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 International Interreligious Peace Council (IIPC)

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."

Trustees of the Peace Council make up the International Committee for the Peace Council (ICPC). Jim Kenney — a founding trustee and former Global Director of the Parliament of the World’s Religions — serves as Project Coordinator for the ICPC.

The Peace Council began in 1995 with twelve members. It has grown since and may eventually include twenty to thirty members. A current list of Peace Councilors is available on the organization’s web site: http://www.peacecouncil.org. Membership is by invitation to persons who are:
• respected within their faith communities for how they live and what they do
• committed to working together in practical ways for peace, and to teaching by example.

The heart of the Peace Council's work is a commitment by the Peace Councilors to help one another in the practical peace-making that has made each Peace Councilor a leader in his or her community. There is no single formula for the programs. They vary depending on what is needed in each area.

The Peace Councilors try to show by example that diverse faiths can work together "for the common needs of the whole community of life." They offer help to local peace initiatives in regions of special need, at the invitation of a Peace Councilor who already is active in the area. Peace Council actions or programs respond to what trusted local peacemakers know will work best. In many cases the Council's first act in a place where people are suffering may be simply what Archbishop Romero called "accompaniment and presence:" planting seeds of hope and strength.

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.

The Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21) is informed and energized by the vision of a world at peace, dedicated to social and economic justice, and committed to ecological sustainability. We are grateful for the pioneering spirit of four great documents that emerged from the rich cross-cultural dialog of the latter half of the 20th century. These "cornerstone documents" speak profoundly to the world envisioned here. They are:

• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations, 1948)
• Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration (Parliament of the World's Religions, 1993)
• A Call to Our Guiding Institutions (Parliament of the World's Religions, 1999)
• The Earth Charter (Earth Council et al., 2001)

Collectively these four documents offer ethical ideas from the wisdom of the world's religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions, from contemporary science, international law, the seven UN World Conferences held during the 1990s, the global ethics movement, and over 200 NGO declarations issued over the past twenty-five years, as well as from widely recognized "best practices" for peaceful, just, and sustainable living -- ancient and contemporary. These "cornerstone" documents provide an essential foundation for the work of the IEP21.