A paradigm shift in human consciousness is on the horizon.

What I beleive we are now priviledged to be witness to, and participate in, is a deep fundamental shift in human consciousness effecting the whole human family. I believe we are are seeing a systemic failure not only in global environment, economics and political systems but more importantly a systemic spiritual crisis.

The year 2012 appears to be very significant. Archeologists tell us that the Mayan calender ends in December 2012, that it begins anew. Astrologists tell us that 2102 ends a 26,000 year "procession of the equinoxes" in which the Earth's axis slowly traces an imaginary conical shape in the heavens. 2012 is also year when Barack Obama will face the judgment of the American voters.

Economically we have seen the disasterous end of a long credit binge. We now act like drunks awakening the next day with a gigantic headache. We've all become so addicted to the easy credit economy that to break the addiction we'll need a spiritual 12 step program!

The best thing that has come of all this, IMO, is the recognition of world leaders and many citizens that the the global economy is a tightly interwoven web. The Federal government's rescue of Bear-Stearns and AIG companies was predicated on the fact that these firms we so intertwined with our national economy that failure to rescue them would lead to systemic failure. As individuals we became so addicted to the consumer economy that to underwrite our addiction our govenment borrowed heavily from other nations to the point we now fear failure of whole nations.

Environmentally we have finally awakened to the fact that human activites have exaserbated what might be a natural warming cycle, that now we see the natural world undergoing changes that more than likely will lead to major disruptions in human existence.

Politically we have seen the rise of a middle years generation which took integration as a norm, leading to the election of America's first black president. He is now seen as being the vangard of a younger post-civil rights black leadership generation.

Spiritually we now see the emergence of a "post-evangelical" generation, the Joshua Generation. While, like their black counterparts, they accepted some of the positions of their parent generation, they see with a larger global vision. This was, I believe, preceded by Pope John Paul II and his Second Vatican Council and its reforms. He had apparently accepted the carefully thought out conclusions of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin that science and theology are complimentary, declaring later that environmental degredation was a sin. He also opened lines of communication with Jewish and Muslim leaders, attempting to employ interfaith solutions to mid-east challenges.

As within, so without. We are what we believe. "I'll believe it when I see it", is actually "I'll see it when I believe it." If the outer world, the world in which we move and interact is dysfunctional, then I believe it is because our inner world, our spiritual life is in disarray. If the world's economic system is now faced with systemic failure, it is because the spiritual life of the human family is in crisis.

So what can this community do? One economic option is to pray for a peaceful transition from the present broken economic system, and its morally bankkrupt belief system, to one more like that proposed by IPC Board member Frank Cocozelli. In the recently released white paper "Reclaiming Capitalism Through Prinicples of Disributive Justice", Frank argues for a new system "based upon reciprocity between conribution and benefits received, and legislation to curb and deflect the destructive effects of arbitrary economic power".

In other words, employ the universally accepted principle of the Golden Rule and the complimentray Ethic of Reciprocity. Let individuals do for themselves what they can and desire, and protect us from ourselves i.e. limit free will limited by responsiblility for the consequences of our actions freely taken. We must employ generally agreed upon social boundaries, providing room to act in a mutually beneficial manner.

More that that, we can sponsor prayer initiatives such as the soon to be launched Strategic Global Prayer Initiative. We need to get right with God, to see each other as members of a mutually interconneted, interactive and interdependent human family, to realize that, in reality, we all pray to the same source. Together we must call upon God to help us through these challenging times, to guide us into the new world now dawning. We ARE all one!