President of The Patrick McCollum Foundation for Peace, Vice President of Children of the Earth, Chaplaincy Liaison and also Founder and Co-Chair of the “G” Card program at the American Academy of Religion, and the Minority Faith Chair for the American Correctional Chaplains Association.
Rev. McCollum received the Mahatma Gandhi Award in 2010, and the Ralph Bunche International Peace Award in 2016, and is the creator of the World Peace Violin. Rev. McCollum was Knighted in 2017. Rev. McCollum serves on the Boards of Children of the Earth, the Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya University, and the Peace Service Center/ Shanti Sewa Ashram – Nepal, and was honored in 2017 with the name Unci Maka Wokianka (He Who Speaks With The Mother) at Standing Rock, for his decades of work for Indigenous Peoples, in a ceremony performed by Guy Dullknife JR.
As a dedicated peacemaker, Patrick brings forth a well-timed meta-narrative of universal magnitude that is alerting the world of the sacredness of all beings. As humans, we all share the same essential needs: to be seen, heard and appreciated. The wisdom of this new universal vision asks you to look past your cultural upbringing and to accept a willingness to understand each other’s cultural beliefs. Rather than seeing differences, we are asked to focus on what we have in common and to appreciate the underlying similarities in cultural and spiritual practices. We are asked to acknowledge the divine spark that exists in each of us. In doing so, we connect as members of one large universal family, each receiving our essential needs. As we look at life through this new lens, we are lead to improved understanding, which brings us closer to universal peace.
Venerable Reverend Patrick McCollum is an internationally recognized spiritual leader whose work toward human rights, social justice, the environment and equality for all religions and spiritual traditions transcends cultural, religious and political barriers. He is the 2010 recipient of the Mahatma Gandhi Award for the Advancement of Religious Pluralism and was named a World Inner Peace Ambassador by Thai Buddhists who titled him Venerable. He also served as an advisor for the United States Commission on Civil rights.
Ven. Rev. McCollum serves as Vice President for the United Nations NGO, Children of the Earth, through which he oversees youth leadership projects around the world. He is currently working with Children of the Earth to create The World Peace Center at the historic Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland. Recently, the Nobel Committee acknowledged this endeavor and their peace center ideas will be presented to the committee and to the Nobel Prize Laureates in 2017.
Ven. Rev. McCollum has been working continuously with the indigenous elders at Standing Rock to bring a peaceful end to the pipeline disputes. For the past 40 years, McCollum, who has both Ponca Sioux and Blackfoot blood, has fought with the Native Americans for their rights. At Standing Rock, the elders officially gave him the Lakota name “Unci maka wokianka,” which means, “He Who Speaks With The Mother.”
The Patrick McCollum Foundation for Peace, a non-profit organization founded by Ven. Rev. McCollum, is guided by a meta-narrative that promotes the sacredness of all beings and the idea that we all share the same essential needs: to be seen, heard and appreciated. With this universal vision in mind, we are led to improved understanding through acknowledging the divine spark that exists in each of us, which brings us closer to universal peace.