Dear Friends From Around the World,

This is an important e-mail that we believe will take a few minutes
to read. If you have five minutes to read it now, then we encourage
you to do so. If you don't, then we encourage you to bookmark it or
print it out until you think you'll have the time to give it your
full attention.

We've just returned from our Humanity's Team international
conference and Global Council meeting at Bard College in New York
state and want to briefly share some experiences, actions taken and
plans for the future.

The international conference, "Seeds of Transformation: Toward a
Spiritual Renaissance in a Time of Fundamental Change," was, in a
phrase, an extraordinary experience! It's not possible to express
the fullness of what took place or to recount the unique experiences
that people had, but we would like to share a bit of what happened
when more than 300 people from six continents and dozens of
countries, from within and beyond Humanity's Team, came together.

We were an amazing assemblage of speakers, artists, entertainers,
poets, business people, laborers, academics, students, religious
leaders, spiritual activists, scientists, indigenous people and, of
course, teammates and those exploring Humanity's Team -- a
wonderfully diverse collection of people from many walks of life.
But our message was the same: "We are all One. Let's experience and
express our Oneness in our daily living." The event inspired so many
wonderful expressions of our Oneness that it is difficult to know
where to start. It was so beautiful, uplifting and, yes, emotional!

Becoming the Change

In the beautiful and peaceful campus setting of Bard College, in New
York's exquisite and spiritual Hudson Valley region, we came
together to educate and connect with ourselves and each other and to
harness and channel the collective energy of ourselves in our
Oneness to progress the Humanity's Team movement forward.

Most of us who were there agree that during that weekend, we became
the change we wished to see in the world. We were spreading joy and
sharing love. We were choosing to live our lives as demonstrations
of our highest and grandest beliefs. We were demonstrating through
our very being -- for ourselves and for others -- what living the
New Spirituality could be like. And in that grand state of being --
in that state of love -- 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!

Humanity's Team co-hosted and co-presented the conference with the
renowned Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College. We
emphasized throughout the weekend that Humanity's Team is becoming
the vanguard movement focusing on belief systems about God and about
life. Greenpeace may be the vanguard organization for environmental
justice in the world, we said. Humanity's Team is becoming the
vanguard movement -- an active, collaborative movement -- focusing
on belief systems about God and about life.

Speakers, Networking, Music

The keynote address on our opening night, Friday, was given by the
Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., dean of the Martin Luther King Jr.
International Chapel at Morehouse College in Atlanta. He brought
people to their feet as he described "Religion on the Cusp of a New
Spirituality" and articulated the spiritual leadership exhibited by
historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr.

Neale Donald Walsch gave several presentations over the three days
and brought a standing ovation when he described a world hungry to
experience and express itself from a whole new understanding of God
and what Life Itself is really about.

Paul Ferrini shared inspirations brought to him specifically for our
conference and our movement -- in particular, that it is time to put
down our books and to venture out into the world as the Light, as
healers and as spiritual activists. We need not feel "ready," he
said; we must only feel willing. If we are truly willing, he said,
then we will be guided and supported in the work we do.

A Humanity's Team networking area was set up in which communities,
states and countries from around the world colorfully showcased
major projects, initiatives, themes and plans. Australia, Canada,
Ecuador, England, France, Germany, Italy, Nepal, the Netherlands,
Japan, Peru, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, the United States, Wales and
many, many other countries were represented. We filled three rooms
to overflowing. This was one of the best attended and most fun stops
at the conference! Special thanks to Humanity's Team U.S. for
organizing this!

We also had many individual Humanity's Team speakers giving
presentations. John and Trish Gallagher, teammate and human
resources coordinators, respectively, facilitated a seminar about
the concept of "functional teams" (more about this concept later);
Diego Cornejo, interim geography coordinator for Central and South
America, Mexico and the Caribbean, and country coordinator for
Ecuador, spoke about the benefits of experiential spiritual
education; Eiko Hayakawa, country coordinator for Japan, described
the peaceful, natural and spontaneous evolution of Humanity's Team
in her country from one teammate a year ago to more than 90
teammates and five active local communities today; Nicole Aknin,
country coordinator for France, spoke about the role of education in
the process of implementing peace on our planet; Dick Halloran,
spiritual legal steward, facilitated a workshop on discovering
aspects of yourself that you may have forgotten; George Lockett,
country coordinator for Wales, gave a guided meditation that
balanced people's energies and brought healing and peace; Duysal
Askun, worldwide teams facilitator, geography coordinator for
Eastern Europe and Asia/Pacific, and country coordinator for Turkey,
spoke about the growing awareness of the similar aims of psychology
and the New Spirituality; Peter Matthies, coordinator for conscious
commerce and strategy, spoke about creating a "spirit-based
business"; and Bill Koerner, worldwide information technology
coordinator, focused on the technology planned and used by
Humanity's Team to meet its mission.

Many outside experts also spoke, including Bruce Chilton, director
of the Institute of Advanced Theology, whose presentations included
a talk about the need for a "spiritual resurrection" as humanity
moves toward the New Spirituality; author-scholar-filmmaker Phil
Cousineau, who gave a multimedia presentation about the sudden rise
in spiritual pilgrimages as a reflection of the New Spirituality
trend; religious and spiritual researcher Robert Forman, who
described Humanity's Team as an integral part of an emerging
worldwide grassroots-spirituality movement driven by a fundamentally
new form of spirituality, focused on the personal, experiential and
transcendental; artist-mystic Alex Grey, who gave an illustrated
talk about art as an expression of spirit, consciousness, love and
transformation; mythic scholar Stephen Larsen, who discussed the
phenomenon of dualistic thinking in monotheistic religions and how
fundamentalism is an outgrowth of this dualism; theologian Carol
Ochs, whose inspiring talk about finding God in our own stories
noted that our lives are as important as any life that has been
lived (God does not create "bit players," she said); and physics
professor Arthur Zajonc, who illuminated the emerging reconciliation
of science and spirituality and what he believes this means to
Western civilization.

Other events included a fascinating panel discussion -- with Bruce
Chilton, Carol Ochs and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, chief executive of
the American Sufi Muslim Association (moderated by Neale) -- about
the commonalities and differences among Judaism, Christianity and
Islam; a rare public talk by 91-year-old William Commanda, the most
senior Elder from the Algonquin Nation, who offered his vision of a
Circle of All Nations, in which all races and cultures solve their
problems, face to face, in a "talking circle"; a special meditation
and dialogue led by the co-conveners of the Spiritual Caucus at the
United Nations; and an powerfully emotive and touching outdoor
ecumenical prayer service, celebrated by the Rev. Betsy Stang and a
remarkable gathering of religious and spiritual leaders and
musicians from a wide variety of faith and wisdom traditions.

Each evening was capped with musical entertainment. Folk musicians
Jay Ungar and Molly Mason played a rousing concert on opening night
and the spiritual British ensemble Bliss gave a stunning performance
on the weekend's final evening. Faith Rivera, Nafeesa Monroe, Ali
Handal and Harold Payne, who had come early to entertain the
Humanity's Team Global Council, were enhanced by fellow musicians
Gerald White and Mark Romero in a heart-stirring outdoor
performance, "Standing as One," Saturday night. The artists were
joined in a few numbers by teammate Lisa Firestone. We are so
blessed that all these talented musicians -- and others who
performed in the ecumenical service and as part of our "spiritual
experiences" throughout the weekend -- felt called to entertain and
inspire us! A variety of exceptional visual artists was also drawn
to Bard, exhibiting paintings and sculptures of religious and
spiritual figures and imagery in a special conference art gallery we
created. Separate spaces were also created for a special meditation
room and a room devoted to the great, elliptical World Peace
Labyrinth, developed for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake
City, Utah.

Many thanks to Gerry Harrington, the visionary behind the conference
and its chief organizer (and Humanity's Team's worldwide
communications coordinator), for his 18 months of loyal, diligent
and reliable servant leadership in bringing the conference to life.
We also thank Bea Boes, our spiritual accountant, for keeping her
good, steady hand on the till; Bill Koerner, for his yeoman service
in keeping us technologically functional throughout; the dozens of
volunteers who were essential to the event's smooth operation;
Carolyn Bonnington, the volunteer coordinator; Ann Fody, the event
planner; and the many, many other people too numerous to name here
who contributed their time and abundance to this event.

Global Council Meeting

The Humanity's Team Global Council, composed of country coordinators
from all over the world and members of the worldwide team, converged
on Bard the weekend before the conference and met for five days.
This was a landmark meeting, where our governance structure --
composed of a Council of Trustees, Worldwide Coordinator, Worldwide
Outreach Team, Worldwide Services & Support Team and, of course, a
Global Council -- was approved.

The council agreed the governance structure would follow a "4 C's"
program, focusing on Consciousness, Collaboration, Consensus and
Communication. The 4 C's will be central to our process of creating
plans and implementing them across the movement. We also created a
vision of a "chaordic" system, grounded on the Five Steps to Peace,
which we agreed to grow into. This envisioned chaordic system is
self-organizing, self-governing, adaptive, nonlinear and complex;
harmoniously blending characteristics of chaos and order so that it
is dominated by neither. It is, in effect, existing in a phase
between order and chaos.

Many initiatives were also developed. One of them was "functional
teams," or teams with specific, functional purposes or goals, such
as communication, education, translation and abundance creation.
Functional teams work with each other and with other functional
teams in a "chaordic" fashion. Each team member commits to full
participation, trust, open communication, clear roles, risk-taking --
and a healthy social/"business" balance.

Other initiatives were also developed. All of them are now beginning
to span the globe. They will serve as invitations to people to
participate in Humanity's Team based on interests and background and
will fully empower teammates around the world to create organization
and outreach at every level of Humanity's Team.

Over the course of our five-day council meeting, we significantly
expanded our vision, plans and commitment to the movement. By the
time the meeting was over, "we were all walking 10 feet off the
ground," as worldwide coordinator Steve Farrell put it. Our next
Global Council meeting will take place in about nine months.

Thank you to Duysal Askun, Gerry Harrington, U.S. coordinator Ceci
Schulte, coordinating associate for the U.S. (and Western U.S.
coordinator) Keith Garrison and all the country coordinators and
members of the Worldwide Team for their assistance in putting
together a fabulous Global Council meeting!

Humanity's Team Award

One last thing the Global Council decided to create was a Humanity's
Team award for extraordinary contribution to the advancement of the
New Spirituality. This is a key new initiative designed to identify
and celebrate real leadership in the world that progresses the
agenda of Humanity's Team and the New Spirituality. The council
believes that the collective planetary change needed now is
catalyzed by strong and effective personal leadership. The council
gave its inaugural award to Neale Donald Walsch at the closing night
of the international conference. Special congratulations and thanks
to Neale for bringing his special form of leadership to the world!


---------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------

If you are not already registered with Humanity's Team through
Nexus, please register now so that you can become more fully
connected with your fellow teammates and stay up-to-date on the many
Humanity's Team initiatives and communications. To register, please
click here: www.humanitysteam.com/join.html.

Please also know that Humanity's Team will begin a pledge drive
shortly to create financial substance for the movement. We have
developed many wonderful, new plans and now intend to create the
funding to carry them out. We believe that our revenue sources,
currently less than $4,000 (U.S.) a month, must increase if our
movement is to enjoy healthy growth. Our revenues are what you
contribute and we rely on your sharing and generosity to continue to
do our outreach in the world. We ask you to contribute when the
pledge drive begins. If you would like to be involved in our
abundance creation process, please e-mail Peter Matthies at
peter@....

That's all for now! We will be in touch soon.

With love, appreciation and gratitude,
Humanity's Team Worldwide Team