The Ad Hoc Committee meeting will bring together a core group of approximately 25 global health leaders, practitioners, and educators to help define the content needed for the WHO Guidelines in Palliative Care and the WHO Manual of Basics of Palliative Care with regard to spirituality and spiritual care. This effort has real potential for elevating spirituality in the delivery of palliative care worldwide.

Support for meetings with leaders from a variety of organizations working on community building in the Holy Land. The group has begun to explore the idea of spiritual community and what common vision might bring them together.

Support a Seasons meeting, titled “Transforming the Criminal Justice System through Mindfulness.”

Rooted in Dr. Ervin Staub’s expertise in the psychology of peace and violence, this proposal supports a three-day convening (in April 2015) and subsequent six-month pilot project with two organizations seeking to bring inclusive caring, moral courage, altruism, active bystandership, and reconciliation between groups, to their efforts in violence prevention.

Support for "The Spiritual Foundations of Human Unity" conference.

Dr. Kelly James Clark, Senior Research Fellow at Kaufman Interfaith Institute of Grand Valle State University will bring together Christian scholars from the United States and their Muslim counterparts representing various universities in Turkey who, through a history of collaboration, have established the trust needed to comfortably navigate fundamental ontological and epistemological questions. The topics of discussion will focus on the relationship between science and religion.

A literature review that explores the attributes of a potential shared sacred story, i.e., a spacious worldview that fosters a consciousness of oneness and love grounded in the understanding that there is more to reality than just physical reality. A particular feature of the narrative is its integration of a sophisticated scientific understanding of physical reality with a deep spiritual understanding of non-physical reality.

Support for general operating support of initiatives in the Central Harlem community.

Professor Kenneth Pargament and one of his graduate students, Julie Pomerleau, will identify and draw on literature from a variety of sources in this review project, including empirical research from the social sciences, theological contributions, the writings of comparative religionists, applied contributions from pastoral and mental health perspectives, and so forth, to focus on the experience of the sacred and explore how that experience has been described, defined, and utilized across different times, cultures, faith traditions, and various disciplines.