Our gala fundraiser to celebrate and support the work of URI’s network of Cooperation Circles took place in February 2007 high above the city lights of San Francisco.  At our annual “Circles of Light” dinner we honored the philanthropist Richard Goldman for his support of URI and of the environment. Following are the remarks of both Bishop Swing and Mr. Goldman as they acknowledget each other and the United Religions Initiative.

Bishop William Swing
Remarks at the URI Circle of Light Dinner
February 3, 2007

Yesterday 2,000 scientists from 113 nations, with unanimous agreement, issued the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel report on climate change.  “Warming of the climate system (of the Earth) is unequivocal.”  It is time and past time to do what is in the interest of curbing greenhouse gases.  Yesterday was February 2, 2007.  In 1951, 56 years ago, Richard and Rhoda Goldman started doing something about the environment.  In 1990 Richard and Rhoda Goldman established the Goldman Environmental Prize.  It is the world’s largest award for grassroots environmentalists.  Richard was ahead of his time, and he is now right on time.  You get the picture.

As the United Religions Initiative labors to address the obscene reality of religiously motivated violence worldwide, we look to our next door neighbor in the Presidio, Richard Goldman, for inspiration and support.  We follow his grassroots model and wait for our own February 2, 2007 when the world wakes up and the consensus of moral beings recognizes that it is time to change the climate of religiously motivated violence.

The second area dear to his heart is strengthening the fabric of civil life.  At this point, literally hundreds of institutions have benefited from a family foundation that Dick and Rhoda established in 1951.  You name it, the Goldmans have supported it:  the San Francisco Ballet, the Symphony, the Giants, Stanford, Cal, Fine Arts Museums, Stern Grove, all kinds of schools, KQED, Planned Parenthood.  Dick is known far and wide for his unique approach to philanthropy.  How much money do you think he has given away?  Over half a billion dollars!  I’m on his Advisory Board and I have seen him in action.  He does his homework, but he makes it fun.  He is a joyful giver.  I have seen his joy with my own eyes!

The third focus of his philanthropic attention is on the Jewish people and Israel.  I am going to quote a Jewish lady who lives in Jerusalem to make this point.  You saw her a minute ago in a slide of her Cooperation Circle in Jerusalem.  She is Elana Rozenman, one of our Global Trustees in the Middle East.  She heard that we were honoring Richard tonight, so she sent an email to the URI office this week.  In this email she makes reference to another Global Trustee in the region, Hanan, a Christian, and to our regional coordinator, Mamoun, a Muslim, both of whom live in Amman, Jordan.  Elana writes:

“I am daily blessed by the generosity of Richard Goldman.  Every day I walk on the beautiful Goldman Promenade that winds through the Judean Hills outside my Jerusalem home and ends in the most magnificent panoramic view of all Jerusalem—ancient and modern, and out to the Dead Sea and the Hills of Moab in Jordan.  I often imagine I can see Hanan and Mamoun in Amman, smiling and waving at me as I wave to them.  The amazing and gorgeous Goldman Promenade was designed by Larry Halperin, the esteemed landscape architect living in Marin County—and he has incorporated the Jerusalem stone and the ancient caves from 2,000 years ago into the pastoral scene.  I often see young Arab shepherd boys with their sheep—and the sheep are always astonished to see my dog, Sheba, and come running over to check her out.  It is one of the few places in Jerusalem where Arabs and Israelis walk freely—each enjoying the beauty and serenity of the landscape and the view—leaving everyone to commune with nature in their own way.

I urge anyone who is visiting Jerusalem to be sure to experience this wonder—and I’m happy to accompany them.” 

Ladies and Gentlemen, the United Religions Initiative is honored to salute our friend and neighbor, Richard Goldman

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Richard N. Goldman
Remarks at the URI Circle of Light Dinner
February 3, 2007

It is a privilege and a great pleasure for me to be honored by United Religions Initiative.  Thank you Rt. Reverend Swing, better know to most of us as Bishop William Swing, and to his friends as Bill.

As founder of the URI, it was you who conceived the concept of a new form of organization to help bring an end to religiously motivated violence.

Yet you could not have know that only a few years later the world would have such desperate need for peace and understanding between people of different beliefs as we are experiencing today.  Fortunately, URI is dedicated to meeting that need.

As a number of you may know, there are presently URI participants in 65 countries.  Through its “Cooperation Circles”, it has become a global presence at a time when there is violence between religious groups on a scale we could not have imagined when you started the program.

In the Middle East, URI groups now sponsor interfaith dialogues and organize youth and anti-poverty programs to foster understanding and cooperation between Christians, Muslims and Jews.  In India, its music and folk festivals help break down centuries old barriers between Muslims and Hindus.  Here in the U.S. its membership includes liberal and evangelical Christians and orthodox and Reform Jews.

The word “power” appears endlessly in the press these days, be it super-power, military power or political power.  But the can be another kind of power, as well.  It is the power of ordinary people of all cultures and beliefs to join together to say “ENOUGH” to killing and revenge.  We must accord one another respect and seek common ground that will halt the endless cycles of violence and the suffering that we have been inflicting on one another. 

There are those who would say that such undertakings have so little chance for success that they are hardly worth the effort.  Mahatma Gandhi would disagree.  He once wrote that what any of us can do as an individuals of little consequence, but it is of the utmost importance that we do it.  Working with others there is much we can do, and much we must do.

What can be more worthy work than teaching ourselves to live in harmony with fellow human beings with whom we share this Earth?  I can’t think of any, can you?  It is not a choice.  It must be done promptly.

Once again, I thank you for your warm welcome, and this honor which is deeply appreciated, particularly when it supports the work of one for whom I have the greatest of respect and admiration, Right Reverend, Bishop, and my good friend, Bill Swing, whose dedication I respect and admire to the fullest extent possible.  We must do our part to assure him success!