Charter for Compassion logo

The Charter For Compassion & the Sea of Faith

In 2010, the 'Sea of Faith Network' was accepted as an Event Partner of The Charter for Compassion

"Due to the inspiring work of your organisation, you have been selected to become an official partner of the Charter for Compassion."
Lance McPherson, 'global tolerance', on behalf of The Charter for Compassion
20/4/2010

The Charter for Compassion

The Charter is a call to restore the Golden Rule to the center of religious, moral and civic life. The path to a just economy and a peaceful world requires listening to, understanding and treating all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

The Charter for Compassion is the result of Karen Armstrong's 2008 TED Prize wish and made possible by the generous support of the Fetzer Institute. It was unveiled to the world on November 12, 2009.

Link to the The Charter: 'The principle of compassion lies at the heart of....'

Sea of Faith Vision Statement

'The Sea Of Faith' is a network of groups and individuals understanding religion as humanly created to give meaning to life, and faith as inseparable from human kindness, each with the power to inspire compassion.

Sea of Faith Activity Statement

The 'Sea Of Faith Network' holds annual conferences, meets regularly in local groups, publishes a quarterly magazine ('Sofia'), and maintains a website, http://www.sofn.org.uk, to explore and promote the contemporary value of faith and religion as human creations which, at their best, lead to compassion and human kindness.

The Sea of Faith Network's support for and promotion of the Charter for Compassion over the last two years

1. This SOFN web page publicises the Charter and has links to the 'Charter for Compassion' website.

2. Our official magazine, 'sofia', explicitly promotes human kindness on the contents page of every issue with the following words:

"Sofia does not think wisdom is dispensed supernaturally from on high, but that it can only be sought by humans at home on Earth, and is inseparable from human kindness."

3. We recommended that in their monthly meetings, our local regional groups should study Karen Armstrong's book, "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life" and put them into practice, collectively and individually.
Many of our regional groups did that during the last two years.
An example is the Croydon group in South London, who did so, chapter by chapter, between 21 April 2011 and 24 February 2012.

4. The SOFN board of Trustees voted (nearly two years ago) to explicitly include the words 'compassion' and 'human kindness' in our Vision Statement and our Activity Statement (see above for the printed statements)

5. We continue to support the' Charter for Compassion' in an ongoing ad-hoc manner, as the opportunity arises in our regular activities and writings.

6. An example of two of our Members explicitly promoting compassion or "a kind society" on BBC1 television's 'Big Questions'.

Note Dinah Livingstone from 3.20 on: "Jesus taught the coming on earth of the kingdom of God, that is, a kind society...."

"When we realize there is no supernatural divine power to bring about that noble ideal of a kind society we realize that we have to try and do it ourselves.
So I would say, being a Christian means being committed to what Jesus called 'the Kingdom of God', that is, human kindness...."

"...the kingdom of God is a kind society."

The Charter

https://charterforcompassion.org/charter

Registered charity number 1113177
© All Sea of Faith material is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence