One Planet Peace Forum

One Planet Peace Forum (OPPF) is pleased to announce the virtual launch of its annual gathering for building a culture of peace, September 25-27. This is designed to be a more in-depth focused follow up to International Day of Peace as an opportunity to spend time with internationally known peace builders who will offer their visions for a peaceful future. 

Sponsored by the Abbey of Hope, an interfaith Cooperation Circle of United Religions Initiative (URI), and funded by grants from URI and the Maine Humanities Council, One Planet Peace Forum is co-produced by Good of the Whole, a Cooperation Circle of URI, and the Connection Field, and is emceed by Julie Krull, president and founder of Good of the Whole.

OPPF was created as an annual event to offer a universal platform for people of all spiritual and secular expressions to co-create solutions to the most challenging issues facing humanity today. It seeks to help fulfill the age-old vision of peace on Earth by inspiring cooperative action toward building the future we envision. More on OPPF's mission, vision, and leadership team is available on the About page of the website. 

The program, which takes place from 3-5:30pm ET each day, Friday, September 25, Saturday, September 26, and Sunday, September 27, integrates short keynote talks, panels with discussion, contemplative practice, and sacred performance to create a safe place for collaboration by applying universal principles, values, and tools, such as truth telling and unitive justice, to find common ground through interfaith and interdisciplinary dialogue and action. Sunday is Youth Day, dedicated to giving voice to young people, who are so heavily impacted by the unrest in today's world, and features a discussion between youth envisioning a peaceful future.

Presenters for 2020 include: Audrey Kitagawa, Parliament of the World’s Religions; Rev. Victor Kazanjian, United Religions Initiative; Kurt Johnson, author, The Coming Interspiritual Age; Layli Miller Muro, Tahirih Justice Center; Swami Tyagananda, Vedanta Society of Boston; Philip Hellmich, The Shift Network; Dot Maver, National Peace Academy; Phil Goldberg, author, American Veda; Mohammad Al Samawi, author, The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir; William Smith, National Center for Race Amity; Ben Bowler, UNITY EARTH; David Ragland, Truth Telling Project; Melinda Salazar, Seacoast Peace Academy; Robert Shetterly, painter and founder of Americans Who Tell the Truth; and, Kristin Hoffmann, Bella Gaia. Full bios of all the presenters are available on the Speakers page of the website. The full program schedule for each day is available on the OPPF website Program page.

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