Interfaith News The United Religions Initiative David Rounds
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hen the United Nations had passed its fiftieth year as an organization of the world’s nations, why was there still no such organization of the world’s religions? That was the question the Rt. Rev. William E. Swing asked himself some ten years ago after hosting an interfaith celebration of the United Nation’s fiftieth anniversary in San Francisco, where he is the Episcopal bishop. The result was the founding in 1996 of the United Religions Initiative (URI). Headquartered in San Francisco, URI is a global association of self-organized groups of individuals from different religious traditions who work together at the grassroots level to improve the lives of people in their regions. These groups, called Cooperation Circles, are active in such areas as peace-building, interreligious reconciliation, HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention, domestic violence prevention, tribal reconciliation, and social justice. Working together locally in service while being connected globally through their membership in URI, participants in the Cooperation Circles find they can get past suspicion and igno-
rance of each other’s traditions and reach common ground. The rapid growth of URI attests to the effectiveness of its organizing model. After four years spent developing the model and writing a charter, URI was launched in 2000 with 89 Cooperation Circles. Now, in 2004, there are 241 Circles in 50 countries, with a total of 35,000 individual members, whose programs and events have involved over half a million people, according to the Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs, who has been executive director of URI since its founding. URI’s growth has been so rapid, Rev. Gibbs says, “because it tapped into a deep yearning for interfaith understanding and reconciliation. That is reached not through doctrinal disputation but through cooperation in achieving community goals. Once people begin working together in service, they find that they want to know what it is about their fellow workers’ traditions that has led them to live exemplary lives.” “I have never believed,” Rev. Gibbs adds, “that one tradition owned spiritual truth. Rather, spiritual practice is a way into a universal source. My experience is
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that most people with a spiritual practice have followed a remarkably similar personal journey.” At the wordless center, he says, there is agreement. It’s when we get to words that we find differences. Although Bishop Swing’s original inspiration was to found an organization of religious organizations, as a spiritual analog and complement to the United Nations, the model URI eventually adopted was its present loosely affiliated grassroots groups devoted to service. Each Cooperation Circle must have members from at least three spiritual traditions, but they do not formally represent those traditions. Nor does URI rely on funding from religious organizations. “When URI was formed, religious leaders weren’t ready for a united nations of religions,” Rev. Gibbs says, “although now they are beginning see the importance more clearly.” Recent activities of Cooperation Circles include establishing micro-credit lending circles for women in Kenya; hosting interfaith art and sacred spaces gatherings in the United Kingdom; setting up youth radio broadcasting in Malawi; interfaith sharing among women in Israel; and efforts to enable communities of worship to be more energy efficient in the United States. Those who may be interested in joining a URI Cooperation Circle will find a list of existing circles at www.uri.org, the URI website. (URI may also be reached at P.O. Box 29242, San Francisco, CA 94129, USA.) Also on the website are applications for joining URI as a new Cooperation Circle. According to URI’s
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guidelines, a circle must be a selforganizing group with seven people or more from at least three religions, spiritual expressions, or indigenous traditions. Established organizations such as interfaith councils, as well as new associations, may also form or join circles. For those who want to support and participate in URI without joining a Cooperation Circle, there are affiliate memberships, open to both individuals and organizations. URI members join in accepting as guidelines the principles set forth in the URI Charter, which states in its preamble: “We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world, hereby establish the United Religions Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings. “We respect the uniqueness of each tradition, and differences of practice or belief. “We value voices that respect others, and believe that sharing our values and wisdom can lead us to act for the good of all. “We believe that our religious, spiritual lives, rather than dividing us, guide us to build community and respect for one another. “Therefore, as interdependent people rooted in our traditions, we now unite for the benefit of our Earth community. “We unite to build cultures of peace and justice.
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“We unite to heal and protect the Earth. “We unite to build safe places for conflict resolution, healing and reconciliation. “We unite to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law. “We unite in responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions to bear on the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community. “We unite to provide a global opportunity for participation by all people, espe-
cially by those whose voices are not often heard. “We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness. “We unite to use our combined resources only for nonviolent, compassionate action, to awaken to our deepest truths, and to manifest love and justice among all life in our Earth community.” The history of United Religions Initiative is set forth in a new book by Rev. Gibbs and Sally Mahe entitled Birth of a Global Community: Appreciative Inquiry in Action, available through the URI website.
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