KNEW Unconditional Love, through and through, not just in my mind but in my whole being and consciousness. Maybe it was a gift of reciprocation and belonging from the land. Maybe it was the fruit of consciously bearing witness to a great suffering and an even greater healing, or a gift of wisdom from the Aboriginal peoples, or a gift directly from Creator. Maybe it was of all of these and more. Certainly, it was a return to country in the deeper territories of Holy Light for me.

At last, it has become abundantly clear that the gift of Unconditional Love must be given in each act and in each moment, in eternal gratitude for life. Since words cannot contain this Love, I share It with you now, in fullness, as a direct transmission from my Heart to yours. Furthermore, in eternal thanks I offer all of my gifts, known and as-yet unknown, in service to our collective return to country. Thank you, Mungo Man. Thank you, dear elders. Thank you, UNITY EARTH. Thanks to the entire Bowler family. Thank you all.

Jeff Vander Clute is a veteran entrepreneur, consciousness coach, and organizational consultant committed to co-creating a society filled with AWAKE people and organizations. Working in partnership with a variety of luminous ventures – and with Life itself – Jeff has developed unique wisdom systems and transformational methods that enable clients to operate with radical clarity, develop extraordinary abilities, and get results. One of his great joys is offering transformative retreats and experiences such as “The Consciousness of Money.” Jeff is an organizational architect for UNITY EARTH, a co-founder of Sourcing The Way, and a co-steward of the Center for Awakened Human Capacities.

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ETHIOPIA

Ambassador Mussie Hailu Receives First UNITY EARTH Champion Award At the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Deborah Moldow and Ben Bowler of UNITY EARTH honored Mussie as the first UNITY EARTH “Keeper of the Flame.”

Ambassador Mussie Hailu, UNITY EARTH Executive Director Ben Bowler, and UNITY EARTH’s Rev. Deborah Moldow share local press coverage about the U Day “Ethiopia: Land of Origins” events.

Presentation Message by Ben Bowler, Executive Director, UNITY EARTH I am delighted that the first-ever UNITY EARTH Champion Award goes to Ambassador Mussie Hailu of Ethiopia! I had heard about Ambassador Mussie by reputation before I met him, from mutual friends in the United Religions Initiative (URI) in Australia.

Ever since I first began to interact with him, I realised Ambassador Mussie is a very special human being. Then I had the great pleasure to work side by side with Ambassador Mussie on the creation of U Day Festival 2018, “Ethiopia: Land of Origins.” I have never met a more dedicated person, working for the upliftment of humanity in some of the most challenging contexts on the planet.

Announcement of the Award

by UNITY EARTH’s Rev. Deborah Moldow It is my joy to announce to all of you that our beloved Ambassador Mussie Hailu received the first-ever UNITY EARTH Champion Award, presented by Ben Bowler of UNITY EARTH at the African Union in Addis Ababa during the first World Interfaith Harmony Week observance there on February 2, 2018.

The President of Ethiopia, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the members of the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia were all present for this grand occasion. Also in attendance were 65 members of the UNITY EARTH delegation of diverse faiths and nationalities, indigenous representatives from Canada, Australia and Mexico, and many leaders in the URI global community. I was delighted to see my old friend and longtime esteemed URI member Mohinder Singh, to get to know Subhi Dhupar and A.K. Merchant, to do ceremony with Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr. and Jon Ramer of the Compassion Games, and, of course, to travel once again with my dear friend and our URI United Nations Representative, Monica Willard.

Ambassador Mussie orchestrated the magnificent event at the African Union with his superb diplomatic skills and his heart deep in the interfaith community. Only someone so respected and genuinely liked could walk between these worlds with grace and so much success. I cannot begin to express how richly dear Mussie deserved this award naming him a Keeper of the Flame, so we have shared with you, just above, the beautiful acknowledgment from Ben Bowler.

Rev. Deborah Moldow ~ Interfaith minister, founder of The Garden of Light, former World Peace Prayer Society Director, active member of “URI at the UN” and of the “Unity Made Visible” Cooperation Circles.

Announcement of the Award by the United Religions Initiative

Ambassador Mussie is a supremely gifted diplomat, a friend to all regardless of station, a skilled tactician, and most significantly in my opinion, a devoted and loving instrument of the Divine. It has been the honour of my career to work alongside Ambassador Mussie Hailu and he is a most worthy recipient of this award which honours him as Keeper of the Flame.

Mussie is indeed a most noble upholder of the fires of truth, of justice and of peace. He is a blessing to humanity and we are proud to honour both Mussie and his work, which is of vital importance to our world, with this inaugural UNITY EARTH Champion award.

Ben Bowler ~ Executive Director, UNITY EARTH; co-founder, 1god.com and co-host, The Convergence on VoiceAmerica

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Award ceremony for Ambassador Mussie Hailu at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The URI News Desk announced the award on-line; click here to view.

U Day ETHIOPIA 2018: A Convergence of Fire in the Land of Origins In Celebration of World Interfaith Harmony Week January 30 – February 7, 2018 Rev. Deborah Moldow

UNITY EARTH, in partnership with the United Religions Initiative, the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia and the World Peace Prayer Society, gathered more than 65 religious representatives of many faiths and musical artists from a wide range of nations to celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week in Lalibela, Addis Ababa and Shashamane, Ethiopia.

Natives of Aboriginal Australia, indigenous leaders from North and Central America, Buddhist monks from Thailand, Sikhs, Baha’is, Sufis and Hindus from India, Jews, Christians and Muslims comprised a colorful and diverse gathering of people standing for unity, peace and compassion.

Highlights of the 7-day U Day Festival included visiting sacred sites in Lalibela and Shashamane, joining in a Convergence of Fire torch-lighting ceremony, and taking part in a most impressive event at the African Union, featuring Dr. Mulatu Teshome, the President of Ethiopia; His Holiness Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; the leaders of the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia; and a World Peace Flag Ceremony with fifty Ethiopian children raising the flags of all the nations of the world with the prayer, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”

The mission of the U Day gatherings, which have been held previously in Thailand in 2012, at the Church Center for the United Nations in 2016, and in Crestone, Colorado in 2017, is to bring people into joyful harmony through interfaith understanding and the common language of music. UNITY EARTH (www.unity.earth), under the leadership of Ben Bowler and an international team from Australia, India and the United States, brought religious, spiritual and indigenous leaders, heads of international organizations and inspirational musicians together for a powerful experience of unity through diversity in the “Land of Origins.”

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Cultural Ambassadors H.E. Ambassador Mussie Hailu H.E. Ambassador Mussie Hailu is a peace activist who is working at national, regional and international levels in promoting peace, reconciliation, interfaith & inter-cultural harmony, disarmament, world citizenship, building right human relationships, constructive dialogue and building bridges for international cooperation and promoting the teaching of The Golden Rule which says “Treat others the way you want to be treated” as a guiding principle to enhance respect and human dignity. He also actively works against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Africa.

He served as Diplomat and Ambassador at large. He is a founding member of United Religions Initiative (URI) and currently serves as Global Envoy of URI, Representative of URI to the African Union and UN office in Africa, and Regional Director of URI for Africa.

He also serves as special advisor of the African Union–Economic, Social and Cultural Council (AU-ECOSOCC).

He participated for many years at: • UN General Assembly in New York • African Union Heads of States Summit • Peace, environmental protection, security and countering violent extremism conferences at national, regional and international levels.

Amb. Mussie Hailu travels the world extensively addressing the issue of culture of peace, reconciliation, environmental protection, right human relationships, interfaith & inter-religious harmony, dialogue among civilizations, eradication of poverty, the need to practice The Golden Rule and compassion.

Amb. Mussie Hailu pioneered an interfaith movement in his own country of Ethiopia and in many other African countries. He also took the initiative with the former President of Ethiopia to establish a Council of Former African Heads of States and Governments for Environmental Protection and Climate Change in Africa. His initiatives include a “Declaration for Peace” distributed worldwide during the 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995 to encourage people to make a personal commitment to stand for global peace, human rights, environmental & animal protection, cooperation and international unity.

After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, he worked with the National and Unity Commission of Rwanda on the issue of peace and reconciliation in Rwanda.

He introduced Golden Rule Day to the world to foster inter-religious, inter-cultural harmony and to build a culture of peace and constructive dialogue and respect in the world. The Golden Rule Day is now celebrated in many parts of the world and he also drafted The Golden Rule Proclamation which is endorsed by organizations in over 120 countries.

Dr. Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai Dr. Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai is a senior Buddhist Monk from Chiang Mai, Thailand where among his many roles he is a lecturer at Graduate School Center, Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU). He was also a Vice Rector of MCU, Chiang Mai Campus. For decades Phramaha Boonchuay has been a leading interfaith activist in Thailand and abroad and is the Chairperson, Asian Interfaith Network on HIV/AIDS. He is also involved in peace building in the troubled southern part of Thailand and other parts of the country. He is Vice Chair for the Niwano Peace Prize Committee in Japan and was the Convener and Host for the first U Day Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2012.

Ben Bowler Ben Bowler of Australia, Executive Director of UNITY EARTH, is a serial entrepreneur with a background in sales and marketing. In 2006 he and his wife Jildou moved to Thailand to volunteer along the Thai-Burma border. In 2008 they founded Blood Foundation together, a NGO focusing on education projects. In 2008 Ben founded Monk for a Month in Chiang Mai offering men and women the opportunity to experience Thai temple life and temporary ordination.

In 2010 Ben launched Muslim for a Month in Turkey offering guests a first-hand experience of Turkish Islam and Sufism, underneath the spiritually inclusive banner of Rumi. In 2011 Ben launched World Weavers, offering spiritual immersion programs in Tibetan India, Nepal, Cambodia and Ethiopia.

In October 2015 at the Parliament of World’s Religions Ben launched 1GOD.com, an online platform aimed at countering religious fundamentalism, relativism and western materialism. Ben is a Social-Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the prestigious INSEAD Business School and a blogger for the Huffington Post.

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Haji Syed Salman Chishty Haji Syed Salman Chishty is the 26th Generation Gaddi-Nashin (Hereditary Custodians/Key Holders) through his Chishty family which has been engaged in serving at the globally famed, acknowledged and renowned center of Peace and Unity for the whole of Humanity – THE BLESSED DARGAH AJMER SHARIF SUFI SHRINE of the 11th Century Sufi Grand Master Teacher Hz.KHAWAJA MOINUDEEN HASAN CHISHTY(R.A.), whose blessed Shrine’s keys have been passed on to the present family of Gaddi-Nashins through generation to generation over the last 800 years.

From an early age he has been passionate about the World Sufi Spiritual Traditions with a special focus on the Chishty Sufi Order.

After completing his basic education from Ajmer Sharif, he got a Bachelors Degree in Economic and Commerce from Wilson College, University of Mumbai. Subsequent years have been completely dedicated towards his practical Sufi spiritual research studies on World Sufi Traditions and their impact on the different cultures and traditions of the world and vice versa.

He has been regularly invited to speak and participate in International Sufi and Inter Social Conferences on Spirituality, Interfaith Dialogue, top Global University Conferences such as Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University’s annual Student Events, as well as interactive sessions on campus through conducting workshops on Chishty Spiritual Understandings with a special focus on Khidmat e Khalq (Service towards Humanity), Importance of Sufi Musical renderings in Chishty Sufi Order, Sufi Arts, Sufi Poetry, and Sufi Literature.

He has represented the Chishty Sufi Order in countries as diverse as Al Hijaz – Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Turkey, Morocco, Senegal, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, United States of America, United Kingdom, Greece, Bosnia Herzegovina, The Netherlands, Iran, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Hong Kong, Myanmar, and many more.

He has been constantly engaged in sharing the blessed Sufi teachings of great Sufi Grand Masters; teachers such as Hz.Khawaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty(ra) and Hz.Mevelana Rumi(ra), as well as other great Sufi Spiritual Masters–teachers from last 1400 years through The Islamic Art of Calligraphy, Islamic Architectural Sacred Designs patterns, Islamic Monuments Photography, Sufi Poetry Culture and Sufi musical renderings which unite all of Humanity in Oneness towards Truth and Divine Reality.

Monica Willard Monica Willard is the Main URI Representative to the United Nations and coordinates the team of URI Representatives to the United Nations. She has worked with the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) on the annual Student Observance for the International Day of Peace at UN Headquarters since 1997.

She served as a founding member of the International Day of Peace NGO Committee at the UN in 2002 and is currently serving as the Co-Chair. As President of the Committee of Religious NGOs at the UN (2010-2013), she organized programs for World Interfaith Harmony Week, including two held in the UN General Assembly.

She was a founding member of the Tripartite Forum, a group of UN Member States, UN Agencies and Religious NGOs who worked together from 2005-2010 to promote cooperation within the UN system on religion, peace and development. Monica was Chair of the 49th Annual DPI /NGO Conference at the United Nations. Her awards include the Spirit of the UN Award from CSVGC-NY and The Chapel of the Four Chaplains Award.

Dr. Mohinder Singh Dr. Mohinder Singh is presently Director, National Institute of Panjab Studies, Bhai Vir Singh Sahitya Sadan, New Delhi. He also served as Member, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, Government of India, (2010 – 2014) . He was Director, Guru Nanak Foundation, New Delhi (1982-1990).

Professor of Eminence, Punjabi University, Patiala (2012 – 2016). Visiting Professor of Sikhism, Centre for Global Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara (2016).

In 1974 Dr. Singh was awarded Fellowship by the Indian Council of Historical Research to carry on his research work on the Akali Movement in the United Kingdom, which later earned him his Doctorate. Author of several standard works on Sikh history and religion, Dr. Singh sits on the Advisory Boards of several national and international organizations.

He has lectured on Sikh studies at several Indian and foreign universities including the University of California, Berkeley and Santa Barbara, Dr. Singh had the rare privilege of representing Sikh religion in various international forums and had audience with Queen Elizabeth II during Commonwealth Observation Day at Westminster Abbey in June 1975, and with Pope Francis in November 2014 in Vatican and in September 2016 in Assisi.

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Ahmed Tijani Ben Omar Ahmed Tijani Ben Omar was born in Accra, Ghana. His hometown is Asamankese, West Akim Municipal District, Ghana. He specialized in Islamic Law and Jurisprudence, including comparative religion, astronomy, spiritual science and healing, divine poetry and chanting, fine arts and culture. Tijani is a leader of the Tijaniyyah, which came to the United States in the 1970s. He is also the National Advisor International Association of Sufism USA; Advisor Islamic Studies and Research Association ISSRA USA; President and Imam Universal Islamic Center USA; Member of the World Council of Religious Leaders under the auspices of The United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit.

He has traveled to over 115 countries worldwide giving numerous lectures and presentations at conferences, universities and public gatherings around the world, and hosted and directed several national and international Islamic conferences for peace. Tijani spends his time between the United States and Africa. He has been involved in peacemaking work in Chicago’s inner cities and inter-faith activity across the world. He is an ardent public opponent of literalism and extreme theology.

Rabbi Gabriel Hagai Gabriel Hagai is an Orthodox Rabbi, lecturer, linguist, philologist, paleographercodicologist, mediator, poet, calligrapher and singer. Educated in Jerusalem and Boston, he is a researcher and a guest lecturer at a number of Parisian universities and higher institutes.

Very invested in interreligious dialogue, he is an active member and a councillor of several interfaith organizations in Europe and worldwide. Father and grandfather, he is also a Master-Initiator in a non-dualist mystical tradition of Sephardic Judaism whose uninterrupted spiritual lineage goes back to Moses. Gabriel Hagaï is co-author of the books: “Rites – Fêtes et Célébrations de l’Humanité” (dir. Thierry-Marie Courau et Henri de La Hougue), Bayard, 2012; and “L’Aventure de la Calligraphie” (dir. Colette Poggi), Bayard, 2014.

Dr. A. K. Merchant Dr. A. K. Merchant is a Trustee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of India since 1989 & the Lotus Temple in New Delhi; Trustee & Executive Secretary, Temple of Understanding India Foundation; National Trustee, Sarvodaya International Trust; Member, Governing Board, Shanti Sahyog; Secretary, Parkash Foundation (Resource Centre for differently-abled children); Visiting Faculty, Centre for Cultural Resources & Training, Ministry of Culture, Government of India; Expert for research scholars enrolled for “interfaith education and Indian culture” of the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund; Honorary Director, Messrs.

MK Aromatics Limited, Chennai. Dr. Merchant is the author of three monographs: (i) Communal Harmony— India’s Greatest Challenge (1991), and (ii) Hindu Dharma evam Bahá’í Dharma (1999), (iii) Five Basic Human Values & the Bahá’í Faith (2009), and over two hundred articles and research papers published in national and international dailies, journals and books.

Dr. Merchant has addressed conferences, symposia and seminars in India and abroad since 1985. He represented the Indian Bahá’í Community at the 8th Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace, September 1990, held in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. He is an alumnus of the United States State Department International Exchange Program 2005 for the project on “religious diversity in America post 9/11”; he was invited by H.H. Pope Benedict XVI as National Trustee of the Bahá’í Community of India to the interfaith conference to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Assisi and the World Prayer Day for Justice and Peace held at the Vatican and Assisi in 2011. He has been participating in the deliberations of the Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Chicago (1993), Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004), Melbourne (2009), Salt Lake City (2015). He was invited by H.H. the Dalai Lama to address interfaith conferences and assist with organization of international conferences and seminars in India. He is an active promoter of the interfaith movement; gender justice, world peace, and Agenda 2030–Sustainable Development Goals of the U.N. Sam Cook Sam Cook has an extensive career in the arts and entertainment industry spanning close to thirty-years.

A retired musician, she was the Director of The Dreaming Festival and a programmer of the Woodford Folk Festival. Artistically, Sam is a playwright, writer, visual artist and graphic designer. Administratively, Sam started working in publishing ahead of becoming the CEO of a leading Australian Theatre Company before launching her company KISSmyBLAKarts which has tentacles into Artist Management and Apparel.

Recipient of the UK Arts Council Fellowship in 2007 and 2011, winner of National Aboriginal Youth of the Year in 1999 and Broome Aboriginal Artist of the Year in 1998, Sam’s the founding Aboriginal columnist for Artshub, Tracker and founder of Australia’s Black History Month. Most recently she led a 20million global movement through #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA and has recently founded Kaltja International an ethical economic disruption and cryptocurrency for Indigenous people worldwide.

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Chief Phil Lane Jr. Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. is an enrolled member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota and Chickasaw Nations and is an internationally recognized leader in human, community, and economic development.

During the past 50 years, Chief Lane has worked with Indigenous Peoples from the Americas, Micronesia, South East Asia, China, India, Bhutan, Hawaii, and Africa. He served 16 years as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (1980-1996).

On August 15, 1992 in recognition of his hereditary lineage of leadership and longtime service to Indigenous Peoples and the Human Family, Indigenous Elders from across North America recognized Phil as a Hereditary Chief of the Hinhan Wicasa and Deloria Tiospayes of the Ihanktonwan Dakota, through a Traditional Headdress Ceremony.

In 1982, Chief Lane founded the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII). As well, Chief Lane is Chairman of Four Directions International and Compassion Games International. Since 2008, Chief Lane has stepped into global leadership. He currently serves as a member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, (AISES), Council of Elders. He is host of the Shift Network’s Global Indigenous Wisdom Summits. Chief Lane is an Honorary International Advisor to the Help Foundation of the Beijing Women’s and Children’s Development Foundation and is a Global Trustee of the United Religions Initiative.

In 1982, with Indigenous elders and spiritual leaders from across North, America, Chief Lane founded the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII). FWII became an independent Institute in 1995. With Chief Lane’s guidance and applied experience, FWII has become an internationally recognized leader in human, community, and economic development because of the Institute’s unique focus on the importance of culture and spirituality in all elements of development.

Mindahi Bastida Muñoz Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz is the Director of the Original Caretakers Program, Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (2017- ), and General Coordinator of the OtomiToltec Regional Council in Mexico, a caretaker of the philosophy and traditions of the Otomi-Toltec peoples, and has been an Otomi- Toltec Ritual Ceremony Officer since 1988.

Bastida Muñoz is also the President of the Mexico Council of Sustainable Development, a member of the Steering Committee of the Indigenous Peoples’ Biocultural Climate Change Assessment Initiative (www.ipcca. info/), and has served as a delegate to several commissions and summits on indigenous rights and the environment including the 7th World Water Forum in Daegu and Gyeongju, Korea, April 12-17, 2015.

Born in Tultepec, Mexico, he holds a Doctorate of Rural Development from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana He has written extensively on the relationship between the State and Indigenous Peoples, intercultural education, collective intellectual property rights and associated traditional knowledge, among other topics.

Jon Ramer Jon Eliot Ramer is an American entrepreneur, civic leader, community organizer, inventor, and musician.

He was a co-founder of Unity Project Seattle with John Hale and the Interfaith Amigos, Imam Jamal Rahman, Pastor Don Mackenzie and Rabbi Ted Falcon who started working together after 9/11.

He is also the designer and co-founder of the International Campaign for Compassionate Cities, that led the effort to make the city of Seattle the first in the world to affirm Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion.

There are now over 400 cities around the world that have started similar campaigns.

Most recently, Ramer conceived of and produced the “Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest” in response to a challenge from the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky to other cities to outdo Louisville’s compassionate action as measured by hours of community services and numbers of people served. In five years the Compassion Games has served over fifteen million people in over 40 countries.

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Jason Kelly Jason currently works as a Koorie Engagement Support Officer with the Department of Education. Jason’s passion for the job is in supporting the development of Individual Education Plans that identify and meet individual students’ academic points of need in numeracy and literacy. Also developing strategies for social connections and setting short term GOALS that enable young people to experience measurable academic success that leads sequentially to long term success.

Jason is the Mutthi Mutthi Wuthunghi (man) responsible for ceremony and calling on the ancestors in ceremonies such as funerals or healing and cleansing ceremonies such as traditional smoking ceremonies. He led the smoking and welcoming ceremony in Balranald for the Return to County of Mungo Man, and his passion is healing through our connection to mother earth, our ancestors, and the universe.

Rev. Deborah Moldow Rev. Deborah Moldow is an ordained interfaith minister committed to assisting in the transformation of human consciousness to a culture of peace.

Deborah is the founder of the Garden of Light, an online platform for the emerging global spirituality. The purpose of the Garden of Light is to provide a virtual home for a new community rooted in shared spirituality that transcends differences of culture so that it can become visible as a powerful force in uplifting the human spirit.

She is Co-Director with Diane Williams of the Evolutionary Leaders circle, a project of the Source of Synergy Foundation that brings together visionaries committed to the acceleration of the conscious evolution of humanity in these critical times.

Deborah served for more than 20 years as the Representative to the United Nations of The World Peace Prayer Society, which promotes the universal prayer “May Peace Prevail on Earth.” At the United Nations, she co-chaired the International Day of Peace NGO Committee and the Values Caucus, and founded the United Religions Initiative multi-faith cooperation circle at the U.N. Rev. Deborah leads monthly Interfaith Sundays at the Chapel at Croton Falls and a local Spirit Salon.

Darcy Demas Warm greetings! My name is Darcy Demas. I’m a Dakota man from Pipestone, Manitoba, Canada. I was born and raised in Manitoba until 1996. I was raised in poverty, high rates of alcoholism and violence. I moved to British Columbia in November 1996 with my six-year-old daughter Desirae.

I have been involved with Dakota culture for more than thirty years. I have danced in the Sun Dance for twenty years. I have been singing and assisting the elders for eleven years now. My passion is teaching my Dakota culture. I specifically appreciate being able to sing and write songs in my Dakota language. I am, also, a Dakota cultural artisan. My understanding of my cultural values and beliefs are the spiritual foundation in my life and have given me sobriety and the ability to maintain sobriety.

I am a member of the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII) NGO.

Musicians Pato Banton and the Now Generation Born in Birmingham, England, Pato Banton is a Grammy-nominated Reggae legend that has recorded and toured the world with The English Beat, Steel Pulse, UB40 & Sting. During the year 2000, while in the midst of a global trek for Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD organization that combined huge festivals with outreach to poor and underprivileged communities, Pato learned that two of his sons had been shot in a drive-by shooting. He immediately put his career on hold and turned his sorrow into the impetus for community and educational initiatives that would consume the next six years of his life. Pato created an organization called “Musical Connections” and, in partnership the Community Safety Team, provided tuition and counseling for “at risk” young people in 16 different communities across his city of Birmingham, UK. This project was so successful that Pato was approached by the West Midlands Police Department to tackle the ongoing problem of gun crime in some of the poorest neighborhoods. Within a few years this partnership greatly reduced 27

gun crime across the entire city and Pato was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the BBC and entered into the British Music Hall of Fame during the same year.

Pato Banton’s four-decade public presence has increasingly transcended music to convey a positive and uplifting message of global peace and love for humanity. Now based in Southern California, he continues to tour the world extensively while simultaneously serving as a teacher, counselor and mentor to his fans worldwide. See www.patobanton.com.

Antoinette “Rootsdawtah” Hall Antoinette “Rootsdawtah” Hall is a world renowned keyboardist in the Reggae Industry. She became involved in the Spiritual Community after working with Pato Banton and joining on his Mission of spreading the Good News that “we’re all God’s Children, brothers & sisters.”

Since then she has become very proactive in Global Outreach Ministry, which includes The Urantia Movement, U Day Thailand, Parliament of the World’s Religions, 1GOD.com, Harvard Divinity School and most recently, a presentation for the Convergence Gathering at the United Nations Chapel in New York. Antoinette’s Facebook spiritual communities also include, MinisterPatoBanton, Urantia Aspirations, Ministers For Christ Michael, Urantia 101 for New Readers, and COEXIST! Her present musical works include the “Thoughts of Paradise” Meditation CD, “The Words of Christ” and the “Joyful and Happy” soundtrack which is featured in the spiritually motivated documentary called “Return to Happiness.”

Rocky Dawuni Grammy nominated musician and activist, Rocky Dawuni, straddles the boundaries between Africa, the Caribbean and the U.S. to create his appealing Afro Roots sound that unites generations and cultures. A galvanizing performer, Dawuni has shared the stage with Stevie Wonder, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Jason Mraz, Janelle Monae and John Legend. Named one of Africa’s Top 10 global stars by CNN, he has showcased his talent at prestigious venues such as The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and The Hollywood Bowl. He was recently appointed as the African Regional UN Goodwill Ambassador.

Kristin Hoffmann Kristin Hoffmann is a Julliard trained singer-songwriter-musician with extraordinary artistic range. Her music has been heard on major record labels, film and television, and she has performed throughout the world, collaborating with musical luminaries on projects ranging from individual albums to grand symphonic productions. Kristin’s songs reflect her personal luminosity, her warmth, and her talent for bringing out music’s healing power.

Premik Russell Tubbs Premik Russell Tubbs, a composer, arranger, producer and an accomplished multi- instrumentalist, performs on various flutes, soprano, alto and tenor saxophones, wind synthesizer and lap steel guitar. Since 2008, Premik has been part of the house band for Sting’s Rainforest Foundation Fund benefit concerts at Carnegie Hall, where he has backed up such diverse artists as Sting, Elton John, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, James Taylor, Vince Gil, Rosanne Cash and many others. He has been collaborating and performing with Kristin Hoffmann since 2003.

Sydney Salmon Sydney Salmon was born in Kingston, Jamaica and now lives in Shashamane, Ethiopia.

Sydney’s mission is to use music to promote and support the Jamaican Rastafarian Development Community (JRDC) Organization in Shashamane. His lyrics have weaved their way into the hearts of reggae loving Ethiopians with his unique brand that incorporates traditional Ethiopian styles and melodies with a pulsating Jamaican drum and bass. Tune in to Sydney Salmon music on iTunes.

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Lyla June Johnston Lyla June Johnston is of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages.

She is a musician, poet, anthropologist, community organizer and servant of humanity. She is currently working with an intergenerational cohort of Diné peoples to develop a community -based curriculum and summer school. Her poetry, her music and her message has been honored nationally and internationally for its allegiance to nonviolence, women’s health, faith and forgiveness. Her dream is to revitalize indigenous systems of sustainable living.

Kwadjo SPiRi Kwadjo SPiRi of Ghana socializes his universe experiences on the platform of music and the output is always a blend of philosophy, spirituality, and science.

Dane Kennedy From the remote community of Ivanhoe in Western NSW, Australia, proud Ngiyampaa man Dane Kennedy has performed alongside acts including Christine Anu, Coloured Stone, Bonja, Sarah Mcleod, Dean Lewis and Jeff Martin, and co-written with the likes of Kevin Bennet, Mike Carr and Fanny Lumsden.

Dane is based in Wagga Wagga NSW and has traveled to the USA to record his first original track titled In My Mind at House of Blues in Nashville, which was written after the loss of his brother. It expresses his struggle to come to terms with this tragic event.

“Chi” Suwichan Phatthanaphraiwan “Chi” Suwichan Phatthanaphraiwan is a prominent Karen artist, musician, composer, educator and community activist based in Thailand. Chi is no ordinary singer. There is passion in his words and a seraphic quality to his lofty pitch that gently drifts among the rolling mists and towering pines of his beloved homeland. Chi is a member of the Karen tribe of northern Thailand. His people have lived there for centuries, yet the current Thai government does not recognize them as citizens. Chi becomes a prominent voice of the Karen people, both for his music and also for his many years of being at the forefront of indigenous peoples’ activism—fighting for their rights.

Lalibela The group began its World Interfaith Harmony Week experience by journeying to the historic town and UNESCO World Heritage Site at Lalibela. The cultural ambassadors, musicians and delegates were warmly welcomed by the priests in a moving ceremony. They visited the extraordinary churches carved into the stone, offering prayers from many traditions, including Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, in this special atmosphere infused with deep faith.

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The Abbot of the priests, Aba Yared Miseganawe Kosmos, visited the group. He received thanks and gifts from Jewish, Islamic, Baha’i, Buddhist and Sikh faith leaders, and was serenaded by one of the singers.

The love and light from this multi-faith group was contagious. Mr. Qumelachew Muluneh Taye of the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia, who coordinated the group’s visit with the blessing of the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, summed it up beautifully: “You have done here a very historical work. It was the first time in the history of our country here that many faith-based organizations speak together in one language according to their Religion.”

Convergence of Fire During the visit to Lalibela, the Convergence of Fire ceremony was held at a multilevel restaurant situated on a hilltop over 2,500 meters high. The date of January 31 was extremely auspicious, being both a full moon and a lunar eclipse.

The event began with indigenous leaders Mindahi Bastida of Mexico, representing Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary; Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr. and Darcy Demas of Canada; and Jason Kelly and Dane Kennedy of Australia building a sacred fire and leading a Four Directions ceremony. This was followed by the Convergence of Fire, led by Rev. Deborah Moldow of the United States.

The three torches were lit: The Torch of Compassion, the Torch of Peace and the Lamp of Unity: • Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr. brought the Torch of Compassion, used worldwide in the Compassion Games–Survival of the Kindest. This torch has been passed to many leaders and celebrities around the world including at the Parliament of The World’s Religions. Jon Ramer and Sommer Joy of the Compassion Games, were in Ethiopia for these ceremonies as part of U Day Festival. This torch was also passed symbolically around the world as the Compassion Games activity honoring World Interfaith Harmony Week.

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• Internationally acclaimed spiritual musician Kristin Hoffman brought the Torch of Peace, which has a rich global history. In 1986, at the height of the cold war, this torch of peace was passed around the world in the First Earth Run, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund, directly engaging 25 million people and 45 heads-of-state in 62 countries including Ethiopia. Over a billion people watched the torch via the media circumnavigate the globe. For 86 days, wherever the torch of peace went all wars stopped and the world was united as one.

• Ten Buddhist monks, led by Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai from Chiang Mai, Thailand, where U Day first took place in 2012, carried their own beautiful Lamp of Unity.

Kristin Hoffmann, accompanied by Premik Russell Tubbs, offered her magnificent song, “Re-Entry,” as a closing to the ceremony, while the Torches of Compassion and Peace were passed around the group to receive everyone’s prayers and blessings.

The African Union On February 2, all participants took part in an historic event in a gracious hall at the African Union, observing World Interfaith Harmony Week there for the very first time. This event, organized by UNITY EARTH in partnership with the United Religions Initiative, the InterReligious Council of Ethiopia and the World Peace Prayer Society, included President Dr. Mulatu Teshome of Ethiopia, the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the leaders of the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia, and other local dignitaries.

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Programs were distributed along with copies of the U.N. General Assembly Resolution 65/5 establishing World Interfaith Harmony Week on 23 October 2010 and a poster of The Golden Rule as expressed in twelve religions.

Greetings and prayers were offered by His Holiness Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and Shieikh Muhammed-Amin Jamal Omar, President of Ethiopia Islamic Affairs Supreme Council. Welcoming remarks were offered by: • Pastor Zerihun Degu, General Secretary, Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia • H.E. Amb. Mussie Hailu, Regional Director of United Religions Initiative-Africa and Representative of URI to the AUC and the UN Office in Nairobi and Geneva • H.E. Mrs. Fozia Amin, President of Africa Ombudsman and Mediators Association • Mr. Ben Bowler, Director of U Day Festival • H.E. Mrs. Amira ElFadil, African Union Commissioner for Social Affairs All stressed the value of harmony among people of diverse religions and the significance of The Golden Rule in demonstrating the common values across religious divides. Members of the UNITY EARTH delegation read the way The Golden Rule is expressed in each of twelve different faith traditions.

President Teshome mentioned that the General Assembly Resolution establishing World Interfaith Harmony Week is based on the shared principles of love of God and love of neighbor, noting that “Ethiopia is a diverse nation well known for long as a land of peace and religious tolerance with a longstanding heritage of peaceful co-existence.”

A message from Mr. Hiroo Saionji, President of the World Peace Prayer Society and the Goi Peace Foundation in Japan was read by Mr. Patrick Petit; Ms. Subji Dhupar read a message from Rev. Victor Kazanjian, Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative; and a message from Dr. Ahmed Reja, President of the Ethiopian Red Cross Society was also delivered.

Amb. Mussie Hailu spoke compellingly about the significance of The Golden Rule in uniting people of different faiths, and he presented the African Interfaith Harmony Award of the United Religions Initiative to the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia.

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Then it was time for the UNITY EARTH guests to showcase their great diversity. Speakers were: • • • • • • • • • •

Ven. Phramaha Boonchuay Doojai, Thai Buddhist monk Mrs. Monica Willard, Representative to the United Nations, United Religions Initiative Rabbi Gabriel Hagai, Orthodox Jewish leader Dr. A.K. Merchant, representative of the Baha’i faith from India Dr. Mohinder Singh, representative of the Sikh faith from India Syed Salmon Chishty, head of the Chishti Sufi Order Dr. Mindahi Bastida, Center for Earth Ethics, Union Theological Seminary Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr., Indigenous Ihanktonwan Dakota and Chickasaw Nations of North America Ms. Sam Cook, Mr. Jason Kelly, Mr. Dane Kennedy, Australian indigenous representatives Prof. Peter Blaze Corcoran, Christian educator and sustainability expert

Rev. Deborah Moldow, founder of the Garden of Light, closed this portion of the program by inviting all the UNITY EARTH participants in the hall to come forward as “a living demonstration of World Interfaith Harmony Week,” including the three “Convergence of Fire” torches of compassion, peace and unity.

Ben Bowler presented the UNITY EARTH CHAMPION “Keeper of the Flame” Award to Ambassador Mussie Hailu for his outstanding contribution in the fields of Interfaith Dialogue, Peace Building and Social Inclusion.

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Ms. Fumi Johns Stewart, Executive Director of The World Peace Prayer Society, then presented the World Peace Flag Ceremony with fifty Ethiopian children raising the flags of all the nations of the world with the prayer, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.” This beautiful and moving ceremony concluded with children – along with the UNITY EARTH delegates who hailed from Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa – holding the flags of the continent of Africa, followed by the UNITY EARTH indigenous representatives bearing a special flag of the indigenous nations. Two Peace Poles were also offered to the African Union.

The program ended with a vote of thanks sung out by Ahmed Tijani Ben Omar, an African Sufi leader.

This day brought representatives of many religions and many nations to share their light at the African Union in a very special remembrance of World Interfaith Harmony Week, offering great hope for a future of compassion, peace and unity.

The event received widespread television and press coverage, including in the English language Ethiopian Herald and The African Dream.

Words from the message read from Rev. Victor Kazanjian, Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative, summed up the experience beautifully. He wrote: Dear friends, the world is blessed by all of your work and by this convergence of peacemakers from different religions, cultures and nations. At a time of deepening divisions and escalating violence between people throughout the world, Interfaith Harmony Week reminds us of the vision of a world in which our differences are seen not as barriers to peace but as essential resources for weaving together the fabric of our common humanity.

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U-Nite! Concert It was time to celebrate! The U-Nite! concert on 3 February continued to honor World Interfaith Harmony Week by bringing together musicians of many different national cultures and faith traditions at the Villa Verde in Addis Ababa. Music reflecting the painful history and wisdom for the future of indigenous people from Australia (Dane Kennedy and Jason Kelly), North America (Lyla June Johnston) and Thailand (“Chi” Suwichan Phatthanaphraiwan) met the strains of the spirit-inspired melodies of Pato Banton and Antoinette Hall with the Now Generation, Rocky Dawuni, the Sydney Salmon Band, the King Shiloh Sound System, and Kristin Hoffmann with Premik Russell Tubbs.

The UNITY EARTH group celebrated its diversity in musical praise with a dancing rabbi, a drumming Sufi and everyone united through the joy of music.

The performers had also taken part in a one-hour radio interview on the EBC (Ethiopia Broadcast Corporation) to promote the U Day Festival. This show is the largest English-speaking language radio show in Ethiopia, hosted by DJ Ez. Erik Rabasca of Light Warriors shared the UNITY EARTH vision, talking about the importance of beginning the Road To 2020 in the Land of Origins. The other artists who attended were Kwadjo Spiri, Rocky Duwani, Kristin Hoffmann, Premik Russell Tubbs and Sydney Salman.

Global Online Meditation Simultaneously with the concert, an online global meditation led by Dr. David Nicol of the Gaiafield Network attracted hundreds of participants live across the globe – see udayfestival.org/convergenceof-fire. People of good will around the planet were invited to help “light” the Global Torch of One Love with their collective presence and prayers for planetary healing. This torch is intended to carry the spiritual energy of multiple streams of global healing initiatives, representing millions of people, and will be lit at the subsequent U Day Festivals planned between now and 2022.

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The free virtual meditation event was offered by UNITY EARTH in collaboration with the Gaiafield Project, was co-sponsored by a broad international coalition of visionary organizations, including: The United Nations NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values and Global Concerns, U Day Festival, The United Religions Initiative, The Interspiritual Network, Empowerment Institute, The Compassion Games, World Weavers, 1GOD.com, The Convergence at VoiceAmerica, The Convergence Magazine, We.net, We The World, Source of Synergy Foundation, Forum 21 Institute, World Peace Prayer Society, Pathways to Peace, Humanity’s Team, Heart of the Healer, Garden of Light, Children of the Earth, Osage Forest of Peace, FIONS, Academy for Future Science, The Interspiritual Multiplex, Light on Kundalini, One Spirit Learning Alliance, One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, The Coming Interspiritual Age, Films for the Planet, Inside Out Journeys, Self Care to Earth Care, The Community of The Mystic Heart, VISTAR Foundation, Leadership Training Institute, Edentia, Pato Banton’s Now Generation, Until That Day, Sourcing The Way, Omnipresent Entertainment, One Love Rising, Global Center for Human Evolutary Change, Contemplative Life, Kosmos Journal, The Peace Pledge Project, Greenworld Campaign, A Better World Radio, WholeWorld-View Community, Lama Surya Das, Dzogchen Center, Davi Nikent Center for Human Flourishing, The SHIFT Network Catalyst, The Oneness Center NYC, The National Ethical Service, Ubuntu League Foundation.

SHASAMANE The culmination of the U Day Festival celebrating World Interfaith Harmony Week was a voyage south to Shashamane, the territory originally set aside by Emperor Haile Selassie for the practitioners of the Rastafari religious community that gifted the world with Reggae music from Jamaica. Shashamane leaders warmly welcomed the U Day delegates and brought them to see community improvement projects, including a school under construction. Everyone gathered at the Temple of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, where a ceremony of “uniting the tribes” was led by members of diverse faith traditions in demonstration of a world of interfaith harmony to come, where every religion is respected and all peoples honor the gifts in one another.

On the night of February 6, an outdoor “Earthstrong” concert was held as a fundraising event for the Jamaican Rastafarian Development Community School (JRDC) towards their 2018 initiatives and also to commemorate musical legend Bob Marley’s 73rd birthday.

Once again, the uplifting, positive lyrics of Reggae with its joyful beat were heard along with the music of other cultures from around the world in deep unity of spirit.

The U Day delegates returned to Addis Ababa as a community bonded in a love of sisters and brothers that transcended their deep commitment to their own religions, traditions and spiritual paths. The music that arose from the bus that rolled along the beautiful countryside of the “Land of Origins” had a Sufi drumbeat and refrain accompanied by an American guitar. Verses alternated from the Australian outback, in Hebrew, from Christian inspirational sources, of hip-hop from Ghana, Beatles songs, and that contagious Reggae beat.

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Conclusion Ben Bowler of UNITY EARTH had these words for all who experienced World Interfaith Harmony Week through U Day Ethiopia 2018: As I see it, we have experienced together a week of profound manifestation of the possibilities of life on this world. Many revealed religious traditions talk about a future era of Light & Life on our planet, comparable to the Christian Kingdom of Heaven on Earth or the Mahayana Buddhist ideal of The Pure Land. For me, our time together in Ethiopia was a foretaste of that Reality, the love and beauty, the mystical spirituality, the grace, the divine synchronicity, the fellowship, the joy, the music, the laughter – it was nothing less than a very real experience of Light & Life. SO whatever else happens in this world, to have experienced that all together in such a profound way is a spectacular gift.... for which I am forever grateful, to each of you, to our unseen friends and the Divine.

All in all, from Lalibela and the interaction with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, to the events in Addis Ababa and down to Shashamane, it was a constant flow of powerful spiritual energies converging in Love of God and Love of Neighbor. This format of working towards a highly-visible new iteration of what interfaith can be, involving spiritual ceremonies, the diplomatic arena and public musical performances, worked exceptionally well, through the wonderful collaboration between so many of us and the organizations: UNITY EARTH, the United Religions Initiative, and many others.

This journey of the heart demonstrated beyond any doubt that when people of good will gather together with the joy and conviction of their individual religious and spiritual traditions, they will produce a “Convergence of Fire,” igniting a Global Fire of One Love.

This is the gift of World Interfaith Harmony Week, a time to reflect on the power of faith to unite all peoples for a new culture of peace across our beautiful planet Earth.

UNITY EARTH will continue its efforts to bring people together in glorious diversity through faith and music with upcoming U Day Festivals in India and Jerusalem, plus a Road to 2020 caravan across the United States to culminate in a major concert in New York City on the International Day of Peace, 21 September 2020.

Visual representation of individuals and organizations that were part of 2018 World Interfaith Harmony Week Ethiopia: Land of Origins and the U Day Festival. See full “Kumu” diagram here.

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Jon Ramer of the Compassion Games also published this interactive “Prezi” on the 2018 World Interfaith Harmony Week with a special focus on U Day Ethiopia: Please click to view on line.

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Contemplative Life For Information or Registration CLICK HERE 38

Remembering U Day Festival, Ethiopia 2018—“Spreading The Golden Rule”

understanding and the common language of music. UNITY EARTH and an international team from Australia, India and the United States, brought religious, spiritual and indigenous leaders, heads of international organizations and inspirational musicians together for a powerful experience of unity through diversity in the “Land of Origins.” To me these activities are exemplary of the meaning of “The Golden Rule” common to all the great Wisdom Traditions and a major point of emphasis our work through the United Religions Initiative.

by Mussie Hailu

URI-Africa in 2007 joined hands with the Interfaith Peacebuilding Initiative (IPI; URI member organization based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) and declared April 5 as a “Golden Rule Day” and called upon all citizens of the world, religious leaders of the world, mayors of the world, heads of state of the world, the United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, the League of Arab States, interfaith organizations, schools, higher learning institutions, the business community and civil society to join URI-Africa & IPI in proclaiming this day as Golden Rule Day and to live accordingly to make this world a better and peaceful place for all to live in harmony. In response to this call we have now over 285 organizations in 128 countries proclaiming April 5 as Golden Rule Day. We are currently working for the United Nations to proclaim The Golden Rule Day and a request for a declaration is pending before the General Assembly of UN. In addition to this URI-Africa also started in 2007 a Golden Rule Goodwill Ambassador program to highlight the need for The Golden Rule in the world to promote a culture of peace, interfaith harmony and a Global Ethic. Since 2007 every year URI-Africa honor an individual or organization with Golden Rule Medal and appoint Goodwill Ambassador.

I want to thank Mr. Ben Bowler and his team at UNITY EARTH for the excellent work they have done to promote unity in diversity and peaceful cohabitation among all nations through U Day Festival.

Among the many reasons why URI is promoting the teaching of The Golden Rule in the world, some include:

The Golden Rule and Africa

In the first week of February 2018, UNITY EARTH, in partnership with the United Religions Initiative (URI), the InterReligious Council of Ethiopia and the World Peace Prayer Society, we invited more than 65 religious representatives of many faiths and musical artists from a wide range of nations to celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week 2018 in Lalibela, Addis Ababa and Shashamane, Ethiopia. Natives of Aboriginal Australia, indigenous leaders from North and Central America, Buddhist monks from Thailand, Sikhs, Baha’is, Sufis and Hindus from India, Jews, Christians and Muslims comprised a colorful and diverse gathering of people standing for unity, peace and compassion.

Highlights of the 7-day U Day Festival included visiting sacred sites in Lalibela and Shashamane, joining in a Convergence of Fire torch-lighting ceremony, and taking part in a most impressive event at the African Union, featuring Dr. Mulatu Teshome, the President of Ethiopia; His Holiness Abune Mathias, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church; the leaders of the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia; and a World Peace Flag Ceremony with fifty Ethiopian children raising the flags of all the nations of the world with the prayer, “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”

The mission of the U Day gatherings, which have been held previously in Thailand in 2012, at the Church Center for the United Nations in 2016, and in Crestone, Colorado in 2017, is to bring people into joyful harmony through interfaith

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1) It calls us to extend our concern beyond ourselves and to embrace a greater understanding and respect for others 2) It is affirmed in many religions, traditions, indigenous cultures and secular philosophies as a fundamental principle of life and the foundation on which a global ethic is founded 3) It is a universal message which is accepted and embraced throughout the world by different religions, cultures and secular philosophy 4) Its message is simple, universal and powerful 5) It is the most prevalent and universal moral principle in human history

6) It summarize the basic teaching of compassion, nonviolence, respect, honoring the dignity of all living beings, social justice, equal right, and peaceful coexistence 7) It is the best guide we have to help peoples of the world to live together in mutual respect and harmony 8) It is a preventive mechanism to discrimination, violence, crime, war and the violation of human right and greedy 9) It is the pathway for inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony in the world 10) It is universal wisdom of the world 11) It can help to reverse the insane trends prevailing today in our world 12) It is the best way to prevent violent extremism and hate speech 13) It is a fundamental principle that addresses critical issues such as democracy, human rights, mutual respect for each other, gender equality, and constructive dialogue among nations 14) It transcends our differences and encourages us to consider the well-being of all humanity 15) It helps to recognize pluralism and respect diversity

Ambassador Mussie Hailu is a peace activist who is working at national, regional and international level in promoting a culture of peace, reconciliation, interfaith & inter-cultural harmony, human dignity, compassion for animals, disarmament, world citizenship, building right human relationship, constructive dialogue, environmental protection and building bridges for international cooperation for common good of all nations.

He is working tirelessly in promoting around the world the teaching of The Golden Rule which says “Treat others the way you want to be treated” as a guiding principle and universal ethics to enhance mutual respect, prevent violent extremism and promote peaceful co-existences and to avoid hate speech and uphold the universal human right declaration and to commit to be non-violent and peaceful person. He also actively works in addressing the negative impact of the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons on peace and security.

He has also traveled extensively to most part of the world promoting the universal peace prayer “May Peace Prevail on Earth” and addressing the issues of culture of peace, reconciliation, right human relationship, interfaith harmony, the eradication of poverty, environmental protection and reverence for life.

He strongly emphasis on the need of being the “change we want to see in the world” and to follow the pathway to peace which leads us from darkness to light, from despair to hope, from killing each other to co-existence, from war to peace, from hate to love, from holding grudges to forgive and from competition to cooperation and to practice on a daily base The Golden Rule in our life.

He pioneered many positive initiatives in Africa including an interfaith movement in his own country in Ethiopia and in many other African Countries and also the Council of Former African Heads of States and Governments for Environmental Protection and Climate Change in Africa. His initiative includes a “Declaration for Peace” which is distributed worldwide during the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. This declaration was intended to encourage people to make a personal commitment to stand for global peace, human dignity, environmental & animal protection and International cooperation for the good of all nations.

He is the founding member of United Religions Initiative (URI) and serves as Global Envoy of URI and Regional Director of URI for Africa, Representative of URI at the African Union, United Nations office in Africa. He served many organizations at national, regional and international level. He also served as Diplomat and Ambassador-atLarge.

As Albert Schweitzer once said, “It is Man’s temperament that decides his fate. There is no other kind of fate. I do not believe therefore that he must necessarily continue to follow the path which leads only downwards; he may yet turnabout before he arrives at the very end.” To me this turnabout is the teaching of The Golden Rule. It is so fitting to mention it here in the context of this magazine celebrating the 2018 activities of U Day Festival, Ethiopia “Convergence of Fires in the Land of Origins.”

Amb. Mussie Hailu received numerous awards, medals and certificates of merit from many national, regional and international organizations, including from United Nations.

He is recognized among 73 people around the world who are selected for their outstanding contribution to humanity. He is the recipient of the Prestigious Silver Star Award of The International Strategic Studies Association. He received Humanitarian Award of the year from His Royal Highness Prince Ermais SahleSelassie Haileselassie, The Grandson of the late Emperor of Ethiopia. He received the first-ever UNITY EARTH Champion Award. He is the first international The Golden Rule Honoree of Arizona Interfaith Movement, chosen because of his living example and outstanding work in promoting The Golden Rule in all parts of the world. He was also given the twenty-first century achievement award for his career achievements and social contribution, which was selected for permanent documentation in 500 world leaders of influence. He was the engine for the peace monument, which is erected at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) now known as the African Union.

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The Advent of a New➤ Global Civilization

➤

by Chief Phil Lane

ince I was a young boy, my father infused into me the Sacred Prophecies of Hehaka Sapa, Black Elk. In his prophecies Hehaka Sapa, and other Indigenous Prophecies across the Americas and beyond, clearly reveal that the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas, after 500 years of seeming injustice and suffering, would become so illumined that we will play a primary role in the enlightenment of all members of our Human Family. We would all awaken to the spiritual reality of the prior unity and oneness of our Human Family and realize that “Hurt of One is the Hurt of All” and “Honor of One is the Honor of All”!

“Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I saw in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being.

These predictions are firmly and unshakably rooted in the spiritual understanding and consciousness of the Prior Unity and Oneness of our Human Family. From this spiritual understanding and consciousness naturally unfold these important attributes: the realization of the Equality of Men and Women! the Balancing of the Extremes of Wealth and Poverty! the Elimination of All Prejudices! the Unity of Science and Spirituality! Universal Education! the Independent Investigation of Truth and Unity in Diversity! This is a New Global Civilization where the voices, the wisdom and vision, of Indigenous Peoples are justly and respectfully represented and their ancient wisdom listened to and heeded.

In fact, the full consciousness and acceptance of the Oneness of Human Family is the fundamental prerequisite for the reorganization and administration of our world as one, the home of humankind. Universal acceptance of this spiritual principle is essential to any successful attempt to establish world peace.

And I saw that the sacred hoop of my people was one of many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.

Then as I stood there, two men were coming from the east, head first like arrows flying, and between them rose the daybreak star. They came and gave an herb to me and said: “With this on earth you shall undertake anything and do it.”

It was the Daybreak-Star Herb, the herb of understanding, and they told me to drop it on the earth. I saw it falling far, and when it struck Mother Earth, it rooted and grew and flowered, four blossoms on one stem, a black, a white, a scarlet, and a yellow. The rays from these streamed upward to the heavens so that all creatures saw it and in no place was there darkness.” ~ Hehaka Sapa, Black Elk, Oglala Lakota, Oceti Sakowin The advent of a New Global Civilization was spiritually foretold by our Indigenous Peoples across the Americas. These prophecies include the 2012 Mayan prophecies, the Reunion of the Condor and the Eagle, the Eighth Council Fire, the Return of the White Buffalo, the Prophecies of Black Elk, Deganawidah, Quetzalcoatl, Sweet Medicine, Handsome Lake, the Hopi`s, and many others.

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During the past 50 years I have tried my best to follow the guidance of these Sacred Prophecies, especially the guidance of Hehaka Sapa regarding the Daybreak-Star Herb, with four blossoms—Red, Yellow, Black and White—that symbolically represents all Members of our Human Family.

“Then as I stood there, two men were coming from the east, head first like arrows flying, and between them rose the daybreak star. They came and gave an herb to me and said: “With this on earth you shall undertake anything and do it.”

It was the Daybreak-Star Herb, the herb of understanding, and they told me to drop it on the earth. I saw it falling far, and when it struck Mother Earth, it rooted and grew and flowered, four blossoms on one stem, a black, a white, a scarlet, and a yellow. The rays from these streamed upward to the heavens so that all creatures saw it and in no place was there darkness.”

My journey to fulfill these Prophecies began when, at 18, in 1962–1963, I hitchhiked across Turtle Island and most countries of Western Europe. This was followed by extensive journeys across the Americas, the Pacific, Asia, the Middle East and many returns to visit the Great Tribes of Europe. At 73, the only place, symbolically described by Hehaka Sapa, that I had never physically visited, was the land of our origin as a Human Family— Africa!

This final part of my journey to learn about the “Daybreak Star Herb” was the U Day Festival in Ethiopia. It was here that I met other beloved members of our beautiful Human Family who also were fulfilling this Sacred Prophecy, from their own Prophecies and Faith Traditions. With my beloveds Dakota Koda, Darcy Demas,

this Sacred Journey to Africa, fully, physically and spiritually, fulfilled for myself, the prophecy of the “Sacred Herb of Understanding.” For this Sacred Journey of Understanding I am eternally grateful to our Beloved Creator and to all members of our Human Family who have kindly and compassionately illumined my heart and mind along the Way! Wopida Tanka my beloved, Creator! Wopida Tanka to all my U Day relatives who I met in Ethiopia and all the organizations that supported my journey, with special thanksgiving to the UNITY EARTH family of partners for this event: The African Union, Compassion Games International, Forum 21, World Weavers, Gaiafield, 1God.com, Humanity’s Team, The Interspiritual Network, The United Religions Initiative, the Shift Network, We.net and so many more. Especially I want to thank my beloved wife, Suthida, for always supporting my humble efforts to support the fulfillment of the Sacred Prophecies of our Human Family!

Wopida Tanka! Great Thanksgiving and Gratitude for all the Creator brings into my life for my spiritual growth and development.

Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. is an enrolled member of the Yankton Dakota and Chickasaw First Nations and is an internationally recognized leader in human and community development. During the past 45 years, he has worked with Indigenous peoples in North, Central and South America, Micronesia, South East Asia, India, Hawaii and Africa. He served 16 years as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. With Elders from across North America, Chief Phil co-founded the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII). As well, Chief Phil is a Director of the Four Directions Corporation, an Indigenous owned company, incorporated in 1996 as Four Worlds’ economic development arm and Chairperson of Compassion Games International.

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A Native American’s Journey to U Day Ethiopia

by Lyla June Johnston

Going to Ethiopia was a dream for this small-town girl. I was raised in the back hills of New Mexico, but being a Native American woman helped me understand the plight Ethiopian people were going through. I drove by massive flower farms overseen by the infamous GMO proponent Monsanto. They seemed to stretch on for miles on end. I heard how these plantations were stealing the scarce water reserves from local people who seem quite parched as it was. I know how it feels to have foreign powers come and squander the sacred elements that sustain you in the name of profit maximization.

I went to Ethiopia as one of many delegates from around the world to experience “U Day,” an international, interfaith pilgrimage to the heart of the country. We sped past many villages in our large bus and came to understand the deep plight of our brothers and sisters, living in the harsh drought conditions and struggling to feed their families. Most of us were of privileged origins, but not all.

It became more and more clear to me each

day that no matter what economic bracket you fall under in what is now called the United States, you are still privileged in the sense that water is never too far away.

I learned that over 80 languages were spoken in the country. I traveled with Phil Lane Jr., a wonderful leader of the Native American Lakota people and we marveled at the dignity and grace with which our relatives lived. Despite the daily challenges they faced, they were more cordial to one another than what we had experienced in America. Everywhere I went, I was invited in, fed well, taken care of and completely respected.

I think the thing that moved me the most, however, was the work of one Tesfaye Melaku. During a long ride for several hours from Shashamane to Addis Ababa, I learned of the issues of forced child marriages, female genital mutilation, gender inequity and gender violence. I learned that these things had become part and parcel of the tradition, the culture of some sectors of Ethiopia. The last thing I want to do is paint Ethiopia in a bad light.

I know that these phenomena are only a fraction of the abuse women experience in the rape culture that is America. It is not my place to judge the situation.

However, I can say that I was quite inspired by Mr. Melaku for his tireless work in advocacy for women’s rights.

When he was a boy he was deeply concerned with the treatment of women in his town of Dessi. In high school, by his own initiative, he created gender clubs to educate the community about the unfair treatment of women and girls. Today he runs “Light Ethiopia,” an NGO that holds training sessions for women in rural areas.

The main issues he and other Ethiopians focus on through this organization are: 1) abolishing forced child marriages, 2) increasing the decision-making power of women in the household, 3) reducing

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the income disparity between men and women, 4) reducing the education disparity between girls and boys, and 5) abolishing female genital mutilation.

Traveling with the good people of the U Day delegation reinforced my will to love. They helped me reconnect with the importance of serving the communities we visited, instead of pleasantly resting

in our privilege as wealthy visitors, who could come and go as we pleased. Tesfaye Melaku is a man that has gone against the current of society, the current of his conditioning. He showed me a way that I could contribute to this beautiful country and beautiful people. Since our meeting, I have arranged for him to speak in the United States on his work at a conference on non-violence. I have also arranged

Resources: Tesfaye Melaku’s work can be found at www.facebook.com/lightethiopia Lyla June Johnston is a musician, public speaker and internationally recognized performance poet of Diné (Navajo) and Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) lineages.

Her personal mission is to grow closer to Creator by learning how to love deeper and to support and empower indigenous youth.

for a camera crew to film a brief speech about his life’s work that can be distributed on social media in Ethiopia as well as English speaking countries. I am not writing this to brag, but rather to share how exciting this news is for me. That I could make a small difference for this country that offered me everything they had, a country that allowed my feet to walk among their sacred hills, a country that let me sit at their kitchen table to enjoy the most delicious food wrapped in nef njira.

I am such a lucky little country girl to have been able to touch the sacred soil of the continent of Africa. I am such a lucky person to have been able to act in solidarity with brothers and sisters working on the most important matters of our time.

Thank you, U Day.

She is a student of global cycles of violence that eventually gave rise to The Native American Holocaust and the destruction of many cyclic relationships between human beings and nature. This exploration birthed her passion for revitalizing spiritual relationships with Mother Earth and cultivating spaces for forgiveness and reconciliation to occur between cultural groups. She is a co-founder of The Taos Peace and Reconciliation Council which works to heal intergenerational trauma and ethnic division in the northern New Mexico. She is a walker within the Nihigaal Bee Iiná Movement, a 1,000-mile prayer walk through Diné Tah (the Navajo homeland) that is exposing the exploitation of Diné land and people by uranium, coal, oil and gas industries. She is the lead organizer of the Black Hill Unity Concert which gathers native and nonnative musicians to pray for the return of guardianship of the Black Hills to the Lakota, Nakota and Dakota nations. She is the also the founder of Regeneration Festival, an annual celebration of children that occurs in 13 countries around the world every September.

In 2012, she graduated with honors from Stanford University with a degree in Environmental Anthropology.

During her time there she wrote the award winning papers: Nature and the Supernatural: The Role of Culture and Spirituality in Sustaining Primate Populations in Manu National Park, Peru and Chonos Pom: Ethnic Endemism Among the Winnemem Wintu and the Cultural Impacts of Enlarging Shasta Reservoir.

She currently lives in Diné Tah, the Navajo ancestral homeland which spans what is now called New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona. She spends her free time learning her endangered mother tongue, planting corn, beans and squash and spending time with elders who retain traditional spiritual and ecological knowledge.

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My “Unraveling” Experience of U Day 2018 ~ Ethiopia Land of Origins ...by Pato Banton

Unraveling? Yes! Our two-week journey across Ethiopia with 70 other beautiful souls, from so many different parts of the world and from so many diverse religious/spiritual viewpoints, was so packed with amazing moments, that I’m still trying to reflect and digest the whole experience. Maybe this task of putting it into words will help me with the process.

Ethiopia was a place that I had always dreamed of experiencing.

My exposure to Reggae Music and Rastafarianism as a youth led me on a 15-year journey of studying Bible Scriptures and Emperor Haile Selassie I, whose life and teachings are a great source of inspiration to many people around the world. His genealogy is clearly rooted to the love affair between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. As a matter of fact, I had just finished narrating fifteen of Haile Selassie’s greatest speeches on a 3-CD Box Set called “The Words Of Rastafari” when Ben Bowler called me and my wife (Antoinette Rootsdawtah) to invite us to U Day 2018 in Ethiopia.

Our joint excitement at the prospect of going on a Spiritual Mission to the Holy Land of Ethiopia was even more enhanced when we realized that the journey would take us to Addis Ababa, the historic region of Lalibela (which is a town in the Amhara Region, famous for its eleven monolithic rockcut churches and network of trenches that date back to the 12th century) and the Rastafarian Community of Shashamane.

Shashamane is known as The Promised Land to many Rastafarians in Jamaica and around the world because it was specifically granted to them by Haile Selassie in the late 1950’s 45

as thanks to the pan-African community for support during the Italian occupation. Many of my and Antoinette’s close friends had packed their bags and repatriated to Ethiopia in the early 1980’s and this trip would allow us to see them again in their new environment. This was also an exciting time for them because finally, in 2018, the government announced a decision to issue identification cards to foreigners who had contributed to the country’s development, especially Israelis of Ethiopian descent and Rastafarians!

Our flight and entry into Ethiopia went very smoothly. The uncomfortable hustle, bustle and harassment we normally experience in other African countries when we step through the airport’s “exit doors” was not to be found here. Instead we were greeted with warm smiles and treated very respectfully. I have always loved the humility of the Ethiopians that I’ve met during my travels around the world and now that I was in their Motherland, the same vibe remained true in the local people everywhere we went.

From Day 1, the smiles and laughter, and the warm hugs and friendly conversations that were shared by this very diverse group of “musical religionists” was evidence of the love and respect that we all shared for each other. There was joyous excitement in the air and an unspoken anticipation that something beautiful was unfolding through our joining of hearts and souls. Every day was a celebration of Our Spiritual Unity and a deep bonding of our life purpose to jointly bring about positive changes—through our prayers, good intentions, and (by any and all means necessary) the upliftment of humanity!

It makes me smile when I try to imagine how the people of Ethiopia viewed our “Colorful Caravan of Love” but I know it must have made a positive impact. In a world of so much division, racial hatred and religious intolerance, it must be amazing to view so many different representatives from so many of the worlds various belief systems, praying, chanting and singing songs of praise together openly. Our warm reception and loving exchange with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Members in Lalibela, the amazing sharing of progressive future ideas with the global committee at the African Union, and our many interactions with the local people we met on our travels and at the two concerts in Addis Ababa and Shashamne, left a trail of love and new friendships.

I could go on and on, but I will close by simply saying that our experience at U Day 2018 in Ethiopia is without a doubt, one of the greatest highlights of our lives and we are eternally grateful to be included in such a monumental enterprise that is sure to inspire our brothers and sisters around the world for many years to come. Words can be used as a great tool to inspire positive change, but nothing is more powerful than Example!

We were given a platform to publicly practice what we preach and teach, an opportunity to Live The Golden Rule with other people outside of our Circle of Commonality. This was a chance to create a conscious community that, regardless of our color, class or creed, could celebrate truly our Unity in Diversity. Thank you Ben and your amazing TEAM!

More to Explore: Minister Pato Banton is also a Grammy nominated reggae legend that has recorded and toured the world with The English Beat, Steel Pulse, UB40 & STING! (just to name a few). During the year 2000, while in the midst of a global trek for Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD organization, that combined huge festivals with outreach to poor and underprivileged communities, Pato learned that two of his sons had been shot in a drive-by shooting. He immediately put his career on hold and turned his sorrow into the impetus for community & educational initiatives that would consume the next six years of his life. Pato created an organization called “Musical Connections” and in partnership the Community Safety Team, provided tuition and counseling for “at risk” young people in 16 different communities across his city of Birmingham, UK. This project was so successful that Pato was approached by the West Midlands Police Department to tackle the ongoing problem of gun crime in some of the poorest neighborhoods.

Within a few years this partnership greatly reduced gun crime across the entire city and Pato was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the BBC and entered into the British Music Hall of Fame during the same year.

Pato Banton’s four-decade public presence has increasingly transcended music to convey a positive & often spiritual message. Now based in Southern California, he continues to tour extensively while providing motivational speeches and fun performances at Schools for children and simultaneously serving as a Teacher, Counselor, Mentor & Minister to his Fans & Spiritual Family worldwide. To learn more about Pato’s Global Outreach Services go to: www.ministerpatobanton.com

Celebrating Unity In Our Diversity! U Day Ethiopia 2018

Antoinette RootsDawtah ~ My Pilgrimage to Lalibela, Ethiopia 2018 46

Upcoming Convergences on the Road to 2020

U Day 2019 Festival–India, “Land of Spirituality”

by Dr. A. K. Merchant

U Day Festivals benchmark the Road to 2020: first the U Day Festival 2012 in Thailand “Land of Smiles” and then in 2018, Ethiopia “Land of Origins.” Moving onward for 2019, we have India “Land of Spirituality,” and then in 2020 Israel “Land of Antiquity.” 2020 also promises the “Caravan of Unity.” transporting itself through the “new world” “Land of Dreams”, in September across the United States of America.

That’s a lot of cosmic spin for the earth’s more than seven billion people: One Planet, One Heart, One Soul in many bodies. The goal is to let the spark of faith manifest an all-enfolding flame of Divine love attracting the thirsting multitudes.

U Day 2018 Ethiopia lifted our spirits and gave a most tangible expression to what all the participants had been endeavouring to tell the world: “There is yet hope, and we must not despair.” Through the jarring notes of intellectual disagreements, a golden thread bound our hearts in a mutual embrace of Life as one continuum, evoking harmonious emotions of unity in diversity, team learning, shared vision, and systems thinking.

India is the right place for a 2019, U Day Festival, where cosmos and chaos are two sides of the same coin. As a “Land of Spirituality,” India is not a melting pot by any chance. Rather, it is a salad bowl of countless spiritual streams that somehow in the midst of mindboggling diversity of culture, language, politics, economics and ecology converge, surprising the community of nations and the multitude of denominations of Semitic religious systems. It is simply amazing and astounding how India continues its civilizational time warp despite the vicissitudes of fortune and global climate change.

U Day 2019 in India will be an occasion for all of us to collectively trace India’s plurality from the times of Ashoka, the Great, to Akbar, the Great, to Mahatma Gandhi right up to the Information and Communications Age, where young people intrigued and fascinated by what their smart phones accomplish can swing like a pendulum in their belief systems—from stark nihilism, to fanaticism, to spiritualism. U Day’s rich and culturally diverse repertoire of elevated divine discourses, captivating music and empathy, inducing games of altruism, and universal compassion will showcase in India. This will send the message of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (the world is one family) to the highest offices and penetrating the grassroots, building upon the forces of integration and survival of the kindest.

Then, after India, we continue the Great Caravan of interfaith pilgrims towards Jerusalem, literally the centre of the “Old World,” in February 2020. Then it is on to the “New World,” the United States of America. Starting in the culturally diverse and creative centre of Silicon Valley, California, we’ll pass through the heartland of the United States and culminate with major events in New York City on September 21, 2020, the UN International Day of Peace. Here, the beckoning flame of the Statue of Liberty, the entry point of the “New World,” will greet us—presenting a spectacle of how the wolf and lamb can dwell in peace, removing all doubt of “...the day when the earth shall be changed into another earth.”

For U Day 2019 India, UNITY EARTH and its collaborating Organizations (like the United Religions Initiative [URI]) will reach out to the Government of India through its Ministry of Culture and Tourism, eliciting their gracious support. As well as having events in Delhi, events can be well-planned for Varanasi, Rishikesh, Ajmer and Vrindavan. We look forward to this unfolding with great anticipation and also with thanks for the partnerships that have built the amazing Road to 2020 thus far. It has been a rich blending of Multifaith Awareness and cultural upliftment and activism.

Dr. A. K.Merchant is Trustee & Executive Secretary, Temple of Understanding India Foundation (an interfaith NGO); Trustee, Lotus Temple & Bahá’í Community of India; National Trustee, Sarvodaya International Trust; Member, Governing Board, Shanti Sahyog; Secretary, Parkash Foundation (Resource Centre for differently-abled children); Visiting Faculty, Centre for Cultural Resources & Training, Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Dr. Merchant has authored over 250 articles and research papers including: (i) Communal Harmony—India’s Greatest Challenge (1991), which has been quoted in one of the Supreme Court Judgments on “Babri Masjid—Ram Janambhoomi” dispute, (ii) Hindu Dharma evam Bahá’í Dharma (1999), (iii) Five Basic Human Values & the Bahá’í Faith (2009). He is an active promoter of the interfaith movement; gender justice, world peace, Agenda 2030—Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, inter alia.

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Inspiring Resilience

By Zuleikha

“Come, Come, whoever you are, This caravan is not of despair.”

-Rumi “Joy shared is Joy multiplied, Grief shared is Grief divided” -Hebrew saying People need other people. Rejoicing brings hearts alive.

Caravans of purpose lessen the suffering.

These truths are known.

Delhi, India, 2016, I was invited by the wonderful Rimpoche, Lama Doboom Tulku to the “Practices of Compassion Conference,” to perform and present a paper. “Radiance,” the performance, uses stories, dance and music to uplift the human spirit. The paper, “Awareness, Art and Service,” is based on the work of my non-profit organization, The Storydancer Project, where we work through Everyday Self-Care Exercises and Movement Arts with girls, women and families facing challenging life circumstances. Many of our programs are ongoing in India, as well as in New Mexico and Navajo Nation.

The paper is now part of a book from the conference entitled, Practices of Compassion, An Exploration and Experience.

During the conference, I had the good fortune to meet Darrol Bryant and Yanni Maniates, both established in the fields of

Interfaith and Awareness Practices. Yanni saw my work and thought I should meet his friend, Ben Bowler. This is the way things happen…with people. Ben, known as a ‘Unity Activist’, introduced me to work he is engaged in worldwide called “U Day,” or UNITY EARTH. The guidelines of his work are so close to those I have been involved in, it seemed a natural connection for us all.

I have been working in India for many years, though an outsider by birth. As a dancer and musician trained in deep cultural traditions from the West and East, as well as contemporary expression, I am interested in our common unity; the core inside of body, heart, and soul. After much training and finding my own voice in movement arts, performing in the United States and Europe, and teaching in schools around the United States, as Artist-in-Residence, I became aware of a need to find simple ways to give people an experience of resilience. We often describe it as “nourishing the roots of wellness and the heart of resilience in the face of adversity.” I have come to call and trademark this as Take A Minute™.

Working with trafficked women, daughters of sex workers, girls and women inside of slum areas of Muslim communities in India, elementary school children in Navajo Nation, as well as palliative cancer patients in conditions of poverty, I have been establishing ways of training people to help each other in the cause of rejuvenation. And it is working. In the United States I work in the areas of domestic violence, with survivors and offenders, as well as training for advocates.

Photos ©livingproofphotography.com The performance photo of Zuleikha is from The Rumi Concert, March 15, 2018, Washington National Cathedral.

Through fun-to-do Everyday Self Care exercises and Movement Arts, as well as the RTHEP© (Relaxation Therapeutic Health Exercises Program—stress relief for palliative cancer patients and their families in Delhi, India), we marvel at the joy and quality of life that happens even for moments, when we take time to move, notice and enjoy. We train and work with thousands of people, women, girls, and families, and watch the joy of connection work as a healing agent.

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Known for its ancient scriptures and legacies of Faith, Devotion, and Spiritual Practice, India is a land where all things are possible. Though one sees extreme poverty, there is, as well, living color and beauty, ancient history, and a welcome doorway into the depth of being. A journey to this land is an invitation into a land of living Spirit. While I walk in the works of The Storydancer Project, I also have had the honor to perform, sometimes with live music from the depths of India, and other times in collaborations with world musicians. Performing an offering for 7,000 people at the yearly CanSupport “Walk for Life” in Delhi, brings the palliative care families out, as well as the thousands of supporters to help this noble work, given freely by the Home Care Teams of CanSupport throughout the city of 20 million.

The first time I met this group for a U Day event was as an invited performer. This program took place a year and a half ago at the United Nations (UN) Church Center’s Tillman Chapel in New York for the Week of Spirituality at the UN. I did an invocation for Harmony and a “Storydance.” It was an auspicious event, and created a feeling of something big, something possible, some way for people to feel the heart of the Good, amidst the darkness that often clouds our sight.

I met many people who are working diligently to bring a spirit of unity and harmony around the planet. In 2017 I joined UNITY EARTH in America again for its Convergence at the famed indigenous and ecological site, Crestone, Colorado—again dancing and speaking. This year U Day had convergences in Australia and Ethiopia. In 2019, U Day will again bring many

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people together in the ancient land of India, leading to a gathering in Jerusalem, and then a Caravan across the United States in 2020.

In 2019, India will be the site of another convergence for U Day, or UNITY EARTH. Celebrating the Great Good through performances, teaching of Peace through education, and many other venues, this grand vision will bring people together. These celebrations through Gratitude, Praise, and Joy create bridges of Hope. And the hope is, that as we join together in goodwill, healing happens.

Resources: www.storydancer.com www.thestorydancerproject.org www.takeaminuteforyourlife.com Zuleikha is an international performer, selfcare trainer and humanitarian. Renowned for her innovative programs and performances, Zuleikha has received numerous awards, including the Images and Voices of Hope Media Award for outstanding work in the world promoting positive personal and social change.

On March 15, 2018, Zuleikha was artistic director and performer in The Rumi Concert in the Washington National Cathedral. Performed with Coleman Barks and world musicians, this concert is dedicated to Love and as one spiritual leader said: “…a tribute to unity and good will, beauty and truth.” See full concert on YouTube. ©Zuleikha

U Day Festival and Jerusalem, Center of the World

by Gabriel Hagai

“Jerusalem, center of the world.” At least to more than half of Earth’s population, to all those who practice an Abrahamic religion, Jerusalem is a place of pilgrimage—for Jews, Christians and Muslims. For me, it is the capital of my ancestors, where King David built the Temple and his royal palace. It is where the Messiah appears. Jerusalem is the city of my heart. It is the place where I spent most of my life, where I grew up, where I studied, where I married, and where my children were born.

For the weight of its history, its symbolism, and its importance, I think the choice of Jerusalem as the 2020’s host for the U Day Festival is self-imposing—especially when it coincides with the UN Interfaith Harmony Week. The main goal of these festivals is to send a strong message of peace, harmony and unity to the world, beyond the limits of religion, race and nationality. That’s why each year they are held across many continents, in various symbolic places of importance for humankind as a whole. And to me there’s no place more fitting those goals than the holy city of Jerusalem.

Of course, this task won’t be an easy one, because Jerusalem is also at the center of one of the oldest and seemingly-unsolvable conflicts in modern history. The challenges are numerous. In no particular order some include: avoiding any political repercussions; securing a nice location; being equally fair to Palestinians and Israelis; becoming an official event without being dulled down; and, gathering local personalities beyond their religious, racial, political or national differences. But this is not an impossible task. The aim is to make this Festival a healing ceremony for our past injuries and a beacon of hope to brighten our future.

This is why we need everyone’s help to get this done. Any connection is welcome. All possible contacts with the influent local players, the religious actors, the peace and interfaith organizations are needed. But most of all we need the blessings from the good Lord, Creator of the Universe, through everybody’s prayers. You are all invited to contribute to this Festival’s success, each one according to one’s own capacities.

Let us demonstrate our unity, for it is the key to fulfill our Messianic destiny. The image given by our mystical Rabbis is one of a global orchestra; each nation possesses a musical instrument and a score. We all just have to play together, without judgment—no instrument is more important than the other, no score is better than the other. There is no need to force others to play one’s instrument or one’s tune—this would be such a loss of beauty. Let us just play in unison, with all our diversities, so what can be heard is a symphony instead of a cacophony. This symbolic orchestral piece, played by the entire humankind, is called in Hebrew “the Heavenly Symphony” or “the Celestial Melody”. This harmonized togetherness is what makes the difference between a live body and a corpse.

When all the organs function together, that is Life; when each one functions separately, that is Death.

I have faith that U Day Festival’s strong message sent from Jerusalem will be heard by the entire world. It will be one of the wake-up calls that will enable humankind to improve and elevate its consciousness to the global longed-for Messianic paradigm. As Sheikh Ibrahim Abu El-Hawa, one of my Palestinian friends and community elder, said: “The keys of world peace lay in Jerusalem.”

Gabriel Hagai is an Orthodox Rabbi, PhD, lecturer, linguist, philologist, paleographer-codicologist, mediator, poet, calligrapher and singer. Educated in Jerusalem and Boston, living in Paris, he is very invested in interfaith dialogue.

He is a father and grandfather, Master-Initiator in a non-dualistic mystical tradition of Sephardic Judaism whose uninterrupted spiritual lineage goes back to Moses.

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The Crestone Convergence and UNITY EARTH’s Tradition of “Convergence Events”

by Kurt Johnson

One of the hallmarks of UNITY EARTH’s global platform is “The Convergence” series on VoiceAmerica, the world’s number one internet radio. “The Convergence” series reached over 100,000 listeners in 2017. (www.1god.com/ convergence and www.unity.earth/convergence).

Almost immediately, “Convergence” also became the name for conferences UNITY EARTH began to convene, to promote its goal of collective co-working and synergy among multifaith proponents and sacred activists.

Convergence also became the name for UNITY EARTH’s activist magazine, centering first on a series of conferences it convened to host discussions about altruism—that is, working for the good of the whole—among sacred and secular activists and leaders, click here to read the issue. “Convergence” events companion the U Day Festival activities of UNITY EARTH. VoiceAmerica “specials” have featured both U Day Festival in Australia and U Day Festival in Ethiopia.

A combined calling of the message of indigenous peoples, the global environmental crisis, and pressing challenges around the world led to UNITY EARTH’s convening “The Crestone Convergence” in Crestone, Colorado, July 23–29, 2017. Crestone, and its beautiful surroundings, are of both historical and ecological note. Founded here in the 20th Century are over a dozen multifaith communities and retreat facilities pioneering interfaith cooperation and activism. The story of the origin of these facilities, originally though a United Nations related land-grant philanthropy is a story in itself. The 2017 gathering, at the former Aspen Institute facilities in Crestone (now Colorado College) were both a retreat and a planning session for nearly 50 groups from around the world.

Joining the Crestone Convergence were leaders from UNITY EARTH’s associated communities Forum 21 Institute, The Center for Earth Ethics, The Interspiritual Network, and the Gaiafield Project which are dedicated to healing work for Mother Gaia through shamanic activities at major global “Sacred Sites.” This “Sacred Site work” has been highlighted by UNITY EARTH and these collaborators sponsoring two years of conferences on “Spirituality and Sustainability” in Rome-Assisi associated with the Vatican’s recent climate change encyclical (click here for more details on the conferences).

These activities are part of several years of Sacred Site ceremonial gatherings all around the world hosted by this collaborative. These have been hosted in Japan, Australia, Ethiopia, Italy, and coming up in September 2018 at the “Four Corners” near Crestone.

As a part of this 2018 gathering a Crestone Leadership Conference will be hosted where stakeholders plan to further the visioning and support of this important work. Sacred Site work will be an integral part of all the Road to 2020 events around the world.

Next on The Convergence series of events is The Toronto Convergence, planned as a one day “Pre-event” (Oct. 31, 2018) for the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Canada Nov. 1-7. UNITY EARTH will host some 75 leaders for this conference at the Toronto Cathedral Conference Center. Then, in February 2019, UNITY EARTH is already planning a “New York Convergence” with some twenty collaborative organizations across the metropolitan area, for the famed United Palace venue in mid-Manhattan. The goal of both of these events will be furthering the multifaith collaboration needed for a successful Road to 2020.

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Additional Resources:

UNITY EARTH see “Crestone Convergence” and “The Road to 2020”

Videos at the UNITY EARTH YouTube Channel

Center For Earth Ethics see “Original Caretakers”

Gaiafield see “Subtle Activism and Sacred Sites”

Dr. Kurt Johnson, co-author of The Coming Interspiritual Age, co-founded with Br. Wayne Teasdale what is today The Interspiritual Network. A former monk and PhD in Evolution associated with the American Museum of Natural History for 25 years, he is co-author of two award-winning popular science books, Nabokov’s Blues and Fine Lines. Also, with a fifteen-year association with New York City’s One Spirit Seminary, Kurt is host of UNITY EARTH’s Convergence series on VoiceAmerica and an editor of its magazines The Convergence and Light on Light and serves widely on international forums and committees, especially at the United Nations.

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Announcing Issue 3 of The Convergence Magazine for the Parliament of the World’s Religions Issue 3 of UNITY EARTH’s The Convergence Magazine provides a book-length compendium of vision statements from more than seventy major global thought leaders and interfaith visionaries.

The illustrated volume—entitled Waking Up, Growing Up, Cleaning Up, Showing Up and Linking Up—elaborates on these five formative elements of global transformation, among many others. Contributors include some of the world’s most well-known and influential leaders from multiple disciplines across both the secular and sacred landscape.

Added to these extensive commentaries on vision, activism and transformation across the personal, community and institutional levels of global society and culture is a section on “Universal Principles” and “Universal Action Steps” drawn from multiple sources. These sources summarize decades-long work from many not-for-profits, networks and NGO’s.

The publication synchronizes with UNITY EARTH’S full day event on the eve of the Parliament: “The Toronto Convergence: Unifying the Unifiers on the Road to 2020,” October 31, 2018, at the Toronto Cathedral Conference Center.

You can learn more about the publication, and the Toronto Convergence event, at UNITY EARTH’s website. Together they aim toward creating a focal point for new vision, synergy, and collective action as we move forward in our human evolution.

May that evolution be guided by the highest ideals and values of our globe’s religious, ethical and philosophical heritage.

Dr. Kurt Johnson, Rev. Shannon Winters, Rick Ulfik The Editors of Waking Up, Growing Up, Cleaning Up, Showing Up, and Linking Up, coming soon from The Convergence Magazine

Check out the current issue of Light On Light Magazine “Transformative Communities & Congregations.”

Explore the pages from these heart-centered communities.

Just as all of our World’s Wisdom Traditions and Religions at their deepest core express The Golden Rule, these communities are truly love in action in our world.

Here’s the link to the issue on ISSUU: issuu.com/unityearth/docs/lightonlight_issue_2 53

Congregations & Spiritual Communities

www.facebook.com/groups/353870708386961 Community In Spirit is a spiritual center without walls. We are focused on healing through love, forgiveness, gratitude and belonging to community. The members of Community In Spirit are spiritual but not necessarily religious. We are inclusive, supportive, interactive and committed to being happier, more loving and more peaceful people on this planet. For more information email garrett@garrettfosterwriter.com, call 561-307-0699 or find us on FB (Community in Spirit)

Community Engagement

compassiongames.org Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest is a community engagement experience that invites people around the world to inspire one another to reveal and promote acts of compassion that better our lives, our communities, and all life on Earth. Over the past six years, the Compassion Games have been played in over 40 countries by more than 1,000,000 volunteer players who have served over 18 million people.

The Dzogchen Center and Foundation www.dzogchen.org The Dzogchen Center and Foundation, directed by Lama Surya Das, is a non-profit organization dedicated to sharing and teaching the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Dzogchen (Natural Great Perfection), and making this advanced meditation practice accessible and practicable to all through meditation retreats, teaching and spiritual guidance, local grass-roots sitting groups, and various publications. Visit the Dzogchen Center website to find local practice groups.

We, The World and the WE Campaign WE.net We, The World provides platforms that annually connect and promote thousands of socially conscious organizations to amplify their efforts and generate public awareness and action for peace, justice, sustainability and transformation.

When you post on our free public international Global Unity Calendar your group's events automatically post on other calendar websites as well!

Community & Inner Life Development www.gardenoflight.org The Garden of Light is an online platform for the emerging global spirituality. It provides a virtual home for a new community rooted in shared spirituality that transcends differences of culture so that it can become visible as a powerful force in uplifting the human spirit.

This community practices a wide variety of religious and spiritual expression, yet we share a growing understanding that embraces all paths guided by love as we build together a culture of peace. www.contemplativelife.org

www.unitedpalace.org New York City, New York As an inclusive spiritual community, the United Palace seeks to cultivate compassion, wisdom, and peace through spiritual practices born of the great wisdom traditions, sacred service, and joyous connection to spirit through music, arts, and entertainment.

Contemplative Life is a non-profit organization whose mission is to connect people and communities with transformative practices. It serves as a digital hub to bring the myriads of different practices under one umbrella to help people easily find practices of interest and connect with others of like mind. For more information please visit our resources on Navigating Contemplative Life.

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Education Interfaith Seminary & Interspiritual Counseling programs & Courses

The Pachakuti Mesa Tradition: Cross-Cultural Shamanic Arts for Personal and Planetary Renewal www.heartofthehealer.org One Spirit Learning Alliance www.onespiritinterfaith.org One Spirit Learning Alliance, has been a leader in Interfaith/ Interspiritual education for over 15 years. We are committed to providing excellent, rigorous and heart-centered programs to help develop spiritual leaders for the 21st century. Our core curriculum is offered through our Interfaith Seminary and Interspiritual Counseling programs as well as through courses offered to the general public.

Developed by don Oscar Miro-Quesada and Presented by The Heart of the Healer, this five-part series aligns the traditional teachings of Peru and the wisdom of its heritage with the needs of the present day. Providing a comprehensive foundation and profound initiation through ceremony and prayer into the living heart and soul of the Pachakuti Mesa Tradition, participants will cultivate a deeper relationship with nature and the unseen world, and receive multiple opportunities for self-exploration, empowerment and profound personal growth. Contact: programs@heartofthehealer.org.

Workshops & Yoga

Workshops & Retreats

The Contemplative Society www.contemplative.org The Contemplative Society is a charity that encourages contemplative prayer based in the Christian Wisdom tradition while also welcoming and being supportive of other meditation traditions. They also support teacher Cynthia Bourgeault by sponsoring retreats and workshops led by Cynthia and other distinguished contemplative teachers, and by selling audio teachings.

Workshops & Online Courses

Spiritual Paths Foundation www.spiritualpaths.net The mission of the Spiritual Paths Foundation is to help people of all ages and backgrounds to create a personal spiritual path and a compassionate wisdom for serving themselves, their communities, the Earth and all living beings.

We offer retreats, workshops, books and online courses on InterSpiritual Meditation, the InterSpiritual Mandala Process and InterSpiritual Mentoring. We help people to harness their spiritual learning styles and questions to create a personal spiritual path and contemplative practice from authentic resources within the world’s great spiritual and secular traditions.

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Oneness Center & Embodiment Yoga at Oneness Center New York City, NY www.onenesscenternyc.org Exploring infinite possibilities through meditation, movement, creative energies and the study of consciousness! Oneness Center is where people come to study self-empowerment through physical, psychological and spiritual transformative practices. Spiritual teacher and creator of Embodiment Yoga℠ Ronit Singer teaches classes, leads workshops and holds monthly open meditations. retreats and holds monthly open meditations. Our mission statement, “Evolution of humanity’s consciousness” happens through teaching and inspiring people to tap into their unique beings.

Young Leader Programs

Institute For Emerging Visionaries www.emergingvisionaries.org The Institute for Emerging Visionaries serves as an incubator for young leaders who are committed to actualizing their visions in service to humanity. Through facilitation training, self-inquiry, trauma healing and heart-centered leadership training; The Institute for Emerging Visionaries is dedicated to helping provide the tools and resources necessary for youth from around the globe to create experiences in which diverse groups of people can gather with the intention to heal, connect, serve and discover the unique gifts they have to share with the world.

Retreat Centers

Online Resources & Networks Interspirituality

Davi Nikent Center for Human Flourishing Carbondale, CO davinikent.com Our mission is promote health and well-being for individuals, families and community by offering experiential workshops, seminars, retreats and topical films by pioneers in integral health and human flourishing. Our name “Davi Nikent” is Ute Language meaning “always light.”

The Interspiritual Multiplex multiplex.isdna.org Built in 2005, a vast free web resource including hundreds of spiritual teachers and interfaith/ interspiritual organizations.

It supports educational work of InterSpiritual Dialogue in Action (ISDnA), the network built around the work of Bro. Wayne Teasdale, Interspiritual pioneer and coiner of the term “interspirituality.”

Paz y Luz Hotel and Healing Center Pisac, Peru www.pazyluzperu.com Paz y Luz means Peace and Light, a beautiful guest and conference center where people gather for workshops, to experience sacred healing sessions or simply to relax, while visiting the Pisac archeological site and famous market. We provide a haven for travelers and seekers from around the world to rest in the refined energy of the Sacred Valley surrounded by powerful mountains and to offer opportunities for healing, balance, restoration and transformation.

Interspiritual Dialogue in Action www.isdna.org Founded as Interspiritual Dialogue with Br. Wayne Teasdale in 2002, it has expanded to include the much larger entities THE INTERSPIRITUAL MULTIPLEX and The Coming Interspiritual Age. Their purposes are to promulgate the message in Bro. Wayne’s classic book “The Mystic Heart: Discovering a Universal Spirituality in the World’s Religions.”

It became ISDnA.

Eco-Spirituality

sunriseranch.org Sunrise Ranch Retreat and Conference Center is many things.

It’s a place where people come to enjoy the peaceful surround of a beautiful valley in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It’s a conference center that hosts gifted spiritual leaders and teachers and their students. It’s a working farm and ranch of 350 acres, with cattle, chickens, sheep and llamas, plus five greenhouses and large garden plots of beyond-organic fruits and vegetables. It’s one of the longest-running spiritual intentional communities in the United States. And it’s home to the annual ARISE Festival, which brings 10,000 people to our grounds for three days of music, wisdom, crafts, cultural solutions and fun and amazement. For more information, visit our website or call us at (970) 679-4200.

Self Care to Earth Care www.selfcaretoearthcare.com Self Care to Earth Care is the Eco-Spirituality wing and organization of The Interspiritual Network. It sponsors annual events regarding spirituality’s relation to environmental protection and health. The Ken Wilber video from its 2015 Denver Conference has 100,000 hits at YouTube, click here to watch.

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Books

The Life of Yogananda: The Story of the Yogi Who Became the First Modern Guru

By Philip Goldberg Phil’s latest book, a definitive biography of Paramahansa Yogananda, will be published April 24 and can be pre-ordered now. Click here for details about The Life of Yogananda and the pre-order gift. He will be doing lectures and other book-related events in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Boston, New York, Chicago, and other locations this spring. Click here for the schedule.

Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life

By Joyce Rupp www.avemariapress.com/product/1-932057-14-5/BoundlessCompassion

Music

Master teacher Joyce Rupp will inspire you to develop compassion as never before. You will discover compassion from science, medicine, theology, spirituality, sociology, and psychology. You will be encouraged to explore personal and professional expressions of compassion, and to re-energize your ability to offer loving kindness to those around you. lightwarriors.bandcamp.com

Dead Set on Living: Making the Difficult but Beautiful Journey from F##cking Up to Waking Up

By Chris Grosso and Alice Peck www.indiespiritualist.com

Light Warriors is an independent critically acclaimed, multi-genre musical project in the pursuit of source connection and experience.

With depth of lyrics having compared to Bob Dylan for “skewering corruption and warfare at home and abroad in search of peace and understanding” and musical diversity covering rock, funk, soul, reggae, electronic and free improvisation, the latest album, Raise The Frequency, is a spiritual download channeling ancient to future vibrations and energies to be experienced.

Shopping & Gifts

Unabashedly honest and inspiring, Dead Set on Living

by Chris Grosso and Alice Peck is essential reading for anyone seeking a path towards triumph over adversity, understanding the human condition, and rebuilding relationships after promises have been broken.

sunnysidegiftcompany.com Inspirations and fun gifts across the entire sunny side of life—from inspirational and encouraging books to meditation and spiritual gifts to home décor gifts and jewelry—gifts of all kinds, honoring the gifts that shine brightly from within, gifts we give ourselves, and gifts for all occasions given to others to show how special they are in our lives.

Travel The Coming Interspiritual Age

By Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord www.thecominginterspiritualage.com Website of the influential book The Coming Interspiritual Age

by Kurt Johnson and David Robert Ord (Namaste, 2013). TCIA is a comprehensive update to the vision of “interspirituality” and world change from many angles—spirituality, science, consciousness and brain/mind studies, developmental history (integral and spiral dynamics) and the challenges of globalization and multiculturalism.

World Weavers is an Ethical Community Based Tourism provider focused on supporting local communities. We offer educational travel, cultural exchange, personal and spiritual development. Our programs are designed to unite and inspire people while promoting tolerance and cultural understanding. worldweavers.com

To find out how you can be included in the Resources Directory in future issues of Light on Light Magazine, please email: shannon@unity.earth. The Convergence is published several times a year.

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We are ...ONE people ...ONE planet ...One family We are ONE.

THE

CONVERGENCE