About the Convening Organizations

The Association for Global New Thought (AGNT)

AGNT was co-founded in 1996 to represent the leading edge of the New Thought lineage. Its constituent member churches and centers among Unity, Religious Science, and nondenominational New Thought spiritual communities are committed to global healing through personal transformation, community-building, interfaith, intercultural, and interdisciplinary understanding, and compassionate activism.

AGNT is the official co-founder and convener of the Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence (SNV). Established in 1998 to commemorate the memorial anniversaries of these legendary peace-makers, SNV is active in 467 U.S. cities and 18 countries, and has expanded to include Seasons for: The Earth, Humane Service, and Interfaith Intercultural Celebration. Other AGNT initiatives include The Abraham Path “Omni-local” Initiatives conceived in partnership with Harvard University’s Project on Negotiation, and coordinating program offerings and participation by New Thought delegations in three recent Parliament of the World’s Religions: Capetown, South Africa, 1999; Barcelona, Spain, 2004; Melbourne, Australia, 2009.

The Synthesis Dialogues: With His Holiness, the Dalai Lama of Tibet acting as participant and mentor, AGNT has serve as conveners and organizers of The Synthesis Dialogues I, II, & III, an interdisciplinary symposium among a select group of globally respected religious and secular leaders representing new visions and models for social healing. They included recognized leaders from among each of the world’s religious traditions, and culturally diverse professionals with expertise on questions of governance, religious violence, environmental concerns, and sustainable human rights.

The Synthesis Dialogues were inaugurated in Dharamsala, India, in September 1999, at the Norbulingka Institute. Synthesis II was held in June, 2001, at the Mariopolis Retreat Center near Trent, in northeastern Italy. AGNT convened the third Synthesis Dialogues in 2004 at Castelgandolfo, in the Roman Hills, situated in the property which is the Summer Residence of the Pope. Each meeting included between 30-50 core participants, accompanied by an audience of guests at two of the three dialogues. Facilitation by the Association for Global New Thought aimed at nurturing a sense of spiritual ethics in responding to critical social issues, and at cultivating relationships that might prepare the ground for strategic collaborations in the future.

The Peace Council (IIPC)

Trustees of the Peace Council make up the International Committee for the Peace Council (ICPC). Jim Kenney serves as Project Coordinator for the ICPC.

The Peace Council is a diverse group of religious and spiritual individuals who are internationally known and respected and who have decided to come together, as the Dalai Lama wrote in a recent letter, "to understand one another and work together so that those of us who profess belief in our respective faiths can work for the common cause of humanity." He added, "I believe that such a joint effort can set the right example for the rest of the world."


The Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21)

IEP21 works to further the engagement of religious and spiritual communities around the world with each other, with secular agencies, and – most of all – with the critical issues facing the planetary community in the early 21st century. Jim Kenney is the founder and Executive Director of IEP21.