In 1999, I spent a weekend every month, traveling to San Francisco, to meet at the Presidio with a treasured circle of relatives, co-creating the United Religions Initiative (URI). Since our work was co-created and initiated in 2000, URI now has 1013 Cooperation Circles (CC) working in 108 Countries around Mother Earth. To be a CC, three different Faiths must unite to work together for the uplifting of all Members of our Human Family.
This is the only Global Faith Movement that I have found that from its core Constitution and Bylaws, recognizes the Indigenous Spiritual Traditions and Faiths as equal to any other on Mother Earth! This
URI Preamble says it all!
"Preamble
We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world, hereby establish the United Religions Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings.
We respect the uniqueness of each tradition and differences of practice or belief.
We value voices that respect others and believe that sharing our values and wisdom can lead us to act for the good of all.
We believe that our religious, spiritual lives, rather than dividing us, guide us to build community and respect for one another.
Therefore, as interdependent people rooted in our traditions, we now unite for the benefit of our Earth community.
We unite to build cultures of peace and justice.
We unite to heal and protect the Earth.
We unite to build safe places for conflict resolution, healing, and reconciliation.
We unite to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law.
We unite in responsible cooperative action to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions, and indigenous traditions to bear on the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community.
We unite to provide a global opportunity for participation by all people, especially by those whose voices are not often heard.
We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness.
We unite to use our combined resources only for nonviolent, compassionate action, to awaken to our deepest truths, and to manifest love and justice among all life in our Earth community."
Our URI Executive Director, a Brother and Reverend Victor Kazanjian, URI's Executive Director, works in true consultation, with our URI Global Council, and his URI Team. Brother Victor is the real deal. His words and actions are one!