The proposal for the creation of a permanent assembly at the
United Nations to hear the voice of religious and spiritual leaders is presented
in South Africa, Israel and Canada

Peace Times 14

by Isthar D.- Adler

The latest reports on the proposal for the Creation of a Permanent UN Spiritual Forum, include presentations and workshops held around the world on the occasion of various interreligious conferences.

In November, a spiritual forum dialogue was organised by the Lama Gangchen World Peace Foundation special representative Daniel Calmanovitz and the young Lama Michel during the Jubillennium Conference in Israel, where both also had a private interview with His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama. Dr Gerardo Gonzales, project director for the spiritual forum, attended the 7th World Assembly of the World Council on Religion and Peace in Amman, Jordan, where he met with WCRP’s Secretary General, Rev. Dr William Vendley, who offered his support as advisor in the implementation of the project. In December, Luciano Meira presented the Spiritual Forum during the Parliament of World Religions Conference held in Cape Town, South Africa, inviting spiritual and religious leaders to join this growing effort.

In the USA, meetings have been taking place regularly at the Legion of Goodwill, under the dedicated coordination of Dr Nina Meyerhof (Coalition for Children of the Earth) and Luciano Meira (the Legion’s UN representative). In October, the first meeting was organised at United Nations headquarters to focus on identifying local, national and international NGOs as well as individuals and grassroot organisations, and develop a document to further the establishment of a Spiritual Forum at the United Nations.

In the draft document, it has been requested as a collective of NGO groups and individuals, that the Millennium Forum, which is to be held at United Nations headquarters in New York from the 22nd to the 26th of May 2000, create a deliberate strand that addresses spirituality and its relationship to the United Nations. It is further requested that this strand explore how a Spiritual Forum may be developed nationally and internationally under the United Nations auspices, towards a deeper dialogue and experiential learning for furthering a Spiritual Forum. Bawa Jain (Interfaith Centre of New York), who is on the executive committee for the Millennium Forum, has offered to present the spiritual forum proposed agenda for a panel discussion, following talks in Brazil where he attended a special presentation of the Spiritual Forum proposal during the anniversary celebrations of the Legion of Goodwill. He is also interested in «taking the project further and creating permanency for the the voice of spirituality», as Executive Coordinator of the Millennium World Peace Summit which will be held at the United Nations in August.

Although he is operating in a strictly political environment, Secretary General Kofi Annan has become a firm friend of those interested in spirituality and will now be requested to consider inviting all official representatives of the UN Member States to endorse this initiative in the next General Assembly and give formal recognition to spirituality as an important key to resolving world issues in the 21st century.

He said in a recent talk given to Global Partners in Montreal, «I hope you will come to the Millennium Forum full of constructive suggestions on how to approach the world’s most pressing problems, and how to deal with them in a spirit of global solidarity and help us achieve our goal of bringing the United Nations closer to the people».

The establishment of a Spiritual Forum will bring a spiritual perspective into greater public view within the United Nations. It will enable open dialogue about, and then actively support, the enlightened, just, forgiving and compassionate behaviours that human beings long to express and that global evolution now supports us to express. The best investment for future generations is indeed a spiritual consciousness from which all global problems can be solved.