At the end of 2007 the Global Marshall Plan Initiative in Germany was ready to enter a new phase of its activity: to initiate a world wide web-based consultation process on how to further progress towards the major goals of the Initiative – reducing poverty and disease; increasing human rights and civil liberty; establishing just global governance; and protecting the biosphere as the global commons.

Driven by this intention the Global Marshall Plan Initiative-activists decided to unite with other like-minded organizations as a “Coalition for the Global Commons” under the presidency of HRH prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Hans Jecklin, entrepreneur, consultant and author, was invited to become a supporter of the initiative. According to the spirit of his book “Eine Welt oder keine” (One World or None), wherein he pleaded for an urgent shift in global consciousness to emerge from a growing number of responsible world-citizens, Hans Jecklin agreed to contribute to the “Coalition of the Global Commons” by helping to provide it with a solid spiritual foundation. Considering the present world situation, a deeply rooted understanding of who we really are is an indispensable prerequisite for compassionate and fearless action towards the well-being of the world community.

This conviction was also shared by Dr. Christoph Quarch, philosopher, theologian, publisher and former programme-director of the German Protestant Kirchentag, who had recently published a book on dignity as core-issue of global ethics. He too was invited to contribute to the “Coalition for the Global Commons”, and he also suggested opening the scope of the issues considered to spiritual questions.

When this happened, Frithjof Finkbeiner, who coordinated the initial phase of the “Coalition for the Global Commons” decided to bring Hans and Christoph together – to see whether by this liaison a creative idea could be born. Hans and Christoph met and easily came to terms with a common plan: to invite a group of open-spirited representatives from various religious and spiritual traditions to generate and put into words a vision of a global spirituality; a vision that would transcend and include (but not compete with) the past and present religious, spiritual and philosophical approaches to the Absolute. This vision would then be submitted to a global web-audience for discussion, comment and enrichment.

The idea took form and the trans-religious group met in early December 2008 at Villa Unspunnen, Switzerland, for an initial workshop, followed by an inspired and often intense discussion via electronic mail. The result of this extraordinary process presents itself as the website you are just visiting now, and specifically in the statement on global spirituality that they all co-authored and signed.

This website is entertained by a small group of stewards in service of Global Spirituality:

Global Spirituality is not a new religion, nor an institutional entity. It is an evolutionary dynamism emerging in human consciousness; an integrative power with the capacity to join humans into a global family.

Global Spirituality adds a new dimension to all spiritual traditions and philosophies – religious or non-religious, believers or non-believers.
To contact us: info@global-spirituality.info

Mail: Global Spirituality, E.&H.-Kulturstftung Zürich, Oberdorfstrasse 5, CH-8001 Zürich, Switzerland