With beloved brother, Chief Leonard George, visiting with Prince Philip and Hugh Locke, about Indigenous Prophecies, Spiritual Teachings, and Environmental Challenges, at the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) 25th Year Celebration at Assisi, Italy, in September 1986.
On this historic occasion WWF held an International Gathering and invited Global Religious and Conservation Leaders to have a dialogue on the Environmental Challenges facing our Human Family. During this consultation at the Convent of St. Francis, for the first time ever, representatives of five major faiths — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, met together with environmentalists to discuss what each Faith had to say about respecting and protecting the environment.
During this visit, brother Leonard and I had the opportunity to meet and visit, sometimes briefly, with Prince Philip, Thor Heyerdahl, Sir Edmund Hillary, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan and the representative of Buddhism, The Venerable Lungrig Namgyal, representative of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, of Christianity, Father Lanfrancho Serrini, Minister General of the Franciscan Order, of Hindu, HE Dr. Karan Singh, President of the Virat Hindu Samaj, of Islam, HE Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef, the Secretary General of the Muslim World League and of Judaism ,Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress. Brother Leonard and I found it more than interesting that there were no women leaders attending.
The outcome of this dialogue was the “Assisi Declarations” from each of the major Faiths attending. While these Declarations are very spiritually moving, at that point in history, the Faith Traditions of Indigenous Peoples were not considered to be equal, in any manner, to the Faith Traditions attending.
This interfaith viewpoint is changing through the formation and global work emerging from the United Religions Initiative (URI) founded on June 26, 2000. The URI considers Indigenous Faith Traditions to be fully equal to any other Faith Tradition on our Mother Earth.
With great respect, to all the wonderful human beings we had the honor to meet and visit with at Assisi, both Brother Leonard and I knew in our hearts, before and after leaving Assisi, that our Indigenous Elders and Spiritual Leaders were every bit as wise and knowledgeable about Natural Laws, Spirituality, and Mother Earth, as any other Human Being. I was especially touched by insights, spiritually and compassion of Thor Heyerdahl and Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, both of whom have since passed to the "Other Side Camp."
In fact, we both knew that until the voices and prophecies of our Indigenous Elders and Spiritual Leaders, feminine and masculine, were respectfully listened to and acted upon, by all the spiritual, political, environmental and community leaders of our Human Family, that the destruction of our Mother Earth would continue to deepen! And so it has!
