OEN Senior Editor Marta Steele, Managing Editor Meryl Ann Butler and Editor-in-Chief Rob Kall attending the Sister Giant Conference in Washington DC
(Image by Meryl Ann Butler) Details DMCA
This standing-room-only conference of over 1800 people is offering exciting, hopeful, unifying presentations on spirituality in politics.
The event began with a rousing keynote by Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday evening, available on OpEdNews here.
Additional speakers so far have included:
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who represents Washington's seventh district, and is the first Indian American woman in the U.S. House of Representatives;
Rev. Dr. William Barber II, who serves as President of the North Carolina NAACP and leads the Forward Together Moral Movement in North Carolina, an alliance of more than 200 progressive organizations better known as "Moral Mondays;"
Jean Houston, Ph.D., scholar, philosopher and researcher in Human Capacities, one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time, who is long regarded as one of the principal founders of the Human Potential Movement;
Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich, an internationally renowned champion of diplomacy and peace, whose distinguished career in public service dates back to 1969 and spans councilman, clerk of courts, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio State Senator, 8 term Member of US Congress and 2-time Democratic candidate for President of the United States;
Elizabeth Kucinich, a prominent leader for a new food movement towards regenerative agriculture for healthy soil, healthy food, healthy people and a healthy planet; and a champion for business as an agent of world benefit, social and environmental justice and animal welfare;
Opal Tometi, New York based Nigerian-American writer, strategist and community organizer and Co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter.
and Rabbi Michael Lerner, author of the national bestseller, The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Religious Right (Harper San Francisco, 2006), rabbi of Beyt Tikkun and the editor of Tikkun.
OpEdNews will be offering more articles about these presentations, which have so far, without exception, offered hope, positivity, inspiration, and specific strategies to bring balance, ethics and compassion back to American politics.
Each of the speakers addressed the fact, each in her/his own way, that we are not amidst normal politics in this moment. And that requires something more, something different and so far untried, something more effective...and most speakers have acknowledged that this missing piece is the connection between non-religious spirituality and politics.
Rabbi Michael Lerner leading 1700 people in a rousing chorus of 'Down by the Riverside'
(Image by Meryl Ann Butler) Details DMCA
You can sign up for the livestream at www.sistergiant.com, the videos will be available to you for six months.
(Edit 02.05.17: the phrase "conference of approximately 1700 people " was changed to "over 1800 people" when more accurate information became available.)