by Diana Whitney
I was in India, teaching Appreciative Inquiry and leading a leadership retreat with colleagues Dinesh Chandra and Anil Sachdev, when one of my co-founders of the Taos Institute…
Creating the Blessed Community
URI – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
by Victor Kazanjian
Imagine watching the news or viewing your Facebook feed each day and seeing thousands of positive stories of people from different religions, spiritual practices, and indigenous traditions working together…
Appreciative Inquiry and the United Religions Initiative
by Sally Mahé
At the birth of the United Religious Initiative (URI) 20 years ago, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a transformational philosophy and methodology for positive change, served as midwife.
URI in the World
by Azza Karam
URI envisions a world at peace, sustained by engaged and interconnected communities committed to respect for diversity, nonviolent resolution of conflict, and social, political, economic, and environmental justice.
URI in Jerusalem
by Nicholas Porter and Jack Karn
Across the world millions of Christians, Jews, and Muslims pray for the peace of Jerusalem each night. It is an ancient prayer with modern aspirations…
URI's Impact in Asia
by Abraham Karickam
Those of us in South Asia came to know about the birthing of a new international interfaith organization destined to change the world during the voyage of Bishop William Swing around the world in 1996.
From the Field
from URI CC’s
Becoming a URI Cooperation Circle (CC) entails being a group of at least seven people, representing at least three religious traditions, and committed to a Charter whose purpose is…
Voices of Hope
by URI Members
The United Religions Initiative enjoys a kind of latitude and scope that invites the whole world in, but does so while honoring each of us and where we come from. That approach makes it a very personal
What Makes URI Unique?
by Paul Chaffee
In The Coming United Religions (1998), William Swing wrote “I began a long and inward journey in February 1993. During a 24-hour period in my life, I moved from…
Analyzing the Intangible
by Gaea Denker
Every nonprofit wants to think it’s helping the world. But in a field as intangible as peacebuilding, where small interactions slowly build trust over generations, how can peace proponents know their efforts are really working?
A Summer of Exciting Interfaith Events
by Robyn Lebron, Megan Anderson, Tahil Sharma, and Johnny Martin
URI North America Regional Assembly - Reimagining Interfaith Cooperation - NAIN Connect 2018
Laughing, Learning, Listening
by Sari Heidenreich
Laughter, listening and learning — these are the three things that come flooding back to me as I look at photos from the weekend I spent at Kashi with peacebuilders from half a dozen southern states.
An Heroic Opening Gambit
by William E. Swing
On Tuesday afternoon, April 2, 1996, I had just presented a paper in Oxford on “The Coming United Religions.” It would be mild to say I failed in gaining backers. Afterwards, a young doctoral student from Germany, Joseph Boehle, came up to me and asked, “Would you like to have a conversation with Dr. Hans Küng?”
Peacemaking with "the Other"
by Paul Chaffee
What does living life as an ‘interfaith activist’ mean? Millions have joined the cause in recent months, so we can well ask ourselves: What do interfaith activists share in common within our own communities and in the world? A quick, simplistic answer might be that all of us are striving towards peacemaking with ‘the other.’
Women Transforming the Globe
From Women's Earth Alliance and United Religions Initiative
URI and WEA come together at a critical time – when efforts to build bridges across nations, learn from each other, and activate people power are needed more than ever. Our partnership enables both organizations to reach deeper and wider, catalyzing a global ripple effect that begins in our communities. The time is now.
“I’d Like to Help” – A Conversation with Charles Gibbs
What can we learn from a pioneer who co-created the largest grassroots interfaith organization in the world? A conversation with Charles Gibbs gifted us with answers to this question.
URI India Holds it Sixth National Assembly
This report was written and edited by: Dr. Abraham Karickam (URI Asia executive secretary), Biswadeb Chakraborty (URI national coordinator), Subhi Dhupar (head of Reporting Committee CC, liaison officer, North Zone, India, Asia), P.K. Ramachandra (CC member, South Zone), and Savita Malpani (CC member North Zone).
Grassroots Interfaith Education Goes Global
The boarding school for missionary children in northern India that I attended 50 years ago was about seven miles across mountain roads from a new school for refugee Tibetans streaming out of their war-torn homeland. The Indian government provided the buildings, CARE packages helped clothe the kids, and food was found. But they had no teachers. So, as young Tibetan Buddhists who had lost their parents, they used the tools at their disposal to start their education.
William Swing’s A Bishop’s Quest: Founding a United Religions
On the afternoon he received the life-changing call, William E. Swing had been the Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of California for 14 years. At 57, his life was richly framed by four vows, as a husband, a deacon, a priest, and a bishop. He left a vibrant pastoral ministry in Washington DC in moving to San Francisco as a bishop. From Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill, he quickly became known as a pioneer in responding to HIV/AIDS and homelessness, and a major stakeholder in addressing the needs of the elderly, immigrant ministries, and drug and alcohol rehab programs. Some touted him as a future presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. His new book, A Bishop’s Quest: Founding a United Religions (2015), tells the historic story of what he did instead.
Empowering Grassroots Interfaith in India
Recent major media stories about religion in India have focused mostly on tensions between Hindus and both Christians and Muslims over issues of conversion and diet. Flying under the media horizon are 180 United Religion Initiative (URI) Cooperation Circles in India, referred to as CCs, self-governing groups which support URI’s commitment to daily interfaith cooperation, ending religiously motivated violence, and promoting peace, justice, and healing. CCs in India have four coordinators working in the nation’s north, south, east and western regions. They are particularly active in youth projects, women in interfaith, cross-cultural dialogue, and environmental issues.