“Faith Action for Sustainable Development and the One Trillion Trees Initiative” campaign
On December 1, 2020, Patrick Horn launched a communications campaign featuring a webinar for World Interfaith Harmony Week on the theme of “Faith Action for Sustainable Development and the One Trillion Trees Initiative” and began seeking commitments from speakers and cooperating organizations. During pre-production, the United Religions Initiative North America Regional Coordinator Tahil Sharma suggested the proposed agenda would be better presented as a series, so Patrick divided content between two URI North America cooperation circles, the Unity and Diversity World Council and the Southern California Committee for the Parliament of World’s Religions. UDWC along with One Global Family Foundation is the producer of PEACE SUNDAYS, which took on three episodes for #WIHW2021 on Jan 24 (“When Prophecies Come True”), Jan 31 (“Peace, Love, and Harmony”), and Feb 28 (“Save Our Planet!”). The first two had fifty people each in live attendance, plus a Facebook livestream that has received an additional 250 views. Our guest speakers included: Chief Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation keeper of the sacred white buffalo calf pipe; Dr. Charles McNeill, Interfaith Rainforest Initiative; Father James Channan, URI – Pakistan regional coordinator; Deepak Kumar, URI – East India media coordinator; Monica Willard, URI Representative to the United Nations, and Rabbi Yonatan Neril, Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (Jerusalem). SCCPWR convened a webinar (“Seeds of Peace”) on Feb 2 with the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Religion Communicators Council. Our featured speakers were Dr. Azza Karam, Religions for Peace; Rev Susan Hayward, US Institute of Peace; Ms. Audrey Kitagawa JD, International Academy of Multicultural Cooperation; Dr. Richard Rose, University of Laverne Director of the Ecumenical Center for Black Church Studies, and Eric Kowalcyzk, Strategia Consulting. This webinar had 100 people in attendance, plus more than 450 views on Facebook. We also spotlighted a music video “We Can Do This Now” which has 1000 views since its debut a month ago. Patrick was also invited to speak on this theme to the Global Thinkers Law Society, a professional group with members in over 60 countries. The recording has been viewed 700 times. He also spoke at a meeting with URI – East India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. He received an honorary distinction from the Smiles4Millions Foundation as Interfaith & Peace Ambassador – North America. The Parliament of World’s Religions highlighted the theme of “Faith Action for Sustainable Development and the One Trillion Trees Initiative” and promoted the “Seeds of Peace” webinar. We also amplified timely content among our strategic partners from the Religious Studies Project (“Sacred Trees; Belief, Mythology, and Practice”) and Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology (“Contemplating Trees and Forests”). You can review other highlights in the Pacific Coast Interfaith Communicators newsletter which was the primary vehicle for the #WIHW2021 communications campaign.