The URI Resource Library is a collection of downloadable materials and links to a variety of resources that support interfaith peacebuilding work.
Featured Resources
Appreciative Inquiry and URI
Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy for positive change that was developed by Professor David Cooperrider and associates at Case University in Cleveland, Ohio. This document provides a brief summary of the Appreciative Interview process.
URI for Kids
A beautifully designed curriculum for children (and learners of all ages) that introduces URI's Preamble, Purpose and Principles, and provides excellent information and activities about different world religions and spiritual traditions.
Interfaith Peacebuilding Guide
The URI Interfaith Peacebuilding Guide is a resource for interfaith groups — those “everyday gandhis” who are making a difference one meeting at a time in their local communities.
When diverse faiths come together the encounter can be intense, awkward, even violent, but creating a dialogue can help reconcile differences. The essays seek to empower rabbis, imams, pastors, and their congregants to take up the work of interreligious dialogue as a peacemaking activity.
This workshop was adapted from the URI Interfaith Peacebuilding Guide. Participants got into groups of the same tradition and looked at what practices in their tradition contribute to peaceful interfaith relations as well as what practices or teachings of their tradition might present a challenge to interfaith understanding and harmony.
Diana Whitney, President of the Corporation for Positive Change, presents a series of Appreciative Inquiry questions that help URI members access the realities of the URI, and look ahead to the future.
This document describes various activities that have enlivened URI as a community, and draws from the experiences at URI global summits and regional assemblies.
In September of 2005, 140 Jews, Muslims, and Christians of all ages from North America and the Middle East lived together in a resident camp in California-Oseh Shalom~Sanea al-Salam Palestinian-Jewish Family Peacemakers Camp. With community and staff support, they exchanged stories and values and confronted difficult issues.
In this valuable guide, Lindahl describes the principles of dialogue and illustrates how to use them to create a safe space for learning and listening.
The story of the birth of the United Religions Initiative (URI) is about the birth of a vision, and about a bishop who invited the whole world to join him on an inconceivable quest to make that vision real—to encourage religions to stop fighting; to make peace with one another; and to build together a world of peace, justice, and healing.
In the Bohm Dialogue, equality and "free space" form the most important prerequisites for communication and appreciation of differing personal beliefs. The Dialogue Process builds on this idea with simple guidelines that can be helpful in communications training or other work that brings together people from different backgrounds.
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry describes a wildly popular new approach to organizational change that dramatically improves performance by encouraging people to study, discuss, learn from, and build on what's working, rather than simply trying to fix what's not.