By Robert Atkinson,
One Planet Peace Forum was a vision long before this challenging year. When I was living in the Seacoast area in the mid-1970s, I became very familiar with the beauty, spirit, history, and community of Green Acre, in Eliot, Maine.
I was inspired by the vision of Sarah Farmer, its founder, who had attended the first Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893. She invited Vivekananda, Dharmapala, and many others, including New England Transcendentalists, to speak on the universal platform she had created at Green Acre, where she also raised the first known peace flag in 1894.
Since then, I’ve held the vision of offering similar interfaith, interdisciplinary gatherings at Green Acre, a very active Baha’i Center of Learning, that would be open to all to explore solutions to the most challenging issues facing humanity today, during an off week of its year-round programs.
In 2014, Dana Sawyer introduced me to Lori Whittemore who was envisioning the Abbey of Hope; he thought our visions might overlap. I became an inaugural board member of the Abbey, an interfaith Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative. In March 2019, URI announced a funding opportunity for a regional gathering of peacebuilders to collaborate, co-create, and engage the head and heart to further social justice and diversity work.
We applied, received the grant from URI, and began our planning in May 2019. A full weekend program of amazing presenters was soon in place, through regular monthly meetings of the fully dedicated volunteer planning team.
Then in March 2020, when the pandemic hit, just like so many others, we had to figure out whether to cancel, reschedule, or come up with a totally different plan. After a few weeks in limbo, and with URI’s assurance that we could reschedule to 2021, we began to consider shifting to a virtual event.
Amazingly, all but a couple presenters recommitted to 2021 and offered to present at a much condensed 3-day virtual Forum during that original weekend. We partnered with Good of the Whole, a URI Cooperation Circle, to co-produce the virtual program on their platform. With a few adjustments along the way, all went very smoothly.
Our inaugural virtual Peace Forum is behind us, but there is still a long way to go to realize the age-old vision of peace on earth. Beginning with a holistic vision to peace making, we approach peace as an ongoing inner and outer process, as well as the outcome of a long evolutionary trajectory, with built-in cycles of ups and downs.
This process is taking us to new levels of advancement toward nuclear disarmament, civil rights, human rights, gender equality, environmental, economic, social, racial, and restorative justice, all interconnected stepping-stones to peace, which have all reached a critical tipping point in this tumultuous year. We invite you to join the ongoing conversation on our Facebook page, visit our website, and attend next year’s One Planet Peace Forum.
Robert Atkinson, PhD, author, educator, and developmental psychologist, is a 2017 Nautilus Book Award winner for The Story of Our Time: From Duality to Interconnectedness to Oneness. He is also the author or co-editor of eight other books, including Our Moment of Choice: Evolutionary Visions and Hope for the Future (2020), Year of Living Deeply: A Memoir of 1969 (2019), Mystic Journey: Getting to the Heart of Your Soul’s Story (2012), and The Gift of Stories (1995). He is professor emeritus at the University of Southern Maine, founder of One Planet Peace Forum, a member of the Evolutionary Leaders, and deeply committed to assisting the evolution of consciousness toward wholeness and unity. www.robertatkinson.net
