Caring for a World in Transition
– Building a Foundation for a Loving and Peaceful World

A very successful gathering of the Spirit of Humanity Forum was held in Reykjavik 26-29 April with 175 participants from all continents. The format was simple. Plenaries in the mornings, and workshops and small groups for reflection in the afternoons.

The plenaries each took the form of an ‘interview’ with a panel of three to four people sharing not only what they were doing, but also the spiritual transformation that inspired and sustains their work. Contributions were exceptional, in plenary, in workshops, in reflection groups and in one-to-one conversations during the breaks.

The beginning and closing of the Forum were celebrated by Icelandic choirs, and children from Icelandic schools decorated the venue for us. All of the panel sessions are now available to view in full on our YouTube channel and also on this website, below.

Speakers and contributors at the 3rd Forum 2017

Programme

Download the full programme from a successful Spirit Of Humanity Forum In Iceland in 2017

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2017 Forum Panel – Bridging Divides

In this panel, Lord Alderdice, Ottarr Proppe and Alexandra Asseily discuss ways in which spiritual communities around the globe help shift human consciousness from fear and separation towards love and wholeness.

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2017 Forum Panel – Fostering Compassion

In this panel,Emmanuel Bombande, Gulalai Ismail, Baroness Verma and Xia Yu look at how might our ‘duty of care’ and a growing collective consciousness change decision making processes in ways that express more love and foster compassion for each other?

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2017 Forum Panel – Caring for our planet

Four Arrows, Karen Blincoe, Golo Pilz and Emilie Parry look at how might our ‘duty of care’ and a growing collective consciousness change decision-making processes in ways that express more love and foster compassion for the planet.

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2017 Forum Panel – Governance, communities and peace

In this panel, Hrund Gunnsteinsdottir, Steve Killelea, Prof Mike Hardy and Dr Vladimir Yakunin look at the question ‘In strengthening our spiritual foundation, how might we transform governance in different sectors of society?’.

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Opening by HE the President of Iceland Guðni Th. Jóhannesson

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Opening by the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Iceland Gudlaugur Thór Thórdarson

Reykjavík 2017

Caring for a World in Transition - Building a Foundation for a Loving and Peaceful World

Caring for a World in Transition

Today’s world is in transition, and there is a growing and widespread understanding of the need for interconnectedness, harmony and peace in the world. For this reason, the Spirit of Humanity Forum (SoH) seeks values-based approaches to governance in our private and public lives. In the words of Swedish Ambassador Ragnar Ängeby, one of the Forum’s founders, “the lasting improvements to the world’s conditions require a change of consciousness that will strengthen our ability to live by the highest values intrinsic to our humanity.”

The third SoH Forum, to be held on 26-29 April 2017 in Reykjavik, will focus attention on the urgent necessity of building and strengthening our global societies and communities as part of our duty to care for and support a world in transition, including caring for ourselves, for each other and for the planet Earth.

We have observed that in the transition towards a new paradigm there are movements and initiatives that centre on structural reform, social justice, human rights and equalities in the world, the ‘outer’ expressions of peace, and there are those that stress tranquility and the contemplative life, the ‘inner’ experience of peacefulness. It hence requires us to better integrate these two approaches to creating a loving and peaceful world.

Underlying the notion of care is also a recognition of the sacredness in being human and in nature, and of the interdependence between the humanity and the planet. This recognition involves a spiritual dimension which can enable us to open ourselves to the divine and to transcendent realities.

Thus SoH Forum Reykjavik 2017 will encourage leaders and change-makers at all levels to explore what it means to live from the ‘inside-out’ as well as the ‘outside-in’, and how this relational way of being supports a global transformation from fear and separation towards love and wholeness.

Concept Paper

The third forum “Caring for a World in Transition – Building a Foundation for a Loving and Peaceful World“ took place in ReykjavikIceland 26-29 April 2017

Longing for transformation

“The two and a half days felt like a continuous outflowing of stories about love, compassion and transformation. The intensity of this experience felt as a cry, an urgent need for transformation and for ways in which we might enable this transformation to come about. In the end, there was an euphoria that had arisen in the persistent shared experience of people’s lives, of things they cared about, and wanted to share – to say “Look at this, isn’t this something wonderful that we should nurture. Please help me. Can we do this together?”

The spirit connects us

“Just to watch what happens when spiritually minded people come together and meet. It was like old friends meeting again, in spite of seeing each other for the first time, and coming from so many different fields and walks of life. Everyone becomes happy finding so many like-minded souls from around the world. Even just this first impression was so empowering and uplifting.”

Embrace our past

“We need to return to a world view that honours the complementary, the masculine and feminine, the solar and lunar. We have come to a point where what we are doing does not sustain us anymore. We need to get together to avoid the collapse of civilizations. The light will win! Face the state you are in, and hold the light. Combine love with purpose, there is a task bigger than each one of us, join in the task. To move forward, we need to first embrace all of what we have done, for good and for bad. We can’t leave something behind.”

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Biggest learnings

What did we learn at the 2017 Spirit of Humanity Forum? Some of our participants share their biggest learnings from Iceland

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Three words

What three words did our participants use to describe the Spirit of Humanity Forum in Iceland? Watch the video and find out!

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What made your heart sparkle?

We spoke to participants at this year’s Forum to see what made their heart sparkle, resulting in some beautiful responses

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Steve Killelea: Global Peace Index

Steve Killelea is the founder of the global think tank, the Institude for Economics and Peace.

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Lord John Alderdice: Bridging Divides

Jim Paymar spoke to Lord John Alderdice on bridging divides at the 2017 Forum in Iceland.

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Understanding ourselves

Jim Paymar sat down with Four Arrows at the 2017 Spirit Of Humanity Forum.

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Resolution takes courage

Jim Paymar sat down with Alexandra Asseily to look at the conflict in Lebanon.

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Aware Girls

Gulalai Ismail speaks candidly about Aware Girls, an initiative to help girls in her home country of Pakistan.

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The most intense power

Lungi Makgoba about ‘coming home’ and how ‘love is the most intense power’….

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Members of change

An insightful interview looking at climate change and caring for our planet

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Reawakening humanity

Dr Rama Mani, Founder, Theatre of Transformation Academy spoke to Jim Paymar in Iceland

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What is Spirit Of Humanity?

Participants from this year’s Forum spoke about what the Forum, and what the Spirit of Humanity, means to them

Booklet of Peacefulness

Booklet "Caring for the earth"