UN Secretariat News on Meditation Group Activities: 1976 Dec 16

Filed under media coverage Text & Photos

The following article in the UN Secretariat paper covered activities of the Meditation Group at the United Nations

  • The upcoming annual Christmas Carol Sing-along 17 December
  • Programme in honour of U Thant on 23 November
  • Second programme of Gratitude on an International Day of Thanksgiving. 22 November

More details below :

The annual Christmas Carol Sing-along will take place 1 p. m. on 17 December in the Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium.

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The Group’s programme in honour of U Thant on 23 November (link to full Programme)

  • began with a silent meditation led by Sri Chinmoy.
  • U Thant’s daughter, Aye Aye,and her husband were present, as well as many staff members.
  • Ambassadors Piero Vinci of Italy and Ole Algard of Norway addressed the gathering.
  • Mr. Donald Keys of the World Association of World Federalists brought the tape-recorded voice of U Thant to the audience. This recording had been made at a farewell luncheon when U Thant reiterated his fundamental commitment to the moral and spiritual development of mankind as being as necessary, and often more necessary, than the physical and intellectual progress so prevelant in the Western world.
  • Mr. Robert Muller, Director and Deputy Under- Secretary-General of the Department of Inter Agency Affairs and Co-ordination, also spoke.
  • Members of the Group acted a scene from “Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha”, a play by Sri Chinmoy which U Thant attended in 1974, and
  • a short film about U Thant was shown.

* * *

On 22 November, the Group sponsored its second programme of Gratitude on an International Day of Thanksgiving. (link to full programme)

  • Mr. Waldo Stewart of the Thanksgiving Square Foundation in Dallas, Texas, introduced a film about the Foundation’s inter-faith, international place of Gratitude.
  • Haruna Kimura performed a dance of Invocation and Thanksgiving called “Shima no Senzai” in the Kabuki style.
  • An International Thanksgiving Dinner, catered by Annam Brahma Restaurant, was given that evening in the ex-Press bar.
  • At the dinner there was a dramatic dance in celebration of Kwanza-First Fruits Festival by the Olatunji Center for African Culture. Delegates from the General . Assembly session that was breaking for the evening were drawn by the joyful sounds of drums and came to watch as the dancers drew grateful smiles from the Thanksgiving audience

 

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also appears in the Secretary General Archives

S-0985-0007-12-00001-sg-waldheim-statemets-includes-Secretariat-news-1976-dec-16-scan-image-15-of-44-has Meditation Group Activities

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