Parliament at eco-conscious venue

By Susana Wolds

New Thought News Service 

As Parliament attendees come together this week to honor the wisdom that each faith tradition offers, a common discussion will be how to sustain and improve life on our shared planet.

The choice of venue for the 2009 Parliament is perfectly aligned with this year's theme: Make a world of difference. Hearing each other. Healing the World.

"This is the greatest view I've ever had at a workplace," said Mellisa Mason, an usher at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, admiring the cityscape of her hometown from her vantage point in the light-filled foyer of the world's most eco-savvy convention centre.

The glass fronting her work station is only one of the scores of features that have won this beautiful structure a Six Star Green Star Rating from the Green Building Council of Australia. The building is a stimulating work of art and a premium example of architectural ingenuity. It also has enough sustainable attributes to make a tree hugger blush, including:

• Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood.

• Non-toxic building materials and paints.

• A blackwater treatment system.

• Radiant concrete heating and cooling.

• Natural light.

• Energy and water efficient fixtures.

• A solar hot water system.

• Displacement ventilation.

• Local cuisine.

The overall effect of these innovations is of an imaginative, comfortable space, "built from the ground up with the environment top of mind," as the MCEC's chief executive explained in the center's latest quarterly newsletter.

"It can't be any other way," Mason said with the sensibility of a Melbourne local. "It no longer makes sense to build something that will degrade your surroundings."

As the dialogue concerning our shared responsibility for a green future begins to unfold in Melbourne, it's difficult to imagine surroundings more suitable in which to hold such talks.

New Thought celebrates faiths' universal principles

By Roya Camp
New Thought News Service

Humanity at its best.
That's the picture Dr. Michael Beckwith painted of the New Thought philosophies and supporters gathered Wednesday, one day before the historic Parliament of the World's Religions kicks off in Melbourne, Australia.
Several hundred members of Centers for Spiritual Lliving, Unity communities and other New Thought organizations spent a lyrical, joyful day, one that started with Aboriginal blessings and music and continued with sessions of prayer, education and song.
Attendees at the pre-Parliament gathering, who'd been arriving in Melbourne from all over the United States and elsehwere for the previous week, spent the day learning about commonalities between the New Thought traditions and many of the faith traditions represented at the Parliament.
Members of the Agape Choir, Erika Luckett, Lisa Ferraro and Faith Rivera were among the musicians who shared their considerable talents with the audience.
Attendees also got a preview of the hundreds of workshops, performances, films, service activities and youth programs in store for the thousands of Parliament participants starting tomorrow.

New Thought goes Down Under

By Joe Murray

New Thought News Service

Some go to Australia to practice their boomerang skills, others to visit Ayer’s Rock.

Some went to the island as punishment (Britain sent criminals to Australia in the 1700s and 1800s); some go to escape.

In less than a month, more than 10,000 people from all over the world are expected to go “Down Under” to be part of the historic 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions.

The United Centers for Spiritual Living and other organizations affiliated with the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) will convene with representatives of the world’s faith traditions in Melbourne, Australia, in early December.

The Parliament’s theme: “Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth.”

This will not be the first Parliament attended by New Thought communities. But for the first time, the New Thought organizations with specifically American roots, including those of Religious Science, have formed one delegation.

They are walking their talk.

As a united New Thought delegation, 10 groups have joined under the AGNT banner and are looking forward to bringing their contribution to the international community.

Dr. Barbara Fields, AGNT executive director, will be a delegation leader. For her, the unified movement reflects themes of the Parliament and underscores the principles of New Thought itself.

“Our movement is based on inclusiveness rather than exclusiveness, the empowerment of the divine within the individual, rather than on an external power or a mediating authority,” she says.

For Rev. Dr. Kathy Hearn, Community Spiritual Leader for the United Centers for Spiritual Living, the collaboration speaks to the emerging cohesion of the New Thought movement. She attended a previous Parliament in Barcelona, Spain, in 2005.

“There’s always been a New Thought presence, but we’ve never tried to bring the ten families of New Thought together,” she told Science of Mind magazine this summer. “It’s a higher degree of collaboration.”

The first Parliament was held in conjunction with the famed Chicago World’s Fair, or World’s Columbian Exposition, of 1893. It was at this early parliament that the philosophies of the East first met those of the West in a formal setting. The event sparked Western interest in Buddhism and Hinduism and set the stage for the introduction of the American New Thought Movement to the international community.

The Parliaments (there have been three previous such events in recent years, in Chicago in 1993; Cape Town, South Africa, in 1999; and Barcelona, Spain, in 2004) give religious leaders and spiritually active and concerned people the chance to talk and share ideas across faiths, traditions, and practices.

The role of the New Thought delegation is to be “a bridge between religious orthodoxy and the evolution of spirituality toward a socially engaged, enlightened humanity here and now,” says Fields.

By organizing with AGNT, the New Thought groups will have the chance to play larger than ever before.

“New Thought has never been understood or made visible, because no one understands that we create our own denominations,” Fields says. “This serves well within our own spiritual community, but to the outside world, it has made it difficult to be seen and understood by other religious leaders and their faiths. By coming together in Melbourne this year as a unified movement celebrating its own intra-faith diversity, we hope we will change this and shift our place in religious history.”

Agape Choir Brings New Thought to the World’s Stage

By Susana Wolds

New Thought News Service

On Dec. 6 at 7:30 p.m., the Agape International Choir will deliver its soul-filled lyrics and powerful harmonies at the Parliament of the World's Religions Sacred Music Festival.

It will be no ordinary performance. The choir will represent the entire New Thought Movement when it shares its musical stylings alongside musical ambassadors of the world's religious traditions.

The Parliament, to be held in Melbourne, Australia, marks an extraordinary moment for New Thought. It is the first time that 10 major New Thought organizations have united as a delegation to represent the movement as a whole.                                                     
At the most significant interfaith gathering of our time, the Agape Choir will get feet stomping and hands clapping, sharing the spiritual principles of New Thought with the world through rhythm.

Two soul-stirring choir performances will precede the Sacred Music Festival. On Dec. 2, the choir will appear as part of the New Thought Delegation Pre-Conference. And on Dec. 5 at 4:30 p.m., Parliament attendees will be treated to a 45-minute set of Agape love and sound.

The choir is the singing heartbeat of the Agape International Spiritual Center, a trans-denominational church in Los Angeles.

Led by Founder and Spiritual Director Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, Agape is “committed to individual transformation and to being a beneficial presence on the planet.”

The New Thought-Ancient Wisdom teachings espoused by Agape are echoed in songs often co-written by Beckwith and his wife, the Agape Choir's musical director, Dr. Rickie Byars Beckwith.

Rev. Greta Sesheta, a choir member for 19 years, says the group’s songs are, in essence, spiritual principles given tune and tempo. She quotes Michael Beckwith as saying “to sing is to pray twice.”

With a roster of nearly 200, the choir’s makeup is as diverse as the metropolis it calls home.

“Nobody that has auditioned has ever been turned away,” says Sesheta. The choir’s inclusive nature mirrors the New Thought principles of universality, honoring all paths to God and encouraging one's individuality in manifesting his or her highest good.

High-profile events and international venues such as the Parliament appearances are comfortable territory for the choir, which has been a traveling ensemble since the beginning. Singers from Agape have traveled to South Africa and appeared at the United Nations, the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver and President Barack Obama's Inaugural Ball.

Many may recall watching the choir sing backup vocals for hit recording artists Will.I.Am and John Legend at the Democratic Convention. As the television cameras panned the scene, broadcasting their performance around the world, the choir reflected the vibrant and diverse crowd before them.

What makes the group so unique? What puts them in such high demand for public appearance?

According to Sesheta, “nothing separates the listener from the core of their music.” The choir’s music has grown out of the collective experiences of people from all walks of life, so that it embodies universal principles of Truth.

“The Agape Choir carries the evolutionary gene of spiritual music as New Thought carries the evolutionary gene of religious theology,” says Dr. Barbara Fields, executive director of the Association for Global New Thought.
                                                           Above, Rickie Byars Beckwith leads a rehearsal by New Thought delegates and 20 choir members before the Sunday performance at the Parliament. She invited the delegates to share the stage with choir members as a way to expand community. The Agape Choir members paid their own way to participate in the Parliament.

Bree Alten

I've spent 20 years on this planet, and I am so excited to be a part of this press team! I would identify myself as a student, a passionate artist of many fields and a pilgrim. I have spent the past three months exploring the beautiful country of Nepal. It has been an incredible life-changing journey full of discovery and magic, and I am ending my sojourn in lovely Australia. Besides traveling, my passions include the youth of our world, the arts (specifically theater), poetry, good food, reading and the Science of Mind philosophy. It is such an honor to be a part of this union of faiths. I know this conference is another step toward the ultimate planetary shift to peace. I thank all participants being a part of this coming together. Blessings to all.