DOHA, Qatar — Hundreds of Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders from over 50 countries gathered in Qatar’s capital city this week to discuss the intersection of social media and religion at the 9th Doha Conference of Inter-faith Dialogue, a three-day affair which concluded on Wednesday October 26.
Interfaith Youth Core
The big idea for the Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC) came to our leading founder Eboo Patel in 1998 when he was at an interfaith conference at Stanford University. He and a small group of his peers realized they were the only young people at the conference, and their conversation turned to two questions.
United Religions Initiative
The idea to create a global forum for preventing and responding to interreligious conflict came to URI President and Founder Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, then-Episcopal Bishop of California, asked to host a UN 50th anniversary celebration at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco in 1995. He found little interest among top religious leaders, but at the grassroots level he found a deep desire for peace and social justice. From this, the idea for a bottom-up global interfaith network was born.
The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions
The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) history begins with the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions, part of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This first formal gathering of representatives from Eastern and Western spiritual traditions is recognized today as the birth of the modern interreligious movement.
Religions for Peace
The World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP, as it was originally called) convened for the first time in Kyoto, Japan, October 16-21, 1970. However, the origins of Religions for Peace (RFP, as it is called today) date to 1961, when a handful of senior leaders from the world’s major faith traditions began exploring the possibilities for organizing a “religious summit” to address the need for believers around the world to take action toward achieving peace. Principal among the US leaders and architects were Rabbi Maurice Eisendrath (Reform Judaism), Bishop John Wesley Lord (Methodist), Bishop John Wright (Catholic), and Dr. Dana McLean Greeley (UUA).
Temple of Understanding
The Temple of Understanding was founded in 1960 by a pioneering visionary, Juliet Hollister. With the help of Eleanor Roosevelt’s introductory letters, Juliet traveled the world to seek endorsement from heads of state and religious leaders. The TOU convened Spiritual Summits abroad (Calcutta 1968; Geneva 1970) of high level religious leaders and at prominent universities: Harvard (’71), Princeton, (’71), Cornell (’74). Mrs. Roosevelt encouraged the TOU to become accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the United Nations.
Consultation for U.N. by The Interfaith Consortium for Ecological Civilization
On October 19, the Temple of Understanding in New York City brought together leaders of international interfaith organizations and other eminent visionaries. Their mandate was to form an advisory council for the Interfaith Consortium for an Ecological Civilization (ICEC), a new committee developed by the Temple of Understanding and other organizations in connection with the United Nations Environment Programme.
Leaders for Tomorrow’s Interfaith Organizations
The more culturally diverse we become, the more adept we need to be in relating to people who hold profoundly different beliefs. What questions help you truly understand someone, especially someone with whom you have a fundamental disagreement? How do you engage people from different backgrounds when addressing community problems?
Seeding the Interfaith Movement
Most of the hundreds of interfaith ventures emerging globally are independent non-governmental organizations, usually called nonprofits in the United States. Several types of organizations predominate, the subject of this issue of TIO.
The $100,000 Question in the Interfaith Movement
How do we know when we have arrived in the interfaith movement? When religious pluralism is normative? When religious differences don’t cause conflict or even concern?
Global Interfaith Grassroots Organizing: The Record So Far
Since its Charter was signed in 2000, United Religions Initiative (URI) has grown to include more than 530 grassroots groups and organizations in 78 countries. Each Cooperation Circle has its own name, size, governance and mission, but they all share in their commitment to and practice of diversity, and to advancing the central purpose and principles of URI. As URI’s director of Organizational Development for over 15 years, I’ve had a good seat from which observe and participate in developing an institution that believes in the power of people to self-organize in order to fulfill their aspirations for peace, justice and healing.
Interfaith 101 for Us All
Lessons from 21 Years with the Parliament
When Rev. Dr. David Ramage recruited me in 1990 to serve on the Board of Trustees leading up to the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions, I was not engaged in or much aware of the inter-religious movement.
Finding Sanctuary in an Amsterdam Airport
I was coming back to the US after an intense month in India. Culture shock was inevitable bidding “adieu” to the color, noise, and chaos, as well as to the well of spirituality that defines India. The plane headed to the orchestrated calm of Holland, a streamlined, carefully planned environment, well-labeled and user-friendly.
Three tips for Grassroots Interfaith Organizers
A few days before the Kansas City “Gifts of Pluralism” interfaith conference opened 10 years ago, as one of the planners, I said I thought the effort would be a success if 50 people showed up. Some 250 folks participated and, at the end, applauded.
Ten Excellent Internet Sources for Interfaith News & Commentary
Information overload is a problem for interfaith-interested readers. Discovering useful, trustworthy news about religion is complicated. For more than a decade, major media’s interest in religion has been steadily growing. Newspapers may be in decline, but not religion reporting or multifaith stories. A big slice of religion stories today involve more than one tradition, and often Christianity, which once owned most of the American religion page, is not one of them. Most of us have a confusing view of a huge arena.
URI Leads Non-Violent Elections Campaign in Uganda
On January 4th in a hotel conference room in Kampala, Uganda, youth political leaders and leaders of Uganda’s security forces came face to face for a highly unusual meeting: a national consultation to prevent violence in the upcoming elections on February 18.
Recovering Interfaith History, Recovering Ourselves
The sad wisdom claiming “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfill it” is much more interesting turned upside down: Those who remember the best of the past are freed to live into a better future. Choosing interfaith history as TIO’s second theme had to do with reclaiming remarkable stories, mostly unknown, of men and women building friendship among strangers centuries, even millennia ago.
Reclaiming Ashoka - An Iron Age Interfaith Exemplar
Approximately 2280 years ago, Emperor Ashoka, third regent of India’s Maurya Dynasty, ascended the throne. This Iron Age family ruled India’ first empire, stretching from eastern Iran to Burma, including most of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Scholars dispute the details but agree that Ashoka ruled for about four decades in the middle of the third century BCE.
How the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions Changed My Life
The 1993 Parliament was a watershed event in the interfaith history, following in the footsteps of the first Parliament in 1893. Both events forged new ground and introduced new interfaith possibilities. In addition to making history, the 1993 Parliament transformed my life.