June 2008 Newsletter - ENGLISH

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Oneness Summit Awakens Hundreds to 'Ultimate Ground of Being'

Gabriel Avruj Receives Spiritual Leadership Award

Awakening to Oneness through A Blessing

Global Council Adopts Cultural Diversity Declaration

From Our Director, Steve Farrell

Steve Farrell It is one thing to read about and understand Oneness. It is another to deeply experience it. I've just returned from our Humanity's Team Global Council meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina where we shared this experience. It feels really good!

Something about the Global Council first... This group of men and woman is responsible for bringing Humanity's Team to where it is now. It is the group of "spiritual pioneers" who decided back in 2003 to pick up the movement and carry it on their backs up the hill to where it is now. Humanity's Team thrives today because these dedicated individuals decided to do whatever it takes at a global and country level to awaken the world to Oneness. Each member of the Global Council holds significant responsibility for the affairs of the movement and most of them work without pay or expense reimbursement. Members traveled to Buenos Aires from all over the world to meet Sunday through Friday, May 18^th-23^rd. Our first ever Oneness Summit followed the Global Council meeting, so everyone stayed on for this momentous two day event.

Each person, place or thing experiencing Oneness, experiences it in an unique way. I am going to describe how it felt as I sat in the room in Buenos Aires. It felt like the expression of love. It felt to me like everyone was in service to everyone else in the room. There was a feeling of great care and connectedness. We made space for long pauses so Spirit could guide our conversation and meeting flow. You could almost see hearts that were wide open to the room full of people. Each person expressed authentically. You could feel the "heart energy" when people spoke. Speakers fully expressed themselves without interruption. Spiritual experiences were spaced throughout the day so we could nurture our connection with each other, with Spirit, and with our surroundings.

Each person looked relaxed, open and loving. We each have our own way of being and expressing so there was no one consistency but it felt like each person's eyes were better connected to the heart and soul. You could see the person's heart energy simply by looking into their eyes. Some had softer styles of communicating and others more firm and strong styles; each person felt anchored in truth, love and service.

It felt to me like we created a place and a space where Oneness could really be present.

For the sake of transparency, I must share that we did encounter challenging discussion items from time to time and one thing in particular. Our movement is still relatively small for a global organization and we are resource building so sometimes we must send out communications in only English, or with very limited translation. There turned out to be a significant amount of sensitivity and negative energy surrounding this issue . . . for good reason. It can unintentionally convey a sense of superiority and inferiority, which we in Humanity's Team want to always avoid, as we know none of us is superior to anyone else. When we identified the root problem, we placed our attention and heart energy on the wound to feel it and heal it. We then created a new policy statement (Global Council Adopts Cultural Diversity Declaration), focusing on the recognition of diversity, cultural sensitivity and unconditional acceptance for all people regardless of race, culture, color, age or gender. We exited the discussion on a very high note. The vibration in the room did drop to a low for a bit but we attained an elevated vibration following the discussion that soared to a whole new level. It was an amazing experience that will guide us as we journey into the future.

Before closing I want to share my gratitude for each of you. Each of you carries your own experiences of Oneness. Our work is about each being a beacon of light throughout our day, carrying the love of God from our open hearts. It is not so much our words as our presence and actions that are transforming. The experience of Oneness is very powerful, not only for the individual experiencing it, but for each person with whom we come in contact who cannot help but feel it. It is loving, caring, compassionate, kind and considerate. It feels good and it is healing. It is the one thing that can truly change our world.....

In love & service,

Steve Farrell

P.S. If you have a few more minutes, please read the note below from Miriam Klajnberg, a member of the HT Argentina team. She gathered these thoughts following her participation in the initial part of our Global Council meeting.

Hello,

For those who don't know, HT's Global Council Meeting started last Saturday. This means, that the country coordinators gather to define work strategies and actions to be taken this year.

The meeting of 2008 takes place in Argentina, and they are now, and until Thursday meeting in Bellavista.

Since I don't want this mail to be extremely long and boring, I will not tell you every minute of what happened there between Saturday and Sunday. That shall come from the other teammates that participated. But I feel it is VERY important to share with everyone what I felt, and the fantastic things I perceived:

- We are all one, and there is no physical barrier, nor language barrier, when we open our hearts and our energies to this. I already knew this in my mind, and through brief moments shared with some working groups. But here, it was MIND BLOWING. Being with people from different countries, different cultures, different languages, different backgrounds, different cultures, and being able to feel ONE. This confirms that this is a FACT and not just a message read in my computer.

- Being spiritual is not just sending cute messages and sweet words, nor cutting and pasting someone else's messages: The time for ACTION has come, and action means WORKING. This implies committing and doing things, go on the streets to awaken others and not "hiding away" behind our computer screens.

- The goal of HT is the awakening of consciousness, and, for 2008, actions are being prepared to accomplish this.

- HT is not vertical. People are not coming from abroad to tell us what to do: They are a collective of loving, caring beings, with their own ideas, and who know how to listen to the opinions and ideas of others. This is how they get, as a result, a consensus regarding the actions that are to be taken. And that is what we get later on.

The working sessions really took a lot of work, and not only at that moment. It was obvious that those proposing the ideas had thought about them, elaborated them and reached consensus with their teams in their countries: each of them was the voice representing the team that stayed "at home".

- I discovered that this wonderful movement called HT was created from Neale's books, but that it has grown beyond them, that we now not only read NDW, but all other authors that help us grow and awaken. Every material, meditation, concept, is welcome. EVERYTHING.
Because the important thing is not how we awaken, but that we do awaken and continue to grow, and help others in this awakening of consciousness.

I am thrilled, and it is difficult to put all this into the words of a simple mail. I would love to meet each and every one of you, so that you can FEEL the vibration that I brought from the activities of this weekend.

Thank you Gabriel!!! mostly for having invited me. As always, I remain, unconditionally, at your service. Thank you Julio for bringing us to the meeting and taking us back, always with those good vibes, no matter what happens. Such a learning for me.

Thank you Ana Ines, because silently and behind stage, (as we, women, usually do), you are taking care of every detail.

A huge Thank You to Cristina, Ines, Lilia, Lucia, Perla, Ximena (in alphabetical order): it was great to go and to come back in the van, laughing and singing, and then sharing dinner with the joy and the understanding that HT Argentina is so much more!!!!!, and that there is room for action and for fulfilling the expectations of our soul; to understand that we only need to occupy the place that our inner self tells us in order to achieve the change that we want to see/make/feel.
Actions, not just words. Let's stop waiting for something to happen. LET'S MAKE IT A REALITY, NOW!

There is so much more to write, but I don't want to bore you. I feel immense love. And an immense energy to move to action. We are one, and since yesterday, those are definitely not just words. .

Let's take action, by meeting in the Summit next weekend, and let's demonstrate that we are on the path, that CHANGE IS POSSIBLE, AND THAT IT HAS ALREADY STARTED..
Bear hugs to everyone,
Mir

Oneness Summit Awakens Hundreds to 'Ultimate Ground of Being'
By Chip Cooper

Oneness Summit

BUENOS AIRES - What do a Latvian-born biologist, a British standup philosopher, a Dutch-born spiritual scholar, a South African healer, an Argentine rabbi, the Conversations With God author and a former Silicon Valley executive have in common?

They all spoke at the first ever Humanity's Team global Oneness Summit, held recently in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Eminent biologist Janis Roze, world spirituality philosopher Timothy Freke, renowned consciousness scholar Robert Happé, inner-resources speaker and healer Colleen-Joy Page, interspiritual Rabbi Sergio Bergman, Neale Donald Walsch and HT Worldwide Coordinating Director (and onetime Silicon Valley executive) Steve Farrell spoke about how the power of Oneness can transform our lives, and the world, for the better.

They were joined by HT Argentina Coordinator Ciro Gabriel Avruj, HT Argentina's organizing team, the Argentine Foreign Ministry's Peace Council and HT's coordinating Global Council, as well as famous Argentine vocalists and musicians and more than 400 people from all walks of life and more than 30 countries.

Basking in a warm glow of spiritual intimacy, the participants spent two days learning, discussing, practicing and celebrating Oneness to create a planetary shift in which people do not merely know themselves to be one with everything, but experience this unity in their daily lives.

Through education and connection, and through harnessing and channeling their individual and collective energy, participants said they were energized by a whole new level of sacred truth and power that fed Oneness activism and increased passion, wisdom and stamina. And they said they were inspired by how this new level of sacred truth and power was essential both for the transformation of the human race and the preservation of the planet.

"This was an incredibly important conference," Steve said. "We were awakening people to the ultimate ground of being -- our Oneness -- and infusing out relationships with others and our actions in the world with a deep awareness of our fundamental unity."

"At the same time, we were living our lives as demonstrations of our highest and grandest beliefs. And in that grand state of being, we also met with each other, shared information, enhanced relationships, inspired each other, inspired people who'd never heard of Humanity's Team - and had fun - all in the interest of creating the experience of the joy of Oneness!"

The result was a tremendous surge in group momentum to become even more ambitious about shifting the behavior of humanity, in less than a generation, to help each of us remember and recognize our Oneness with each other, with God and with Life Itself.

To see more pictures from the Oneness Summit, click here.

Humanity's Team South Africa will host next year's Oneness Summit in beautiful bustling Johannesburg. Stay tuned to our Web site for details.

If you would like to help Humanity's Team Awaken the World to Oneness by donating to the HT Action Fund, or sharing your time and knowledge, click here.

Gabriel Avruj Receives Spiritual Leadership Award

BUENOS AIRES - Humanity's Team Argentina Coordinator Ciro Gabriel Avruj received the Humanity's Team Spiritual Leadership Award at the global Oneness Summit May 25.

This key recognition - which the HT Global Council has given only once before, to Humanity's Team founder Neale Donald Walsch in 2005 - "celebrates real leadership in the world that progresses the agenda of Humanity's Team and the New Spirituality," Worldwide Coordinating Director Steve Farrell said.

Gabriel's award, containing a citation written in English and Spanish, said: "We celebrate that you have chosen to lovingly and unselfishly share your blessings and gifts with the whole world, through Humanity's Team, in your personal journey through Life. Thank you for your courage, inspiration and leadership in Awakening the World to Oneness."

After presenting the award to Gabriel, the Global Council showed a five-minute multimedia presentation in tribute to Gabriel's spiritual courage. The presentation, created by HT Denmark Coordinator Ejvind Jacobsen, contained stirring and touching music supporting extraordinary photographs of Gabriel's life, from babyhood to the present, including a personal visit with Pope John Paul II.

Gabriel, who also serves on HT's Global Council, was the central energy and inspiration behind the formation of HT Argentina in 2006. He has since led HT Argentina's coordinating team to become one of the most active country teams in the movement.

Gabriel, 35 years old, also teaches entrepreneurs and people in strategic positions in organizations how to integrate their spiritual intelligence into their professional practices. And he has founded, and actively participates in, other groups that promote universal human values and participation by all citizens.

Gabriel has used a wheelchair for mobility since age 14 following a serious 1987 car accident.

On receiving the award, Gabriel shared that before his accident and early in his healing, he was "asleep" and "unconcerned with consciousness, connection and our physical and spiritual reality."

After several years of painful healing, Gabriel became awake to his true identity and saw others in that same spiritual light, he said.

He said he now sees that the transforming process of becoming awake is the one thing that truly changes everything and is the basis of a planetary shift that can usher in the compassionate and sustainable world that humanity has dreamed about for millennia.

Congratulations, Gabriel! You inspire us!

Awakening to Oneness through A Blessing

By Anna-Mari Pieterse
Worldwide Oneness and Spiritual Activism Projects Coordinator

How often do you find yourself burning with desire to respond to life as it plays out on a day to day basis? Often we "lack the time and often also the words." We mostly never get around to doing so.

Humanity's Team have written 5 blessing emails on your behalf, giving you the opportunity to respond to life in a loving, life-affirming way; reminding the politician, religious leader, our friends and family, the educator and the journalist, that we Are All One.

Human beings are part of the Whole - a part limited in space and time, experienced as separate from "the other." To awake from this delusion, one needs to widen the circle of compassion and embrace all living creatures and the whole of life in its glorious beauty. Striving for such an achievement is in itself part of the liberation.

Consciousness is all about relationship and identity. Higher consciousness comes from meaningful experience and engagement with all of life. The more we work with the Universal - the concept of unity and wholeness, the more we begin to understand the parts contained in the bigger picture. To grow in consciousness we have to expand our perspectives on life.

Sending a blessing liberates both the sender and the receiver. It serves to remind us that there truly is only ONE law - the law of Love. Leading a life that expresses this belief opens the heart and the mind to new realities; allowing other dimensional truths to become known.

A Blessing works on the level of invisible spiritual reality and not on what appears to be happening on the level of material events. What appears to be unscrupulous, amoral or selfish, is an opportunity to access goodness, compassion and caring. It is an opportunity to uncover the highest truth that resides deep inside every single individual - albeit we are often not aware of it.

Sending a Blessing gives one the opportunity to respond to life in a life-affirming manner; reminding us that We Are All the Change we wish to see in the world.

Visit our website at http://www.humanitysteam.org/spiritual-activism and you will find 5 blessing emails from which to choose. You will have the opportunity to either download and send it personally to the person/organization of your own choice or to send it to predetermined persons/organizations of global stature. Please scroll down to the bottom of the page to see letter options and e-cards.

Use and re-invent your blessings every day! Adding the qualities you especially want to express whilst remembering that as the reflection and smile of God, these are being unveiled to you as Who You Already Are. Use these lavishly to raise the awareness for the message of Oneness!

Start right now by sending a blessing to your friends and family. A Blessing for Friends/Family/You.

When you send an e-card Blessing, you do more than send an email, you invoke divine care upon the person receiving the Blessing. Don't miss this opportunity to send a Blessing to someone you know now. Bless you!

Global Council Adopts Cultural Diversity Declaration

Cultural Diversity Declaration BUENOS AIRES - One of the most far-reaching decisions the Humanity's Team Global Council made during its annual meeting was to adopt a Declaration of Cultural Diversity.

The declaration, signed by each Global Council member in attendance May 21, stated:

"I commit to increasing my consciousness of cultural diversity, within my own country as well as around the world, so that my Humanity's Team work and that of my teammates reflect this consciousness. This consciousness includes respect for cultural differences such as language, dress and traditions, the ways societies organize themselves, their values and religions, and the ways they interact with the environment."

Council members committed to changing the way they thought and acted to increase their awareness of and sensitivity to cultural differences, and to build cultural diversity and inclusiveness into everything they do.

The first action the council took after agreeing on the declaration was to form a cultural-diversity task force, initially focusing on translation issues, to promote the inclusion of other languages in the creation of worldwide initiatives.

Led by Translation Team Coordinator Ruth Luna of Peru, the task force agreed to make recommendations, for worldwide communications, on the most effective ways of imparting information with fidelity and transparency in multiple languages. It also agreed to recommend ways in which translations can become part of the Humanity's Team ethos so that their importance is built into worldwide campaigns and initiatives from the initial stages of design.

A key immediate task force focus is to collaborate on HT's World Unity Day initiative, led by Oneness Campaign Coordinator Anna-Mari Pieterse of South Africa and IT and Web Coordinator Chip Cooper of the United States.

The task force will report on its progress in the coming months.

How do you want to Celebrate Life?
By Ejvind Jacobsen

"Everyone wants to Celebrate Life" says Maria Ribeiro Ferreira, Education and Inner work coordinator in Humanity'a Team. "But we all have different ideas of how to do that. So we have decided to ask the teammates of Humanity's Team - that's you - how you want to experience celebrating life.

Celebration of Life was designed to have a particular format, and was introduced throughout Humanity's Team in 2007. Facilitators have been trained, and the first groups have formed. The format works for some, and not for others.

At the Global Council meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina, it was discussed how to make the Celebration of Life event even more impactful.The Global Council concluded, that in order to spread the idea of celebrating life worldwide, it is necessary to find out what people want to experience in different parts of the world.

This procedure has been followed in the Czech Republic for more than a year, with huge success. The teammates are meeting weekly, bi-weekly or monthly to celebrate life with each other. They are also spending vacations and holidays together. The result is a feeling of very close community and friendship and a great opportunity to grow intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

"Celebration of Life is our way of experiencing what life is all about" says Country Coordinator Marketa Potmesilova, of the Czech Republic. She continues: "We can celebrate life in so many different ways, like dancing, hugging, singing, laughing or just being with each other in silence or the study of books. We are celebrating being alive - and of course enjoying and having fun with other wonderful people at the same time"

"We would like to have your opinion about what you want to experience, so that we can make a list of suggested activities for the teammates of Humanity's Team" says Maria Ribeiro Ferreira.

Maria adds: "The list will be placed on the website of Humanity's Team international http://www.humanitysteam.org/ and we plan to make translations available for teammates in countries where English is not spoken, as soon as possible after completing the list."

Please send your suggestions or ideas to maria.rf [at] humanitysteam [dot] org

"We believe that this program will help nurture Humanity's Team and humanity at large" says Worldwide Coordinating Director, Steve Farrell. "When we start celebrating life, we automatically let go of the more difficult areas of our lives, and we feel one with each other" he concludes.

For more information, please contact maria.rf [at] humanitysteam [dot] org

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Humanity's Team is a 501(c)(3) organization and all contributions are tax deductible as permitted by law. We feel it is vitally important that you know how your gift helps Awaken the World to Oneness. Click here to review our action plan and see how your donations support our global outreach and spiritual activism.

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June 2008 Newsletter - ENGLISH

Jazyk