As many of you know, as a consequence of my work toward world peace & planetary sustainability, I had the distinct honor to be invited to be a guest for the holidays on the Royal Windsor estate on the Welsh-English border with the Earl of Plymouth, the Viscount & Viscountess Windsor, and other members of the Windsor family .

The Lord & Lady Windsor were wonderful and gracious hosts to me throughout the holidays, and treated me as an honored guest. They allowed me to have the opportunity to have a few days of a much needed rest before returning to the US to prepare for my upcoming trip to India where I will be speaking on world peace at a huge event called the MahaYaga.

During my stay with the Windsors, I had the delightful opportunity to attend several special holiday parties filled with English nobility, and made several important contacts and partnerships for projects going forward. One such partnership was with a Member of Parliament, the Honorable MP Bill Cash.
Raising the status and rights of women, especially in third world countries, is one of the key goals of the Patrick McCollum Foundation and it is my firm belief that we shall never achieve world peace until all women have full equality and equal opportunity worldwide.

In any case, MP Cash has proposed a revolutionary bill to the English Parliament to elevate the status of women, and I am joining him going forward in that effort. Also, on my upcoming trip to India, I will meet with officials and world spiritual leaders to address the issues surrounding child marriage worldwide, and the status of widows in India, to lay the groundwork for several programs that I am putting together. I am hoping for support from my community on these important world issues, so keep an eye out for ways you can help if these issues are important to you.

As a spiritual leader with values rooted in acceptance of diversity and the sacredness of all life, I feel I can have significant impact on these and other important related issues worldwide and so will take the opportunities opening up to me, to make as much change as I can while I am still able.
There is much shift and change taking place on a global scale right now, and from my perspective, we as a community have much to offer. For me, traveling on the front edge of interfaith dialog and the world peace movement, seems a perfect venue to put into place the very skills I learned within my own community.

In closing, I would like to acknowledge the many men and women who have stepped forward this year to try to make a difference in their families, their towns and communities, and in their world. I believe that we are all like pieces of a giant puzzle, each unique in our own gifts and contributions. And that as we each step up to find where we fit and we take responsibility for our particular part, we serve the greater good.
May there be peace in the world. May there be harmony between us and the world we live in, and let it begin with me!

Rev. Patrick McCollum
The Patrick McCollum Foundation