Conference on Spiritual Activism

Lerner

This Conference is organised by the Interfaith Network of Spiritual Progressives‚ May 17-20, 2006, All Souls Church, Washington D.C.. Participants are advised to read before the Conference Rabbi Lerner's book The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the Religious Right. In it you will find the fullest version and explanation of The Spiritual Covenant with America which the organisation hopes to bring to its elected representatives and to the media on May 18th.

Spirituality is brought as a quality of everyday life, in various relations and institutions as seen from the following speeches, workshops and plenaries:

01. Understanding Spiritual Politics: Sister Joan Chittister, Peter Gabel and Harvey Cox

03. Trainings focused on the Spiritual Covenant with America to prepare participants for presenting these ideas to their elected representatives

04. Create a society that promotes loving relationships and families

05. Take Personal Responsibility for Ethical Behavior (including sexual behavior) Rev. Tony Campolo and Rev. Ama Zenya

06. Build Social Responsibility into our economic and political institutions, Peter Gabel

07. Reshape education to teach love, caring, generosity, nonviolent communication, cooperation, compassion, environmental responsibility, awe and wonder, respect and thanksgiving. Facilitator: Svi Shapiro and Ralph Wolf (W.A.S.C.)

08. Build a broader understanding of health care while also pursuing a single payer national health care plan. Facilitators: Dr.Roy Farrell, Harvey Fernbach, and Dr. Bill Benda

09. Be stewards of the environment Facilitator: Thea Levkovitz & Paul Wapner

10. A spiritual foreign policy and homeland security: safety through a strategy of generosity and nonviolence. Facilitator: Michael Lerner

11. Separation of church and state and science while bringing our new bottom line into the public sphere

12.. Iraq and New Visions for Foreign Policy Cindy Sheehan
Workshops on spiritual politics:

01. Environmental Crisis, John Seed

02. The Fears of Progressive Social Change, Rev. Debora Johnson

03. Spiritual Economics, Alanna Hartzok, John Surr

04. The Spiritual Crisis in Our Lives Generated by the War in Iraq, Stacy Bannerman

05. How Authentic Spirituality Drives People to be Advocates of Social Justice, Mary Darling

06. Religion and Faith in the GLBTQ Community Harry Knox and Rev. Penny Nixon

07. Politics of Meaning

08. "Spiritual but not Religious": How to create a movement that has room for those whose connection to God and the spiritual wisdom of humanity is done outside traditional religious communities and without the theocentric language that suggests hierarchical and patriarchal visions of God?

09. Non-violence training Janet Chisholm

10. The Encounter & Reconciliation of Civilizations (a challenge to the "clash of civilizations" world view) Shaikh Kabir Helminski

11. Reconciliation, building Communities and Identities of Inclusive Otherness

12. Politics of Meaning

13. Theological Perspectives on the Free Market System: Idolatry, Sin and the Structures of Evil in Economic Life, Stan Duncan

14. Emancipatory Design

15. Environmental Consciousness, John Seed

16. Music and Social Transformation

17. War as a Source for Meaning, Christopher Hedges

18. A New Bottom Line in Law, Peter Gabel and Nanette Schorr

19. Torture: Building a Spiritual/Religious Campaign Against Torture Rabbi Brian Walt

20. End of Life Decisions: Moral and Spiritual Issues, Barbara Coombs Lee and Rev. Paul Smith

a. Keynote Plenary: Rabbi Michael Lerner and U.S. Senator Barack Obama

b. Plenary: Spiritual Progressives Facing The Globalization of Selfishness (the globalization of capital, the environmental crisis) Charlene Spretnak, Jonathan Granoff, Robert Thurman, Christopher Hedges, Bill Meadows and David Abrams (Music with Sharon Abreu, Michael Hurwicz, and Stephen Fisk)

c. Plenary: The War in Iraq and the Spiritual Contribution to an Antiwar Movement. Speaker: Cornel West, Arun Gandhid

d. Plenary: Human Rights, Spiritual Wisdom and Planetary Sanity: Roshi Bernie Glassman, Rev. Debora Johnson, Katrina van den Heuvel, Harry Knox, Michael Posner, Jim Garrison, Thea Levokowitz, speaker from What Is Enlightenment, and Pamela Taylor Evening Concert Performance from the play "Motherblood” by the Omega Theatre (with Saphira), humor from Swami Beyondonanda and music from Michael Franti.

Spiritual Practices: Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Native American and Jewish Shabbat Services

For more information: www.spiritualprogressives.org