Enjoy a magical evening of candlelight, music and laughter as you revel in the company of good friends and watch the lights of the Bay Bridge glow against the velvety winter night.  And all the while, know that you are extending the joy and peace you feel at this moment to people around the world.

Join us for the third annual CIRCLES OF LIGHT gala dinner, URI’s signature fundraising celebration, set for Saturday evening, February 4, 2006, at the World Trade Club beside San Francisco Bay. More than 200 members of URI’s global family will gather to honor the extraordinary achievements of URI Cooperation Circles, (CCs) as exemplified by the Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance (GAIA) and the people who nurtured this life-saving organization from its birth as a URI Cooperation Circle.
 
Invitations to the fundraising dinner and celebration will be mailed in December 2005.  But tickets sell out quickly, and it’s not too early to reserve your table now.  Tables of ten are available for $10,000, $5,000 and $2,500, and individual tickets may be purchased for $250.  Proceeds benefit URI’s global network, helping to link a million peacemakers from sixty nations as they work to end religiously motivated violence and promote peace, justice and healing in our world.

To reserve your place or to request a personal invitation for yourself or a friend, please call the URI Global Support Office now at (415) 561-2300 or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .
 
Dr. Wilson and Rev. Rankin launched GAIA as a URI Cooperation Circle, based in the Global Support Office in San Francisco.  They quickly connected with Mr. Laviwa, who helps lead the Blantyre Cooperation Circle in the south-central African nation of Malawi, where 900,000 people live with HIV.  GAIA has now matured into an independent nonprofit agency offering AIDS prevention, women’s empowerment and orphan care programs in interfaith settings in collaboration with Mr. Laviwa and eight URI Cooperation Circles in Malawi. 

“GAIA and its dedicated leaders have demonstrated that great things grow from the vision, courage and compassion inherent in every one of URI’s 285 Cooperation Circles around the world,” says Rev. Cn. Charles Gibbs, URI’s Executive Director.  More than one million people in 60 countries participate in CC activities every year, putting aside old animosities to collaborate in addressing some of the most pressing issues of our times.

Before helping to start GAIA, Dr. Charlie Wilson helped to found URI and served on the first Global Council, our international board of directors.  Professor Emeritus and former chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of California-San Francisco, Dr. Wilson is considered one of the world’s top neurosurgeons.
 
The Very Reverend William W. Rankin, Ph.D., conceived, launched and currently heads GAIA.  He is a past president, dean and professor of ethics at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA, and a former vice president for the United Religions Initiative.

Mr. Jones Laviwa is Executive Director of Churches Action in Relief and Development in Malawi.  Mr. Laviwa leads GAIA’s women’s empowerment program in 37 Malawian villages and serves as GAIA’s invaluable liaison in that part of Africa.  As a URI CC leader, he also coordinates projects promoting peace among people of different religions in Malawi.

All of URI’s support comes from individuals and small institutions.  To avoid even the appearance of bias, the global network takes very little money from any religious organization and none from governments.  The Circles of Light gala is a critical part of URI’s annual fundraising calendar.  Among other services, contributions help support:  

• the formation of new Cooperation Circles and the growth and development of existing ones
• technical assistance and training for URI volunteers worldwide 
• regional and international symposia, where URI members from around the world gather to teach and inspire one another 
• interpretation and translation, as well as language and computer instruction, so that members of isolated communities and marginalized groups may more easily participate in URI  
• technology that enables CCs around the world to stay in constant touch with one another, coordinating activities, sustaining hope and collaborating to bring local projects to a regional or even global scale.

Each annual Circles of Light gala honors individuals whose work exemplifies URI’s values.  At the first gala in 2004, William K. Bowes, founder of Amgen and U.S. Venture Partners, was celebrated for his support of URI’s mission.  In 2005, Rita Semel was feted as the founding chair of URI and a local and national interfaith leader.

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