URI’s ten year anniversary year, 2010, is moving into its last quarter. We have acquired authority and humility in our ten years of growth. We have embraced grassroots leadership, friendship, sharing the sacred, local leadership that meets local need, and we have nurtured a new reality where religious differences become a source of respect and mutual cooperation. I would like to share URI’s Key Accomplishments from my perspective. If you have more please add your comment.
1. Threshold Global Community - In ten years URI has given birth to a global community of over one million people from different religious and spiritual beliefs who work as one family for URI ‘s purpose and thereby provide unprecedented levels of cooperation for the common good.
496 grassroots groups in 77 countries connected by URI support network
2. URI’s Charter – an internationally acclaimed document that grounds people in common cause and inspires diverse actions. The Charter invites all people, especially people whose voices have not been heard, to take leadership and responsibility to transform religious divisions and hostilities and use the resources of their diverse faiths for positive change in their localities. URI Charter has been translated into 26 languages and is used as a guiding document for interfaith work worldwide.
Shared purpose and principles proven antidote to suspicion and violence
3. Concrete Successes – from the ground up - URI interfaith groups, left free to use their initiative and creativity to find authentic solutions to diverse problems, have achieved myriad successes. From hundreds of examples, here are a few:
Ambulance for cancer patients in India, bridge over river allowing children to resume school in Malawi, solar cookers in Uganda, first-ever imam-priest dialogues in Manila, values education to build social cohesion in Belgium, 10 year Peace Academy in North Carolina, economic survival skills for women in Pakistan, indigenous reconciliation in Argentina.
4. Regional and Global Assemblies – Hundreds of URI activists meet face to face each year in seven regions of the world at regional and local gatherings. In 2000, 2002, and 2008 over 350 URI members met at Global Assemblies to fuel friendships, exchange best practices and renew commitment to URI’s purpose.
2000 Pittsburgh – URI Charter Signing Ceremony and Global Assembly
2002 Rio de Janeiro – Sharing the Sacred Serving the World
2008 Mayapur, India – Many Paths, One Purpose
5. Shift in human consciousness – the aggregate of concrete interfaith actions by increasing numbers of people worldwide in urban centers and outlying villages contributes to a fundamental turn in human history. As hostility and ignorance sharpens among religions, URI nurtures an equally accelerating counter-movement of respect and cooperation raising a new hope for humanity
The driving purpose of URI is that it works on a daily basis to promote enduring daily interfaith cooperation. It addresses the root cause of problems which is mistrust. When problems arise, through constructive dialogue and cooperative actions, problems are resolved.
Mussie Hailu, URI Regional Coordinator, Africa
