Forgiveness Campaign Strategy

Invitation

Forgiveness Campaign Strategy

The general strategy of Decade Of The Heart lays a framework to unite people who are already taking leadership roles with many more who can identify with this global awakening. It offers the possibility of diverse practical and social expressions of our greater consciousness in ways not previously utilized. The initiative embraces one and all - from 'ordinary' people in all walks of life to the leaders of our institutions - with a special emphasis on youth participation. It unites the religious and the secular in a consciousness of the heart, and in so doing energizes people to rise to the occasion of spiritual awakening.

FORGIVENESS AS A PORTAL

Forgiveness, and all that it implies, is a theme that has rarely been thoroughly addressed in modern culture. It is one of cornerstones of Decade Of The Heart. The campaign is guided by the understanding that forgiveness is a portal to global awakening, By freeing us to connect with our higher selves, forgiveness opens us to broader conflict resolution in contemporary human society.

To assist our discussions over these two days, we are proposing three primary elements in this initial outline of strategy.

1. Community-based pilot projects that will foster a community of communities to help cultivate spiritually aware citizens and raise the spiritual awareness of people in positions of leadership. This project will involve totally fresh, grass-roots approaches and serve as a model, in much the same way the early nonviolence movement served as a model, for training and communication. It is hoped that the Decade Of the Heart campaign will provide a framework that is supported by diverse people and organizations, particularly youth, embracing a consciousness of the heart that facilitates rising to the occasion of leadership at all levels of society. This collective sharing of resources will "raise all boats." The creation of various levels of process and project facilitation will likely prove crucial to its success.
   x
2. Media and general awareness campaigns that spread the message and value of forgiveness. The Messages: Awakening the Heart of Humanity campaign serves as one such model. This campaign comprises a variety of professionally produced commercial television and radio spots, magazine and newspaper print advertising, billboards, and electronic displays. The first of these messages was presented with a select nuymber of other media campaigns by an international advertising forum in November and December 2001. In addition, a pilot on forgiveness and spirituality is being prepared for fall 2002 broadcast by PBS. A television series on American society and spirituality is also in early stages of planning.
   x
3. Support from cultural and institutional leaders at the highest levels. It is planned that the Decade Of The Heart campaign will generate endorsements at all levels and identify and secure funding sources to implement a range of specific project initiatives.
   x

In America, whose strength is based in part on its potential of fulfilling the highest aspirations of humanity, theis "promise" remains unfulfilled. The Decade Of The Heart campaign is strongly supported, by a recent major research study that demonstrates that in America the sense of the sacred, while not directly linked to the observance of a recognized faith, is experienced as ever-present in daily life. More people than ever are making positive and integral choices to heal themselves and the planet. Many people and organizations are making contributions to various facets of global awakening.

There is yet to emerge a coherent and stable nexus. At a time when it is most needed, a strong infrastructure to encourage and nourish this new consciousness in a material way remains to be built. There exists at present no mechanism for the synergistic integration of higher consciousness with the service of global awakening. A new set of spiritually aligned leaders - young and old - need to be encouraged and assisted in every way.

The Decade Of The Heart initiative envisions, as Iroquois leader Leon Shenandoah expressed it, a universal spiritual consciousness as the highest form of politics - a sort of global spiritual civics. After all, the greatest virtue and strength of a pluralistic society is not relativism but the universal practice of tolerance. If you are reading this message, you share a common desire to provide people with inspiration and resources with which to create a more enlightened future.

Decade Of The Heart can help form a new fabric for human society, one that is that is purely intended to facilitate in an emerging new consciousness and to materially facilitate a more positive and compassionate future.

© 2002 Fund For Global Awakening. All rights reserved. Fund For Global Awakening is a
501(c)3 corporation for public benefit and is not limited to, nor influenced by, any political, economic or religious interests.