Nakashima Foundation Honors the Very Reverend James Morton

Nakashima Foundation for Peace Honors The Very Reverend James Morton with the Inaugural Nakashima Foundation Award for Peace

The Nakashima Foundation for Peace honored The Very Reverend James Parks Morton, Dean Emeritus of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (NYC), Founder of The Interfaith Center of New York, and Honorary Chairman of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace on Sunday, May 4, 2014 at 3:00 pm.  He received the Inaugural Nakashima Foundation Award for Peace.  What an honor and privilege it is to be on the Board and help plan and participate in the day.

This champagne reception was held at the  Foundation Arts Building, which has been named to the World Monuments Fund Watch List, at the Nakashima Studio, 1847 Aquetong Road, in New Hope, Pennsylvania, and included a concert celebrating peace and spring offered by “Mostly Motets.” 

Indeed, the sun shone brightly as nature smiled on us.  Dogwood and cherry trees bloomed and everywhere the eye went there was harmony and beauty.  It was a fitting exhuberance for the Studio had also just been designated a National Historic Monument a few days earlier!

The music added to the uplifted atmosphere and prepared the audience for the tributes given to a man whose life is devoted to peace, ecumenism and international understanding.

Messages from Dr. Karan Singh, the son of the last Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, of India and the Archbishop Emeritus and Noble Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu of South Africa showed the stretch of the Very Reverend Morton’s ministry.

My friends, Ambassador and Mrs. Cabactulan, had driven from NYC to be present.  He is the Philippine Ambassador to the United Nations and his spouse, Fe, is the President of the United Nations Delegations Women’s Club.  The Honorable Ambassador gave touching remarks about the Very Reverend’s work and how he has influenced a whole generation in interfaith and peace work.

To close the event, the Board led everyone in reciting the Blessing which I had written for the Global Connection II on February 11^th. It was very moving  to hear so many saying the words which had come to me to bless the Nakashima Sacred Peace Table for Asia.  With a few changes, it became relevant in New Hope on May 4^th for the whole world.

 

The Blessing Let us breathe out any remaining distractions. Let us breathe in the beauty, peace and unity that are permeating this space. Rest into this moment. As The Mother has said, “Feel the Peace, Live The Peace, Know the Peace, The Peace, The Peace.” Concentrate with this vibration, as you breathe in and out with the golden light. Now BE the Peaceas your psychic being expands throughout your body to spread Peace into your very cellular consciousness. Nakashima felt that each Sacred Peace Table would “be a symbol, a token of man’s aspirations for a creative and beautiful peace” One now in Auroville, NYC and Moscow with others yet to come. Send the golden light of Peace in a clockwise direction around the Earth to connect the Sacred Tables and radiate out to all peoples, birds and the sky, horses running wild, fish and the waters, the forests of old growth trees, big cats stalking the savannahs, fields of flowers… For  Sri Aurobindo says in “Savitri” “…  Thrilled with the hidden Transcendent’s joy and peace. There was no more division’s endless scroll; One grew the Spirit’s secret unity, …”