Study Group Modules

EARTH CHARTER

The Earth Charter is a declaration of fundamental principles for building a just, sustainable and peaceful global society in the 21st century.

It offers a compelling vision and states the guidelines, principles and values needed in order to live together as one planetary community. Its' global ethical vision recognizes - really for the first time - that environmental protection, human rights, equitable social and economic development, and democracy, non-violence and peace are truly interdependent and indivisible aspects of the seamless web of life. Please visit: www.earthcharter.org.

Suggested videos to use to accompany the study of The Earth Charter:

• A Universe Drama in 3 Acts (15 minutes)
• Our Unfolding Story (29 minutes)
• God's Creation and Global Warming (29 minutes)
• The Global Banquet: Politics of Food (Part Two) - The Globalization of the Food Supply (25 minutes)
• The Global Brain by Peter Russell (30 minutes)

All of these videos are available from the SNJM Sabbath Space Lending Library: SNJM Sabbath Space.

NOTE: There are so many other 'topics' that could be chosen as you reflect on these principles of The Earth Charter, for example:

• Population
• Trafficking in Women and Children
• Racism, Sexism, Militarism
• The Commodification of the Global Commons (Water, Seeds, DNA)
• Genetic Engineering - GMO's
• Globalizaion and The Trade Agreements / "Free Trade" (Breton Woods, World Bank, IMF, GATT, NAFTA, WTO)
• Discrimination
• Poverty, Ignorance, Homelessness
• Refugees, Immigration
• Sweatshops
• Housing
• Health Care
• The UN Millenium Development Goals www.un.org

THE GREAT TURNING: FROM EMPIRE TO EARTH COMMUNITY by David Korten www.thegreatturning.net

You are invited to start an Interfaith Study/Discussion Group based on the book The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community by David Korten.

Are you yearning for a positive future for all of life on earth and for those who will come after us? At this crucial point in the story of humankind we are being called to turn from the violence and destructiveness of the past and to help create a just, sustainable and peaceful future.This book offers a compelling spiritual and ethical blueprint that can help us build such a future. The book draws on the spiritual, social, economic, scientific, psychological and common sense history of the past 5,000 years.

We hope you will form a group in order to learn, share and be empowered to help create the new story for which we are all longing.

4 copies of the book are available from the lending library on this website.

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