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Executive Director’s Letter, December ’05 |
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Written by Charles Gibbs
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Thursday, 22 December 2005 |
Dear Friends of the URI,
Greetings of love and peace.
I write this the day after the solstice – winter and the longest night of the year here in the northern hemisphere; summer and the longest day of the year in the southern hemisphere. Solstice – the time of greatest light and greatest darkness, a pivot point in time, a turning of the seasons, a fitting symbol for the times we live in, for the year now drawing to a close.
This past year has been one of extraordinary natural and human made darkness. Nature’s “anger,” arguably often fueled by human destruction of the environment, was expressed with great destruction – tsunami, hurricanes and earthquakes. Human anger and fear was evidenced through the unspeakable violence of humans killing, maiming and raping other often innocent humans all over the world.
But there’s also been much light in the past year and URI has been part of it. For all the heartbreaking devastation, the year’s natural catastrophes also produced some of humanity’s best. The tsunami yielded countless acts of heroism and generated the largest outpouring of charitable giving in history. A URI CC, the Shanti Sena Brigade of the Sarvodaya Movement was and continues to be on the frontlines of tsunami relief in Sri Lanka and many URI members offered financial contributions to support their work.
Global Council Secretary, P.K. McCary, was central to a faith-based effort in Houston, Texas to provide relief to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Fr. James Channan, a URI Global Council Trustee, has led an extraordinary and ongoing effort by URI’s Multiple Cooperation Circle in Pakistan to provide comfort, clothing and essential supplies to victims of the earthquake that devastated so much of Pakistan. URI members all over the world have offered financial support for this humanitarian effort.
Then there is the work of enduring, daily interfaith cooperation that is the hallmark of URI’s presence in the world. More than one million people from 130 faith traditions in 60 nations participated in URI activities this year. The number of Cooperation Circles grew 28%, passing the 300 mark. We have 50 CCs in India alone and the first ever in China and Iran.
An example of the URI at work, in the Philippines, amid sporadic gunfire between rival religious clans in Manila’s poor neighborhoods, members of the Peacemakers Circle CC stepped in to avert outright war, heal the deep rift between rival leaders and help negotiate a peace agreement.
There are so many more inspiring stories to tell. So much good, so much light shining amidst the darkness in the world. I pray this is a pivot time in human history – a pivot from an era of terror to a time of transformation, as the solstice is a pivot time, from darkness to light.
But there is much work to be done if humanity is to turn to the light that leads to peace, justice and healing. URI will continue to be an important part of that work, in partnership with countless other organizations and individuals around the world, as we grow stronger each day in our work to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing.
Thank you for being part of URI’s global community and for your generous support. We have ambitious plans for 2006 on this journey toward the day when interfaith cooperation will overcome religiously motivated violence and help make our world new. We look forward to sharing the journey with you.
Love,
Charles Gibbs
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Last Updated ( Monday, 27 February 2006 )
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