New Thought Orgs Join Together at Parliament of World Religions

The Parliament of World Religions, which just met Dec. 3-9 this past year in Melbourne, is the largest interfaith gathering in the world. During the Parliament's proceedings, various New Thought organizations (including Unity School of Christianity) came together as a larger movement of spiritual traditions to convey New Thought perspectives on many of the critical social and environmental issues and to present a unified and cohesive identity on the international stage.

Also, as it turned out, there was held a Pre-Parliament Conference where The Association for Global New Thought, The Association of Unity Churches Intl, Unity School of Christianity, Agape International Spiritual Center, Affiliated New Thought Network, The International New Thought, Alliance, and others assembled to exchange ideas and learn from each other.

This shows an incredible move to interact and dialogue within the larger New Thought outlook on the world. It's an effort that shows great interest in developing mutual support and further understanding in the process of spiritual transformation. However, as a caveat, while dialogue among New Thought groups is wonderful we must be sure, as with any dialogue, that each distinct group doesn't get watered down into a generalized lowest-common denominator, doesn't loose its specialness and uniqueness. In other words, lets not emphasize unity at the expense of diversity, but rather promote a unity-in-diversity which recognizes common ground and connectedness while also affirming the differences and plurality of our situation. The Agape Center's beliefs, ideas, practices, and governance are not the same as Unity School of Christianity which is, in turn, not identical to the Association of Global New Thought. While their worldviews maintain many commonalities they are nontheless discrete traditions with differences in belief and practice. (In fact, these principles may also apply to the unity-in-diversity among individual people. More on this at a later time.)

For more information about the pre-Parliament New Thought Delegate Conference, visit www.agnt.org/powr.

Find information on the Parliament of the World's Religions at www.parliamentofreligions.org.

Watch this AGNT video for the 2009 Parliament of the World's Religions.