The Heart and Soul of Forgiveness
With Marianne Williamson Saturday, August 1st, from 1 to 5 PM.
Come and join Marianne in this powerful experiential afternoon as she leads us through a process of forgiveness, self-realization and global transformation.
We are at the pivotal moment in our history that calls for us to be our very best - the shining light of love - to erase all doubts and limitations to our greatness - to join together with kindred spirits and to concentrate our conscious energies in bringing forward the changes we want to see. We who are fortunate to have experienced the joy and the power of conscious awakening are blessed to have this opportunity to help birth a new vision that we can unite to create together.
Marianne will focus on how crucial Forgiveness is to loving oneself, which is crucial to having prosperity. The more we love ourselves, the more everything in our lives works, including our relationships and our economic well-being.
And, with her breadth of knowledge, awareness and experience, Marianne will give us her thoughts about where we are now in the healing of our nation and where she see's us going in the future with Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace.
We are witness and we are the weavers of that vision. The event will be videotaped, segments will be disseminated via You-tube and other streaming video online, and a DVD will be produced of this Workshop. We anticipate this to be a significant milestone in elevating the conversation of consciousness.
There will be an opening Global Drum Circle led by David DiLullo.
Advance Priority Seating Tickets are available on line at www.ForgivenessDay.org
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13th Annual International Forgiveness Day Sunday, August 2nd, from 7 to 9:30 PM.
Come celebrate the possibilities of change in our lives when we learn to forgive. Experience the moving and powerful stories of our heroes and champions who have learned to forgive under highly difficult circumstances and then have gone on to teach reconciliation and forgiveness to the broader world.
The event promises an inspiring evening of shared experience as outstanding pioneering leaders of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace are honored. Come and hear their words of wisdom, learn the stories of their journey to compassion, experience the power of forgiveness.
Tickets are available on line at www.ForgivenessDay.org
This year we have four Honorees: |
2009 Champion of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace
Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson, an internationally acclaimed spiritual activist, author, lecturer and founder of The Peace Alliance, a grass roots campaign supporting legislation currently before Congress to establish a United States Department of Peace, will be one of the featured guests at the 13th Annual International Forgiveness Day Awards Ceremony.
There she will be presented with the Champion of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace Award. Champions of Forgiveness are those who dedicate their lives and work to expanding awareness and knowledge about the regenerative power of forgiveness and reconciliation as well as to help others experience it.
Ms Williamson is also the founder of Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area. She has published nine books, including four New York Times #1 bestsellers, including "A Return to Love", considered a must-read of the new spirituality movement. It is from this book that Nelson Mandela took his famous 1994 Inauguration Speech quote that begins with the words, "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure..." Ms. Williamson also has been a popular guest on numerous television programs such as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Larry King Live, Good Morning America and Charlie Rose.
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 2009 Hero of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace
Rep. John Lewis
U.S. Representative John R. Lewis of Georgia, an International Leader of Peace, is often called "One of the most courageous persons the Civil Rights Movement produced." In 1961, he was a leader of the Freedom Riders, a group of young, college students seeking to end segregation in the "Jim Crow" South. During a demonstration at a "whites only" bus station in South Caroline, he and his group were attacked by an angry mob led by the Ku Klux Klan. John Lewis was mercilessly beaten and hospitalized. In 1965, as the Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he participated in the "Selma to Montgomery" marches led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There he endured brutal beatings and suffered a fractured skull at the hands of Alabama State police. His head wounds are still visible today.
Yet, recently, former Ku Klux Klan member Elwin Wilson, who led the 1961 mob of Ku Klux Klansmen and was personally involved in the beating of Lewis, confronted John Lewis. After 48 years, Wilson sought out Congressman Lewis to apologize for what he had done. "I'm so sorry about what happened back then," Wilson said breathlessly. "It's OK," Lewis responded, "I forgive you." John Lewis says he never believed that such a thing would happen and attributes this amazing reconciliation to the power of Love, Grace and the power of people to say, "I'm sorry".
This year, at the 13th Annual International Forgiveness Day Awards Ceremony, U.S. Representative John R. Lewis of Georgia will be honored as a Hero of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace Award for dedicating his life to securing civil liberties, protecting human rights and for building what is known as "The Beloved Community" in America.
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 2009 Hero of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace
Elwin Wilson was an unabashed racist, the sort who once hung a black doll from a noose outside his home. John Lewis was a young civil rights leader bent on changing laws, if not hearts and minds, even if it cost him his life.
They faced each other at a South Carolina bus station during a protest in 1961. Wilson joined a white gang that jeered Lewis, attacked him and left him bloodied on the ground.
Forty-eight years later, the men met again - this time so Wilson could apologize to Lewis and express regret for his hatred. Lewis, now a congressman from Atlanta, greeted his former tormentor at his Capitol Hill office.
Lewis said Wilson is the first person involved in the dozens of attacks against him during the civil rights era to step forward and apologize. When they finally met in person, Lewis offered forgiveness without hesitation.
Since then, Wilson has been on his own freedom march in search of forgiveness.
This year, at the 13th Annual International Forgiveness Day Awards Ceremony, Elwin Wilson will be honored as a Hero of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace Award for coming to contrition and forgiveness for himself and for having the courage to ask for forgiveness from those who he had harmed.
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 2009 Hero of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace
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Christopher Rodriguez, a 12-year-old boy paralyzed by a robber's stray bullet as he was taking a piano lesson in Oakland last year, had a message for the gunman who shot him, "I forgive you."
Christopher delivered his words after rolling in his wheelchair to the front of the Oakland courtroom on Tuesday June 16, 2009 where the shooter Jared Adams, 26, had just been sentenced to 70 years to life in prison. Then he shook the convicted man's hand. Adams received a stiff sentence for wounding Christopher and committing other crimes 18 months ago that left him with a dozen felony convictions. The crime binge included the carjacking at gunpoint of then-state Senate leader and current Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata.
"I know it wasn't your intention to shoot me, but remember - actions always have consequences," Christopher said. "Two of the bullets almost hit my mom. You could have killed my piano teacher, other students, yourself, your girlfriend and just normal people nearby."
During a gas station robbery Jan. 10, 2008, a drunken Adams fired three shots. Two of his shots went across the street to the Harmony Road Music School which is located along Oakland's busy and normally safe Piedmont Avenue corridor. One of the shots penetrated the school's wall and severed Christopher's spine.
Because of his powerful act of forgiveness, Christopher Rodriquez, will be awarded the Hero of Forgiveness, Reconciliation and Peace Award at the 13th Annual International Forgiveness Day Awards Ceremony.
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 Also Participating
Fred Luskin, Ph.D.
A featured speaker will be the 2002 Champion of Forgiveness, Dr. Fredric Luskin, Ph.D. who is the Director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects, a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford and an Associate Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. Dr. Luskin's best selling book, "Forgive For Good" outlines his ground breaking research which demonstrates that learning forgiveness leads to increased physical vitality, hope, greater self-efficacy, enhanced optimism and conflict resolution skills. His research also shows that forgiveness lessens the physical and emotional toll of stress, and decreases hurt, anger, depression and blood pressure. He has successfully worked with men and women from both sides of the violence in Northern Ireland who have had family members killed.
Performing at the event will be vocalist Carmen Marie Coleman in addition to the renowned East Bay International Mass Choir, which is frequently featured in such venues as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Hillside Chapel in Atlanta, Founder's Church Annual International Choral Festival in Los Angeles as well as in West Africa. They will be accompanied by pianist Ed Bogas.
Radio personality Peter B. Collins will be the Master of Ceremonies. http://www.peterbcollins.com/
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International Forgiveness Day
www.ForgivenessDay.org
 International Forgiveness Day, created in 1996 to honor the healing power of forgiveness, is the brainchild of Robert W. Plath, a Mill Valley attorney and Executive Director of the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance. Plath's dream is to have every first Sunday in August around the world designated as International Forgiveness Day; it would be the first internationally sanctioned holiday.
Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance Mission
The mission of the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance is to promote awareness and knowledge of the scientific findings related to forgiveness as well as the psychological, physiological, emotional and spiritual benefits of the forgiveness process.
 The Alliance pays tribute to Heroes of Forgiveness - people who exemplify the power of forgiveness by overcoming personal tragedies and traumas and moving from anger and revenge to the transformative release of forgiveness and reconciliation. The Alliance also honors Champions of Forgiveness - those who dedicate their lives and work to expanding awareness and knowledge about the regenerative power of forgiveness and reconciliation as well as to help others experience it.
 This year's 13th annual awards ceremony and entertainment event will be held at the Angelico Hall at Dominican University in San Rafael, CA. It will feature musical performances of the East Bay International Mass Choir and Carmen Marie Coleman, vocalist and choir director at Unity of Marin.
You can visit the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance's website at
www.ForgivenessAlliance.org
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Celebration Spreading Around the Globe
International Forgiveness Day, which originated in Marin County, is spreading to other locales around the world. In years past, it has been celebrated in New York, Hawaii, Washington State, Oregon, Ghana, Canada and Nigeria as well as Southern California. This year, international efforts of the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance are being spearheaded by its International Coordinator, Pamela Gregory, who is helping the Alliance to bring Forgiveness Day to Cairo and London. You can find out more about Pamela at www.PamelaGregory.com
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FORGIVENESS IS GOLDEN. THANK YOU FOR FOR-GIVING.