Welcoming the New Year with (TIWC 01/08/08)

Infinite Peace!

Last Tuesday, January 8, 2008, The Peacemakers’ Circle had its first session of the Tuesday Inner Work Circle for the new year. The 14 of us gathered in the circle eagerly exchanged kamustahan – not having seen each other for weeks since the group took a break for the holidays.

Since it was the first session of the year, the group started its session with interfaith prayers, reflections, affirmations and/or words of inspiration from each one as we offered gratitude for the previous year and welcomed the new one. It was a simple yet very solemn and powerful ceremony that jumpstarted the program in the new year with renewed inspiration and energy.

The opening silence and prayers was followed by a few words from Shakun who leveled off the knowledge of the group on The Peacemakers’ Circle as a founding “member organization” or Cooperation Circle (CC) of the United Religions Initiative (URI).

This was followed by the viewing of some short video clips from the URI which gave more visual orientation, information and understanding about the global interfaith network which The Peacemakers’ Circle is actively a part of.

The participants were then invited to renew and reaffirm their involvement in the circle by formally registering their membership (a separate email will be circulated to open the invitation and announce the mechanics of this membership).

The group then exchanged reflections and insights on what they saw in the videos and this led to a lively discussion about interfaith dialogue and “religiously motivated” violence. This fueled more passion for the participants to continue engaging in dialogue– through the circle-- to foster understanding, respect and acceptance of the differences in each other’s beliefs and perspectives. Some topics for the open evening lectures for the year where suggested.

Next Tuesday (Jan.15) we will be discussing in more detail the new format, the themes and the mechanics for the Inner Work program 2008.

See you then!