Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue

“We listen and speak with respect to deepen mutual understanding and trust.” - URI Principle 5
SunDABT CC inviting interfaith dialogue

URI Cooperation Circles must include members of at least three different religions or traditions. By engaging in respectful conversations, members learn, share and build bridges of understanding.

Examples of our work in this Action Area:

  • Sun Devils Are Better Together (SunDABT), a university student group and URI Cooperation Circle, creates safe spaces for people to ask respectful questions about other religions by holding signs that read, "Meet a Muslim," "Meet a Jew," etc.

  • The URI global community celebrates UN World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW) in the first week of February each year, with grassroots interfaith events in many communities.

  • Campinas CC in Brazil hosted an interfaith gathering and invited representatives of multiple religious and faith beliefs to talk about life and death from the perspectives of their own traditions.
Search for Cooperation Circles (CCs) with a focus on Interfaith/Intercultural Understanding & Dialogue

Stories

My One Hour with Pope Shenouda III

Sixteen years ago today, March 20, I met the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Shenouda, III, in Cairo.  March 20, 1996 as an eventful day for me starting with the news of the death of the Sheikh of al-Azhar. Then I arrived early for another meeting, this one with the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Dr. Muhammed Tantawi.  When we were talking, the telephone rang and it was President Hosni Mubarrak who summoned him for an immediate meeting.   (Tantawi was soon after selected as the Sheikh of al-Azhar.)  As we finished our chat, Tantawi said, "when the light of one religion burns, it is a great blessing.  When the lights of  many religions burn together, it will be radiant and bring abundant blessings."  He counseled that the vision of a United Religions would be for the good of the world if it were "gently presented."