URI Stories of Impact

As the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks nears, and I have been thinking a lot about the parallel history of the 11-year-old United Religions Initiative. URI and 9/11, then and now. There were many...

Greetings of love and peace from Sri Lanka. We left home at 5:30 AM this morning for a trip to Kandy, a city in the central highlands. It is now 10:30 PM and I’ve just made it back to my room....

To celebrate the independency day an exiting function was arranged by Global Healing Initiative Pakistan at the Naziran Marry Community Model School (a charity based education institution) on 14th..

Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Sri Lanka.  I write from my room in a hostel on the campus of the conference center of the Sarvodaya Movement. The overhead fan moves the air around and cools the room a little, but blessedly doesn’t drown out the symphony of night noises from all the creatures in this remote and peaceful place some considerable distance from downtown Colombo. Evidently there is a river, complete with crocodiles, on the grounds, but it was dark when we arrived so an exploration will have to wait.

Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Kottarakkara.  I began today, the final day of the holy books conference, the way I begin most days, with stretching exercises, meditation and quiet reflection, and then a lovely walk down the lane past Abraham’s house. This place is so lushly beautiful and the climate here has been ideal. The people are friendly in a gentle way that matches the natural beauty and temperate climate.

Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace. Today began at KIPS with a peaceful interfaith prayer gathering under a mimosa tree planted seven years ago by Abraham and now big enough to provide shade for our group, seated in a circle of chairs on the red dirt, listening to the music of the Earth and sharing the sacred wisdom of different traditions, listening with open hearts and minds, with joy and gratitude, as small yellow petals floated down from the tree.

Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Kottarakkara, India. Today was a wonderfully full day – the first day of the Fourth International Interfaith Conference on Holy Books – Holy Books and People of Differing Faiths, as well as the inauguration of the Interfaith Peace Research Institute.