GLOBAL FORUM OF SPIRITUAL AND PARLIAMENTARY LEADERS ON HUMAN SURVIVAL
304 E. 45th St, 12th floor, NY, NY 10017, USA; 212-953-7947
BACKGROUND OF THE FORUM
In 1985 the United Nations celebrated its 40th anniversary. In October
a core group of religious and political leaders met for the first time in a
village north of New York City.
Ten spiritual leaders, two each from five major religions, and eight
elected officials from parliaments on five continents came to Tarrytown to
explore the possibility of a dialogue that intermingled their perspectives.
The politicians were members of the Global Committee of Parliamentarians
on Population and Development, an independent organization linking regional
and national groups of legislators involved in developing population
policies. The spiritual leaders were invited by an international
interfaith organization, the Temple of Understanding, a group devoted to
building understanding among the different religions.
The lawmakers tended toward immediate, practical solutions; the
spiritual leaders toward eternal values. But from their differing
viewpoints new possibilities emerged. The dialogue became so important
they decided it must be continued and expanded. They called upon their
colleagues worldwide to join them in a conference on global survival.
And they agreed to establish the Global Forum of Spiritual and
Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival.
WHY THE GLOBAL FORUM?
Our planet and all living things on it are in danger. If we continue to
abuse the Earth, in just 10 years one-third of our planet's productive land
will have eroded. By the year 2000--a mere decade away--a million species
will be annihilated while a billion more people compete for our resources.
If we persist in contaminating our environment, climate will change
worldwide, with unknown, enormous consequences for us all. It is we who
are responsible for these problems--and for the solutions.
We must turn away from the brink of catastrophe to make our global home
secure, whatever our ideological, political and cultural differences.
To change the harmful ways in which we deal with each other and with our
environment, we must learn to use our skills and knowledge to replenish the
Earth and safeguard it for our children and their children's children.
This requires a profound change in values--change that can lead to positive
vision.
The Global Forum helps to create this change by involving spiritual and
parliamentary leaders--the two pillars of our communities--in an intensive
dialogue on critical survival issues. Political and religious leaders are
central to the process of positive change because they are the opinionmakers
and policymakers who work closely with people at all levels, from the local
to the global.
In the Forum, these two leadership groups can combine legislative common
sense with eternal spiritual values to arrive at a common global vision--
the foundation of a sustainable future.
Through the Global Forum process of dialogue and interaction, these
leaders are given the opportunity to influence not only each other, but to
extend their spiritual and political influence for peaceful, positive
change to the communities they serve worldwide.
To represent these communities, the Forum involves scientists and other
experts on the issues, as well as environmentalists, artists, business and
industry, educators and journalists.
Throughout much of human history, spiritual and political leaders
consulted regularly. Only in modern times have the two been separated.
Today, it has become increasingly clear to the leadershiop of these two
great constituencies that only together can they confront the complex,
interconnected threats to the survival of all life on Earth.
THE OXFORD CONFERENCE
In April 1988 a Global Survival Conference brought nearly 200 spiritual
and legislative leaders to the historic university city of Oxford, England.
For five days parliamentarians and cabinet members met with cardinals,
swamis, bishops, rabbis, imams, monks, and elders. Among them: the Dalai
Lama, Mother Teresa, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the High Priest of
Togo's Sacred Forest, Cardinal Koenig of Vienna, and Native American
spiritual leader Chief Oren Lyons.
They conferred with experts on the issues, including astronomer Carl
Sagan, Soviet scientist Evguenij Velikhov, Gaia scientist James Lovelock,
Kenyan environmental leader Wangari Maathai, and Cosmonaut Valentina
Tereshkova.
In the end, the vision a few had worked for became a shared vision.
Spiritual and parliamentary leaders from 52 countries, along with
participating scientists and influential journalists, left Oxford agreeing
that "we both need and desire to work together" to protect Earth and all
that lives on it.
Word of the conference spread quickly as more than 150 reporters--
representing the press, radio and tv stations in 35 countries--and
international new agencies sent news of this extraordinary meeting to every
corner of the globe.
REACHING INTO THE COMMUNITY
Millions of people now know about the Global Forum. Journalists at the
Oxford Conference reached every corner of the globe with their reports.
And the conference participants wrote and spoke extensively about the Forum
experience.
CBS Television in the United States broadcast two half-hour shows on
Oxford, and the Global Forum's own half-hour conference documentary has
been seen in a dozen countries, creating a flood of interest. The
videotape is available in all broadcast formats in English, French, Spanish
and Japanese.
A 144-page book, "Earth Conference One," was produced by Shambhala
Publications of Boston. Written by Anuradha Vittachi, a Sri Lankan educated
at Oxford, it interweaves excerpts from public discussions and private
conversations with the author's own insights and observations.
Environmental scientist James Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis,
wrote the forward.
Harvard Divinity School and the Global Forum are hosting a series of
seminars on ethical implications of the environmental crisis. The seminars
will draw theological students, thinkers and activists from around the
world.
A four-day symposium in June 1989 brought 21 journalists to the Aspen
Institute in the U.S.A. for a dialogue with experts on global survival
issues, spiritual leaders and parliamentarians. The conference was
sponsored by the Global Forum in collaboration with the Pate Institute for
Human Survival and the Center for Foreign Journalists.
The momentum is growing: The Global Forum dialogue of spiritual and
parliamentary leaders now is being replicated worldwide at local, national
and regional levels.
THE MOSCOW FORUM
In January 1990 a Global Forum on Environment and Development for
Survival, the first major international Forum following the Oxford
Conference, was held in the U.S.S.R. Parliamentary and spiritual leaders
from around the world met in Moscow with their Soviet counterparts--for the
first time--on new approaches to critical survival issues. It is also the
first major international event to be held in the Soviet Union since the
precedent-setting elections of 1989.
Because it was so important, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to
make a major address to the Forum on key issues raised by the 1000
conference participants.
The January 15-19, 1990 meeting was not a scientific seminar on the
environment or a workshop on the technical aspects of development.
Instead, it brought together the politicians and religious leaders who
develop human resources at the community level. To reach further into the
community, the Moscow dialogue also included scientists, environmentalists,
business and labor educators, artists and journalists.
The Global Forum's co-hosts were an alliance unique to this decade:
* the Supreme Soviet, the country's first freely elected parliament;
* all faith communities in the U.S.S.R., coordinated by the Russian
Orthodox Church;
* the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences; and
* the International Foundation for the Survival and Development of
Humanity.
GLOBAL FORUM COUNCIL
CO-CHAIRMEN
The Very Reverend James Parks Morton, Christianity*
Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, Islam*
Sat Paul Mittal, MP, India*
Manuel Ulloa, Senator, Peru*
MEMBERS
The Reverend Nichiko Niwano, Buddhism*
The Venerable Dr. Mapalagama Wipulasara Theo, Buddhism
The Venerable Dr. Doboom Tulku, Buddhism
Franz Cardinal Koenig, Christianity*
H.E. Metropolitan Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios, Christianity
Pandit Reepu Daman Persaud, Hinduism
Ambassador Dr. Kara Singh, Hinduism
Dr. Muhammad Abdul-Rauf, Islam
Dr. Viqar Hamdami, Islam
Dr. Inamullah Khan, Islam
Archarya Sushil Kumar, Jainism
Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Judaism*
Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, Judaism
Cheif Joagquisho, Oren R. Lyons, Native American*
Major General S.S. Uban, Sikhism
The Reverend Kyotaro Deguchi, Shinto
Patrick Balopi, Cabinent Minister, Botswana*
Milena Stamboliiska, MP, Bulgaria
Shafiika Nasser, Senator, Egypt
Dr. Mavis Gilmour, Jamaica*
Erica Terstra, MP, The Netherlands*
Leticia Shanhani, Senator, Philippines
Boontium Khamapirad, MP, Thailand
Mawupe Vovor Kodzo, MP, Togo
Evguenij Velikhov, MP, USSR*
Dave Durenberger, Senator, USA*
James H. Scheurer, Representative, USA
Tarzie Vittachi, New Media*
Angeir Biddle Duke, Chairman, International Advisory Committee
SECRETARIAT
Akio Matsumura, Executive Coordinator
Dr. Kusumita P. Pedersen and Cecile J. Reyes, Joint Secretaries
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COMMENTARY: News about the Global Forum has been scarce in the American
media. The Moscow Forum was one of the most important gatherings of the
last year, yet was hardly mentioned in the America press. SOLSTICE
magazine will be preparing more information about the Forum.
-+- prepared by David Yarrow, the turtle, for SOLSTICE magazine
***** SOLSTICE: Journal of Personal & Planetary Health, is published
at 201 E. Main St Suite H, Charlottesville, VA 22901 804-979-4427