The Global Peace Convention Opening Banquet at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis Hotel was a celebratory gathering and acknowledgment of the massive collective effort and fervent dedication required to pursue and perpetuate peace around the globe.

Senator Jones at the Opening Banquet in Atlanta, Georgia for GPC 2012.

Speakers included Dr. Robert A Schuller, Co-Chair of the Coalition of American Renewal; Ayesha Khanna, President of the Civic Incubator at Points of Light; Rev. Bernice King, CEO of The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change and daughter of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and hosts, Rev. Dr. Paul Murray and Georgia State Senator Emanuel Jones, Co-Chair of the Global Peace Convention Atlanta 2012.

During his remarks, Senator Jones quoted Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. announcing, “Let freedom ring!” As is the purpose of the convention, Jones underscored that striving for global peace is a means toward an end of ultimate freedom and social harmony.

One of the highlights of the evening was a powerful speech and testament to a commitment of social awareness by Rev. Bernice King. She emphasized that the three evils we’re coming together to combat are “Poverty, racism and militarism.” She went on to say that this is a commencement of the “Great awakening to revitalize nourishing relationships. We are put here to steward ethical relationships.”

Rev. Bernice King at the Opening Banquet in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Global Peace Convention Opening Banquet was a call to action for participants to rally around the Convention’s theme: “Moral and Innovative Leadership: Building Healthy Families, Ethical Societies and a Global Culture of Peace!”

Leah Alexander, Publicist for firstClass, Inc.

@LeahLA1