PRINICPLES OF RELATIONSHIP

Global Ethic for the life and work of the ISC of Vancouver Society:

•  Participants in the ISC of Vancouver Society will be guided by and accountable to a Global Ethic (fundamental consensus) on core values, standards of conduct, and constructive personal attitudes.

•  The Values guiding personal and collective conduct and decision-making will be those of the ISC of Vancouver Society.

•  The principle of the golden rule – we will do to others what we would want done to ourselves – will be the unconditional norm for all areas of interpersonal and organizational conduct.

•  Standards of conduct for participants in the ISC of Vancouver Society will include non-violence (physical or psychic), respectfulness, solidarity, justice (fairness, openness and transparency), truthfulness, and kindness.

•  In personal attitude, we accept that all forms of egoism should be rejected. Self-determination and self-realization are legitimate insofar as they uphold human self-responsibility for fellow humans and for the planet Earth. As intercultural and interspiritual peace-makers, participants in the ISC of Vancouver Society will be committed to building trust and trustworthiness in relationships, through constructive conduct and communication in the presence of differences and/or competing needs. Specifically, participants will refrain from denigrating, stereotyping, maligning or invalidating others.

In the presence of intercultural and/or interspiritual diversity, participants in the ISC of Vancouver Society will be committed to a Path of Dialogue. We will:

Prepare for respectful dialogue

Meet with the people themselves

Focus on essentials

Allow others to speak for themselves

Be aware of our own commitments, loyalties, and attachments.

Honour differences as well as commonalities

Be aware of our own contribution to division and misunderstanding, and

Cultivate authentic mutual sharing.

In the presence of intercultural and/or interspiritual diversity, participants in the ISC of Vancouver Society will be committed to a Path of Common Action. We will:

Deal with issues related to living together in human community.

Foster efforts at education and communication.

Share spiritual and cultural insights and approaches, and

Cultivate an atmosphere of mutual learning and openness.

ISC, August 2006.

Mansions of the Spirit: The Gospel in a Multi-Faith World , Michael Ingham, p.149, from proceedings of the Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago , Illinois , 1993.

Mansions of the Spirit, pp.160-162

Mansions of the Spirit , pp.162-4