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In This Issue
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GCFP
Going to Atlanta for the United States Social Forum
·
Spreading
the Word Through our Sattwic Peace Gardens
·
Fox
Valley GCFP – Educating the Community on Global Warming
·
MUPJ
22nd Annual Conference
- "If you want peace, work for justice!"
- Two
New Initiatives for Peace and Justice
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GCFP
to Present at United States Social Forum
The United States Social Forum will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from
June 27th to July 1st.
The theme for this conference is “Another World is Possible
– Another US is Necessary!”
GCFP will be presenting two workshops at the forum:
Breaking the Shackles of Economic Slavery will
present the model that GCFP’s economic committee has been working
on for 5 years, Aparigraha: A New Economic Paradigm for a
Culture of Peace. Tools
for Change: The Women’s Self-Reliance Program will
present the work that is being done in El Remate, Guatemala and
explore ways that we can bring this work to other parts of the
world. These will be
interactive workshops and since the programs are very closely
related, both workshops will involve the two programs.
The
goal of the forum organizers is to incorporate the following
cross-cutting themes into the hundreds of workshops being offered
during this five-day conference:
·
To
promote the development of a common framework to help us identify
and analyze the root causes of
problems and oppressions
·
To
encourage historical and international dimensions in our thinking
and action
·
To
encourage thinking and acting that move beyond criticism to actually
building “another world.”
The
US Social Forum is a national incarnation of the World Social Forum,
which recently made national headlines, after being held in Caracas,
Venezuela in January 2006. President Hugo Chavez had been a
prominent spokesperson at the recent WSF; it had also been attended
by US peace activist, Cindy Sheehan.
For more information on the US Social Forum visit the website
at www.ussf2007.org/program_cross
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Spreading the
Word through our Sattwic Peace Gardens
We
have recently had the privilege of sharing our Sattwic Peace Gardens
with other two communities, one in the Washington, DC area and one
in Irwin, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Through these gardens, which are modeled after Mel
Bartholmew’s Square Foot Gardens, GCFP has been able to bring the
opportunity to grow their own fresh vegetables to ninety families in
the Peten region of Guatemala.
But we realize that access to fresh, wholesome, homegrown
vegetables is needed every bit as much in our urban and suburban
communities as it is in the developing countries.
That’s one of the reasons why we are establishing a garden
demonstration site in the Allegheny mountains of Pennsylvania and
why we welcome any opportunity to share this simple, but very
productive, gardening method wherever and whenever we can.
On
May 2nd we took our seeds, seedlings and gardening tools
to the Emergence Community Arts Collective at
733 Euclid St. NW, in
Washington, DC. The
combined efforts of GCFP and
the ECAC manifested two Sattwic Peace Gardens, after which we
celebrated with a vegetarian Peace Meal prepared by members of GCFP.
The Emergence Community Arts Collective, inspired and
manifested by the vision of Sylvia Robertson,
is a wonderful neighborhood center established in a building
with a rich community history.
To learn more about this model for community development, go
to www.ECACollective.org.
On May 12th a Sattwic Peace Garden was established
in Irwin, PA at the invitation of Susan and Fernando Cardoza of the
Green Bough Center for Creative Learning and
sponsored by the Irwin
Business and Professional Association.
An enthusiastic crew of gardeners and soon-to-be gardeners
(the mayor of Irwin even stopped by) met in the town square of Irwin
to learn the process so that they can install their own Sattwic
Peace Gardens and pass the information on.
To visit the Green Bough and see pictures of the Irwin garden
go to www.thegreenbough.com
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Fox Valley
GCFP – Educating the Community on Global
Warming
On April 22nd, Earth Day Sunday,
GCFP’s Fox Valley Chapter made what they billed as “their first
Adult presentation” on global warming at the Unity Church of
Christianity in Appleton, Wisconsin.
The program was open to other area churches and anyone else
who was interested in attending.
Two members of the congregation were invited to speak on
solar power and hybrid cars as steps that people can take to reduce
global warming.
Fox Valley’s premier presentation was to
North High School on February 7th as part of the
school’s Global Awareness Week.
Judging by the enthusiastic participation and appreciation by
the students, this presentation to approximately 500 members of the
population who will soon be shaping the policies of this country,
was a huge success.
To
the Fox Valley chapter of GCFP we say, “Keep up the excellent
work!”
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Maryland
United for Peace and Justice Conference
On April 28th Maryland United for
Peace and Justice held their 22nd annual conference
at the Paint Branch Universal Unitarian Church in Adelphia, MD. The
theme for this conference was, If you want peace, work for
justice! "MUPJ
is a statewide networking organization which tries to network
between the many groups and individuals working for peace, justice
and a clean environment in a world which uses nonviolent means of
conflict resolution, moves toward sustainable energy, and
development and is fair and just to all humans and the earth.”
To learn more about MUPJ go to www.mupj.org.
Leslie
Cagan, Co-chair of United for Peace and Justice was the keynote
speaker. In addition to
the 21 workshops and lunchtime entertainment provided by the Paint
Branch Unitarian Choir and Dancers, the Fred Benjamin High School
Peace Awards were presented to two inspirational young people.
GCFP members, Durga, Savitri and Kali presented Aparigraha:
A New Economic Paradigm for a Culture of Peace in a workshop
entitled, The Economy of Nonviolence.
A number of members of GCFP put on their aprons and helped
Cornucopia Café, a Spiritual Food for the New Millennium
Enterprise, to prepare lunch for the 120 attendees.
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Two New
Initiatives for Peace and Justice
There are many ways of approaching the road to peace and justice.
These new websites from organizations affiliated with Global
Coalition for Peace reflect two of those approaches.
The
Progressive Ecological and Alternative Church of the Essenes
is a nonsectarian organization whose mission can best be described
in the words of its founder, Victor “Vyasa” Landa.
“According
to ancient traditions the Masculine Energy received into the planet
by the Himalayan mountains has now completed its phase. With the
advent of the Age of Aquarius, as it is called in the West, or
Dwapara Yuga, as it is known in the East, it is time for the Andes
range to take that role, facilitating the advent of the Feminine
Energy. We are conscious of the part that each individual needs to
play in the continuous process of co-creation and are ready to
assume and share that responsibility with all those who feel called
to do so. The Progressive Ecological and Alternative Church of
the Essenes (PEACE) dba as "The Essene Church of Peace"
aims to contribute to filling that need.”
To learn more please visit www.theessenechurchofpeace.org
Another
approach to the road to peace justice, different but complimentary,
is that of the newly formed organization Coalition to Meet
Basic Needs of Everyone (COMBE).
This
Coalition, which is being organized by Ingrid and Klaus Schittich
of
Germany, strives to establish a global transnational web of
organizations and individuals committed to fundamental structural
change as a means of eradicating hunger and extreme poverty.
Global Coalition for Peace is one of the first organizations
to join this international coalition.
To find out how you can support this effort, please visit www.combe-online.org.
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