About 12 years ago, Bill Swing, the Episcopal Bishop of California, had a dream. He dreamt that all the religions of the world— the Jews and the Christians, the Muslims and the Hindus, the Buddhists and the Jains, and all the others— would unite to end religious violence and work for peace, justice and healing in the world.
“You’re nuts!”, one listener told him when he started traveling the world promoting his dream. Others call him a naïve, a heretic, the Antichrist. But he persevered.
Eventually, thousands of people shared his dream. And in 2000, the United Religions Initiative was born.
URI is not a religion. All participants adopt the URI Charter, which says, “We respect the differences among religions, spiritual expressions, and indigenous traditions. We encourage our members to deepen their roots in their own tradition.”
URI is a global community engaging over one million people from 120 faith traditions in more than 340 Cooperation Circles in 60 countries.
Working together, they have turned the dream of one “naïve” Californian into something that is transforming their communities and the course of human history.
Working together, they have turned the dream of one “naïve” Californian into something that is transforming their communities and the course of human history.
