Community Building

Fostering strong, healthy communities is at the core of URI’s work.
Youth for Peace CC's summer school in Bosnia and Herzegovina

URI encourages people to help each other by reaching across religious, ethnic, and cultural lines, creating a culture of respect and safety that fosters peace even during difficult times.

Examples of our work in this Action Area:

  • In Pakistan, the URI MCC Islamabad office works for inter-religious peace by addressing local Muslims' and Christians' joint need for necessities like roads, sewage systems, gas and water
  • In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Youth for Peace CC's summer school brought together young people from different backgrounds to serve their community through volunteering efforts like helping disadvantaged families, painting houses, and repairing old cemeteries
  • After a Helsinki mosque was vandalized, URI members from the URI Multiregion formed an interfaith group to clean it, sending a strong message that they would not allow their community to be divided
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Stories

Raksha Bandhan ( Tie a ribbon for protection) observed

Asia
Community Building
Indigenous Peoples

On the 13 th of August, here in the Eastern zone in India we observed the very special day call "Raksha Bandhan", it is a very significant day all over the country especially in Bengal when Tagore started this ritual at the time of crisis and tension among Muslin and Hindu. We have visited more than 500 people in 4 groups at various places to tie a ribbon which sysbolizes the fiendship and relationship to protect each other from any obstacles.

Tubalar celebrations

Europe
Community Building
Indigenous Peoples
Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue
Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

Altaian ethnic groups have gone through, what can be called “ clinic death” in the XXth century, nowadays it is the time of “recovering” which is not an easy process. “Progress of humanity can not be led by incidents, the Creator have no “small deeds or small people”, for everything in the life serves to the Big”-says the Eastern Wisdom. In the course of Altaian history the biggest syoks(tribes) have become more vivid, while some small of them have almost been erased out of the people’s memory towards the end of the XXth century, so we see a great spiritual potential for Tubalars in the words of the Eastern Wisdom. The time of the revival of Tubalar consciousness, has come; they should become recognized as a respected, knowledgeable syok within sacred Altai and within a big World Nation of People.

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Indian Dalit Ecumenical Federation CC receives Best CC of the Year Award for URI-South India sub-region

Asia
Community Building
Environment

URI-South India proudly announces that the Indian Dalit Ecumenical CC won the Best CC of the Year award in July 2011. The CC is one of 53 prominent CCs in URI's South India Region. The word ‘dalit’ stands for aborigines. The main thrust of this unit is to develop the conditional of aboriginal people, especially the youth. Many of their programs are related to capacity building.

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Interfaith in Pakistan: URI Regional Coordinator Father James Channan Speaks Out for Unity Made Visible

Asia
Community Building
Interfaith and Intercultural Dialogue
Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation

“We have 9/11 every day in Pakistan,” said Fr. James Channan, Regional Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI) in Pakistan, speaking on “Interfaith in Pakistan” at the Chapel at Croton Falls on Sunday, July 10, 2011. He explained that more than 35,000 people in his country have been killed by terrorists, making ordinary life very unsafe. There are now guards outside of mosques and churches. And it was a particular shock when Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian who had been appointed Federal Minister for Minorities, was assassinated in March 2011 for his stance on the blasphemy laws often used as an excuse for persecution. Fr. Channan believes that ignorance is the root cause of terrorism and thus education is the real key to a brighter future.

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We give and receive hospitality

North America
Policy Advocacy
Community Building

URI’s sixth principle reads “We give and receive hospitality.” Welcoming the stranger among us is not just a URI concept; it is a core human value that transcends cultures, nationalities, faiths and spiritual expressions. It affects Muslim, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Sikhs alike, and underlies much of the economic pressures and interreligious tensions facing our communities today. And as such, immigration needs be made central to the interfaith agenda.