Over the weekend of International Day of Peace (September 21) I had the privilege of traveling to Southern California to with URI Cooperation Circles. Longtime URI member and interfaith veteran Leland Stewart, invited me to participate in the United People’s Convergence and Peace Sunday with his Cooperation Circle Unity-and-Diversity World Council (UDC), and fellow Cooperation Circles Culver City Area Interfaith Alliance (CCAIA) and Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics.
After an early morning flight to Los Angeles, Leland and members of UDC welcomed me to the beautiful IMAN Cultural Center, where the group meets regularly. We spent the day in concentric circles of dialogue using a Peace Wheel model developed over the years by Leland and UDC members. The core idea was to bring a group of diverse people together around the question of “What can we do better together that we could not do separately?” 
This question cuts straight to the core of the desire for collaboration that I have heard from community organizers across North America.
The Peace Wheel model organizes community groups into 12 sectors, which are part of four quadrants, all of which are part of one general assembly. Our conversations at each level were aimed at answering that key question. Together, as people of faith and many faiths, we talked and ate, gave thanks for the land we were on, sought to appreciate our differences as well as our similarities and thought about how we could impact our community. That even a member of UDC, Stephen Longfellow Fisk, so graciously extended Principle #6 (“We give and receive hospitality.”) and took me to the ocean to breathe fresh air and eat delicious food!
In reflecting on the day, I learned a few key things:
- The model of the Peace Wheel to bring together experts across sectors in an incredible one! As Leland would say, “We need to have a United People’s.”
- When I speak, it’s important to always remember to use “I” language and never assume that what I am stating is something the whole group agrees on.
- Though women’s rights have progressed much in the past several hundred years, it still takes a high level of consciousness to facilitate a mixed dialogue group and hold high Principle #8 (“We practice equitable participation of women and men in all aspects of the URI.”)
On Sunday, I participated in Peace Sunday, an annual Los Angeles-area convening held around International Day of Peace. This year, the event was convened by UDC and CCAIA at the Agape International Spiritual Center along with 28 sponsoring organizations and 7 co-sponsoring organization. The day began with a Peace Festival outside of Agape, which holds two morning services, each with hundreds of people.
URI North America had a table, alongside the other event sponsors, and I spent the morning sharing the stories of Cooperation Circles all around the world with those passing by. Over and over again I told people of URI’s growing numbers – 735 Cooperation Circles in 91 countries – and how each group signs on to the Preamble, Purpose and Principles. As I shared, I was struck again and again with the feeling of
being surrounded by a global family of people seeking peace. Amid the tragic news stories of the past several weeks, the sheer numbers of Cooperation Circles – and the stories and people they represent – who have committed to creating “cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings” gives me such hope.
On International Day of Peace itself, I joined Hope in Life Foundation for a ceremony in Exposition Park Rose Garden where we were joined by Louis "Lou" Gossett Jr., Academy and Emmy Award winner who shared about his commitment to peace. During our gathering, I was able to share peace messages submitted by Cooperation Circles from all around the world.
For the next few days, I visited Cooperation Circles based in the Los Angeles area. It was such a privilege to spent time with people I had only interacted with over the phone. I was honored to learn about the interfaith action happening in their community and also to share how URI can support their work through global connections, resources, trainings and gatherings. URI is truly a global family of people who are earnestly seeking to make their communities more just and peaceful every day.
