San Francisco, California, USA.  URI members in different parts of the world are raising funds in support of the interfaith peace pilgrimage and assembly.

At a time when the world is weary of endless mobilizing for death and destruction, it is a joy to be in solidarity with people mobilizing for peace and reconciliation. We, at the United Religions Initiative, celebrate the vision, courage and commitment of our brothers and sisters of diverse faiths from Pakistan and India who are planning a peace pilgrimage from India to Pakistan. Leaders of different faiths will travel from India to Pakistan, where they will be met by their Pakistani hosts and joined by URI leaders from other parts of the world. For three days, they will be a living model of peace and reconciliation as they explore cooperative efforts to enhance the prospects for peace between Pakistan and India. URI members in different parts of the world are now at work raising funds to help support this historic initiative and during the pilgrimage they will support the participants with daily offerings of prayers and meditation for success. 
The Rev. Charles Gibbs, Executive Director, URI Peace Pilgrimage Dinner                                                                     
USA Solidarity for Pakistani-India Peace Initiative

The United Religions Initiative, a global interfaith organization based in San Francisco and the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization hosted an evening of interfaith hospitality and dialogue on January 23, 2004 at the Anubhuti Retreat Center in Bel Marin Keys, Marin County called the Peace Train. The event was an action in solidarity to support an historic bid for peace undertaken by grassroots leaders of the United Religions Initiative in India and Pakistan.

At this Peace Train event in Bay Area, Dr. Ahmad Faruqui, a defense analyst and energy economist, based at University of California at Davis and Dr. Sudarshan Kapoor a student of Mahatma Gandhi and professor of Social Work at Fresno State offered perspectives about the current state of affairs between India and Pakistan.

Each spoke of the power of grassroots peace initiatives. The speakers indicated that while governments may remain bent on maintaining build up of weapons, grassroots groups in India and Pakistan such as cricket players, movie-makers and interfaith leaders are choosing a different path - one that relies on the build up of mutual respect, friendship and cooperation between Indians and Pakistanis.

Forty of these community leaders, representing different faith traditions in India will travel to Lahore, Pakistan in March 2005. When they arrive, URI Pakistani leaders from different faiths will welcome them and together they will spend three days in assembly with leaders from other Asia countries sharing their practices for healing conflict and violence.

Half a world away from Pakistan, a diverse group of guests joined this same peace effort. They enjoyed a vegetarian meal and engaged in focused conversation about significant friendships that had surprised them and changed their lives. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, business leaders, elders, students, pastors and poets from the Bay Area took time to build bridges of friendship among themselves and they sent contributions, blessings and words of support and solidarity to their brothers and sisters in India and Pakistan 15,000 miles away.

Sally Mahé, Organizational Development, URI