Dear Friends,

Greetings of love and peace.

I want to continue to reflect on how living into URI's Charter can offer responses to the following question: 

How do we, as a species, develop the skills and the will to deal with difference in ways that allow us to resolve conflict without resorting to violence, so that we might liberate the resources squandered on violence to build a better future for all? 

Since URI's Charter was signed on June 26, 2000, I don't believe I've spoken about URI without reciting the opening paragraph of the Preamble:

We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world, hereby establish the United Religions Initiative to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously-motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

As anyone who shared in the creation of URI's Charter knows, these words came from years of exciting, frustrating, inspiring, dividing, revealing, challenging and ultimately uniting dialogue. As a way of deepening our appreciation of these words, I would like to offer a few reflections on the layers of meaning they contain for me, and invite others to share their reflections to enrich this conversation.

First, the opening paragraph of the Preamble is a conscious echo of the opening of the Preamble to the United Nations Charter: 
 

We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind...         
 

 [See full text of the Preamble to the UN Charter below]

This echo is intentional because the UN was the inspiration for the creation of the URI; the drafting of the UN's Charter in San Francisco for the creation of URI's Charter. At the UN, the nations of the world represented by their governments, practice enduring, daily international cooperation in pursuit of a noble, shared vocation for peace among all peoples. Nations are united around this shared purpose, while each nation retains its distinct identity and its national autonomy.

Similarly, in the URI, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions are united to fulfill a shared purpose while retaining their distinct identities and autonomy. But, unlike the UN, the URI is an organization being built from the grassroots up. Where governments signed the UN Charter, grassroots activists signed the URI Charter, acting as individuals but expressing a collective hope and intention on behalf of the entire Earth community.  

URI is a people's organization, not an organization of institutions.  

The echo of the UN also points to a core conviction that has inspired the URI's development from the beginning. We believe that as people of diverse faiths around the world discover and live into a shared vocation for peace, justice and healing, we have the potential, as significant as the UN's, to change world history for the better.  

As the opening to URI's Preamble states, enduring, daily interfaith cooperation is the beginning of URI's work. Enduring - we commit to cooperate, through the decades, in our work and our way of being, regardless of the challenges we face. Daily - we commit, as individuals and as an organization, to have this work be a part of who we are and how we act each day of our lives. Cooperation - we commit to reach out to our spiritual neighbors and to work with them to make our communities and our world a better place. We work for the day when interfaith cooperation flourishes in every community around the world.   
 

We cooperate to end religiously motivated violence. Though a version of the golden rule - treat others as you wish to be treated - seems to exist in every tradition, its spirit is violated daily by people of all faiths all over the world. Though armed conflicts around the world often have issues of political or economic power at their root, there is no denying that religion is often a component of these conflicts. The tragic consequences for all life on Earth are documented in the news every day. We work for the day when religiously motivated violence has ended in every community around the world.

Finally, we cooperate to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings. As noble a purpose as ending religiously motivated violence is, it is not the ultimate goal of URI's work. An essential part of ending violence and building a society in which every life may flourish, is to have peace, justice and healing be the fabric of our life as a species on Earth, not only for the good of humanity, but for the good of all life and the Earth we share. We work for the day when cultures of peace, justice and healing are active forces in every community around the world.  

I invite you to share your reflections.

Love,

Charles

PREAMBLE TO UN CHARTER
We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, and for these ends to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, have resolved to combine our efforts to accomplish these aims.

Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.