Amman, Jordan. URI MENA Regional Assembly participants study aspects of revelation in different religions. 

The third regional conference of the Middle East and North Africa Region of the United Religions Initiative, September 9-12, 2004, gathered Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Druze participants representing 12 out of the 16 Cooperation Circles in the region, from 6 countries (Egypt, Israel, Jordan, The Palestinian Authority, Tunisia and Turkey).  Organizers were grateful that Palestinian participants were able to attend, unlike previous conferences, when there were difficulties securing their visas.

The Assembly began with each of the participants presenting about himself or herself and his/her interfaith involvement. Then organizers summarized the story of the development of URI and described in slight more detail the development of URI presence in the MENA region, the current situation and plans for the future as well as organizers' expectation that the current conference will feed ideas and initiatives to the regional work.

The following morning began a joint study of the conference theme in three sessions, each dedicated to one of the following aspects of revelation in the different faiths: Prophecy and Miracles, Text and History, and Mysticism and Individual Revelation. Each of the sessions started with three short statements (most of them quoted in the second part of this report) from different faith perspectives - Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Druze. The presentations were followed by in-depth conversations in small groups. These conversations were so lively that they continued into breaks and free time.

For the Jumaa prayer the Muslim participants went to the nearby Mosque but, because of the lack of a nearby Synagogue, all participants were invited to observe the Jewish prayer for the receiving of Shabbat.

In the evenings there was more time for relaxed social interaction among participants, including showing a variety of documentaries that participants brought to share about their interfaith work and enjoying music and dancing together in a nearby restaurant.

The afternoon of the third day was devoted to regional planning for the future, resulting in reaffirming the projects that were proposed last year and hoping that with the coming finalization of the official registration of the regional URI office in Amman - the office will be able to start begin active fundraising for the different projects and carrying them out

The conference concluded with a joint visit to the remarkable remains of the Roman city of Jarash.