A Grassroots Approach to Actualizing the Global Ethic

We are each called by a vision of how life can be. This year’s theme, “A Call to Conscience: Defending Freedom & Human Rights,” calls us to address urgent issues at the level of effect. Sustainable change depends on shifting how we relate to one another and our planet. Until the Global Ethic is lived in heart and action, we are putting band-aids on gaping wounds. This session invites individuals to work at the causal level—to reveal how they are to create communities grounded on new ethical relationships. Participants are guided to identify the components of their role and work collaboratively to design strategies and set goals to implement their contributions that fulfill the “Irrevocable Directives” of Fr. Kung’s vision. Empowered to act individually and to connect with others, they cause change at the grassroots level. Those local roots then aggregate and send tendrils connecting with others internationally, forming an infrastructure that actualizes the Parliament’s Global Ethic.