Dear Friends,
Greetings of peace from India. It is our deepest joy to share with you successfully achieving our 6th National Assembly of URI India. From a tiny pathway of interfaith cooperation, which started in1998 with two Cooperation Circles in India, today we have nearly 200 Cooperation Circles building a stronger platform of Strengthening Bonds for Inter-religious and Inter-cultural Relations. Even though many of our Eastern Zone members could not attend the assembly due to the weather threat and heavy rainfall which caused cancellation of many trains, still at a final stage we were able to bring nearly 100 participants from all four zones of India, including our members from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, for a three-day conference at Ecumenical Christian Center (ECC), Bangalore, South India. The conference started on November 20th 2015. I had the honor of welcoming each participant, followed by a presidential speech by Dr. Abraham Karickam.
The event was inaugurated by our chief guest honorable Mr. Santhosh Hegde, former judge of the supreme court of India, by lighting the lamp. Mr. Hedge inspired members with his burning speech on corruption-free society. He also shared his views and experiences on recent Indian movements of building a corruption-free country, which was very heart touching and inspiring for our Cooperation Circle members. Each coordinator took part in facilitating very important sessions and engaged in one-on-one conversation understanding the strength of our network. We spent quality time on reflecting on the goals that we have achieved since 2014 and adding new goals for 2016.
We were very fortunate to have our four trustees from our Asia region: Swamini Aditya Narayan Saraswati, Prof. John Kurakar from India, Mr. Ravi Kandage from Sri Lanka, and Dr. Nurul Islam from Bangladesh, who actively participated in the assembly and shared their views and commitment to strengthen interfaith bonds and promote interfaith cooperation in the region by supporting Cooperation Circles at a local level, including Vrajapati Das, a trustee from URI’s Multiregion, who has facilitated a session on "Energizing the Network" focusing on improvement of communication. At one of our most important sessions, an all-time greatest moment was "Story telling," led by Ms. Qutub Jehan Kidwai, URI India West Zone Coordinator. In it, each group shared their real-life story, which moved us all and helped us to recognize the greatest interfaith workforce which, bringing changes in our life in a society of influx and conflicts, teaches us about the real transformation that happens through interfaith cooperation.
Mr. Sadananda Biswas and myself jointly conducted a session on strength base asset mapping, which allowed all participants to understand their unique strength. A few members were even able to plan their service exchange program upon completion of the session.
One short and significant session on "adaptive leadership" was conducted by Dr. Mathew Cobb from Kansas, USA. He is a friend of URI who works extensively among the tribal communities in India.
Throughout the two days’ discussions, members poured their ideas for the future and recommended steps that need to be taken on a priority basis. Cooperation Circle capacity building and a Cooperation Circle exchange program (cross regional) were the highest priorities, as well as the present needs of our Cooperation Circles, which echoed many times. Maximizing the use of social media and other electronic media among the members, that we can promote next year, was a responsibility taken. Ms. Subhi Dhupar, Liaison Officer of URI India North Zone, made a remarkable contribution in promoting social media around the country. She would be given stronger support by other sub-regional leaders, such as Mr. Kaushik Chatterjee from the East, Mr. T G Stephen from the South, and Mr. Anjan Sadavarte from the West sub-region.
We had a few journal and book launchings on the second day. One was a book by Dr. Abraham Karickam. On the 3rd day, Dr. Jinwol lee from Korea joined us for the Asia Executive council meeting (AEC) - a separate report will be published by Dr. Karickam.
At the end, we proposed that the next assembly would be hosted in the Eastern Region and our URI team from Bangladesh invited us to host the next assembly in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dr. Abdul Hye, a representative of URI Bangladesh, welcomed each member to Dhaka for the 2016 URI 7th National Assembly.
Watch story-telling videos on URI India's YouTube channel.
Local organizer and active Cooperation Circle leader Mr. CNN Raju and his team were highly appreciated for their support in making this assembly a grand success.
Peace,
Biswadeb Chakraborty
URI India
