Representatives of different religious, spiritual and indigenous traditions gather for the URI Charter signing on June 26, 2000.
June 26, 2016
United Religions Initiative Issues Call to Action on 16h Anniversary, Launches Campaign for International Day of Peace, September 21
(San Francisco, CA) – The United Religions Initiative (URI) observed its 16th anniversary on Sunday, June 26, marking the signing of the Charter that defined URI’s purpose: 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. Since then, URI has grown to be the largest interfaith grassroots organization in the world with 787 community groups, called Cooperation Circles, working to build peace in 95 countries.
As its global community commemorates this anniversary, URI will launch a fundraising initiative to raise awareness of the important work undertaken by its grassroots groups around the world – work that is in alignment with the United Nation’s Global Goals of Sustainable Development. From now until September 21, 2016 – International Day of Peace – URI invites a new audience of peacebuilders to discover the ways in which individuals and communities around the world reach across lines of culture and religion to tackle issues like poverty, health, education, environment and gender inequality. The campaign will reside at GlobalGiving.org.
The International Day of Peace (IDP) symbolizes a long-standing partnership between the UN and URI, bringing together the power of international platforms and local efforts in pursuit of worldwide peace. This year’s theme, “Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks of Peace,” reflects the action areas that guide URI’s work. URI’s unique dual approach of building diverse communities while engaging the causes of conflict through cooperative action directly addresses the UN’s planned implementation of the Global Goals.
“Our Cooperation Circles identify issues in their community — economic opportunity, clean water, education, protection of women’s rights — and use interfaith and intercultural cooperation to solve it,” explains the Rev. Victor H. Kazanjian, Jr., Executive Director of URI. “People who would not otherwise interact are collaborating on solutions and establishing bonds as human beings, breaking down harmful religious and cultural barriers that fuel religiously-motivated violence.”
“Achieving sustainable peace through the Global Goals starts from the bottom up: with a spark of compassion, an understanding of what is truly important, and a willingness to work together,” said Kazanjian.
In the days leading up to IDP, URI is also rallying its Cooperation Circles to participate in the Compassion Games, an initiative to ignite and catalyze compassionate action in communities around the world.
Despite being more interconnected than at any other point in history, global events continue to highlight a world riven by deep divisions of culture and religion, fostering mistrust and misunderstanding rather than unity.
"It is a pivotal time in human history, and the time to act is now,” said Kazanjian. “We must go beyond what has been to what can be, and ask each of us what role we will play in bringing peace to our world.”
Contact: URI Communications Office at 415-561-2300, [email protected].
URI is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which relies solely on individual contributions to further its global efforts.
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