Inspiration from leaders and visionaries around the world. • Includes more than 250 selections of mostly original material by prominent spiritual teachers, writers and activists from around the world. • Editors have a strong track of high-quality material, including the bestselling 'Earth Prayers'. With the coming of the second millennium, editors Elizabeth Roberts and Elias Amidon felt that words of hope might be the perfect antidote to the fearful rumblings of doom, apocalyptic predictions, and computer-induced chaos. And so the duo sent out invitations asking people to offer a written message or prayer to the future. The final result is a body of work that offers a compelling and positive vision for the millennium. Contributors include Reverend Desmond M. Tutu, Poland's Lech Walesa, Thomas Moore, Judy Chicago, Alice Walker, death row inmate Jarvis Jay Masters, Rabbi Zalman Scater-Shalomi, and poets Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, and Diane Ackerman. The collection is organized around relevant themes, such as "Creating Communities of Peace," "For the Children," and "This Holy Earth." Each offering is no more than two pages long--brief enough for a quick dip whenever inspiration is needed. Nonetheless, this is collection with spiritual sustenance, a book that many will benefit from carrying close to their hearts in the years ahead. -- Gail Hudson "I pray for all of the prayers, desires, and hopes expressed in this volume to come to fruition in the next millennium for all of God's creation."-- Bernie Siegel, M.D., author of "Love, Medicine, and Miracles"This is the honest, oracular, many-footed gathering we've been listening for."-- Coleman Barks, author of "The Essential Rumi"Prayer is not a luxury but a necessity for our collective sanity and preservation in the approaching millennium. This blessed book shows the way."-- Larry Dossey, M.D., author of "Healing Words and "Be Careful What You Pray For"This extraordinary collection is a single prayer to the coming millennium."-- Joan Halifax, founder, Upaya"A grace-full assemblage of essential world wisdom to remind us to be awake, aware, and alive in the new millennium!"-- Justine and Michael Toms, co-founders of New Dimensions Radio and co-authors of "True Work"An ecumenical prayer book for all who care for the future of the human family--and all life on mother earth."-- Hazel Henderson, author of "Building a Win-Win World"Vision found here."-- Daniel Quinn, author of "Ishmael"This book will help change the course of the world."-- Robert Muller, former Secretary General to the United Nations Inspiration from leaders and visionaries around the world. • Includes more than 250 selections of mostly original material by prominent spiritual teachers, writers and activists from around the world. • Editors have a strong track of high-quality material, including the bestselling 'Earth Prayers'. Elizabeth Roberts, Ed.D., and Elias Amidon are well known advocates for social justice and spiritual awakening. They are on the faculty of the Naropa Institute and lead rites-of-passage ceremonies, spiritual retreats, and transformation programs across the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia. Together they edited Earth Prayers and Life Prayers. Chapter OneVisions of Hope And all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well. --Julian of Norwich Prayers for a Thousand Years begins with visions of hope. It is upon visions such as these, and upon the intentions they reveal, that a new world can be built. The visioning process is not a task that is done once and then forgotten; again and again we must attempt to restate our hopes and reimagine the possibilities open to us. We must continually call forth visions, even if they are just glimpses, of how we might align our lives more closely with our dreams and values. The prayers in Part 1 focus beyond the immediate and real problems of our time, offering images of hope that will support us on the longer journey But this hope is not Pollyanna sentimentality. The men and women who offer their prayers in this section have witnessed the suffering caused by fear, greed, and anger and have reached deep within themselves and within our common humanity to find resilience and patience. "I am filled with hope for the future," writes Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "In spite of much to the contrary, the world is becoming a kinder, safer place." This is radical optimism. And it is heartening, giving us courage to persevere in the work that calls us. In the archbishop's words, notice the phrase "in spite of much to the contrary." This phrase reveals an important quality of unsentimental hope: it is not blind to the darker sides of our nature. As we look in the millennium mirror, we must admit that the human species is capable of both nobility and horror. We cannot ignore the horror and pretend that all is well as we walk into the future. We know we carry our failings along with our dreams. Yet this knowledge does not h