For 14 years, Charles has served as URI's founding Executive Director. He has worked with religious, spiritual and other leaders in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific. He has been a featured speaker internationally and has written extensively about interfaith cooperation. He co-authored with colleague Sally Mahé, Birth of a Global Community, a book on the birth of the United Religions Initiative. In addition, he has published many articles on interfaith work, contributed a chapter to Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding, published by the United States Institute of Peace, and co-authored, with colleague Barbara Hartford, a chapter in Positive Approaches to Peacebuilding. His essay, Opening the Dream: Beyond the Limits of Otherness, appears in the anthology, Deepening the American Dream. As an Episcopal priest, Charles brings to his work a strong commitment to spiritual transformation and to work for peace, justice and healing, as well as an abiding belief in the sacredness of all life on this planet.
April 6, 2012 10:55 AM
I write to inform you that URI’s Celestial CC has gained a new angel with the sudden passing of Peggy Olsen, who lived and served for many years as part of the heart of URI.
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September 22, 2011 1:45 PM
My prayer, on this International Day of Peace, is that more and more members of the human community say Yes to the goal of dedicating their lives to peace, justice and healing. I pray this spirit informs deliberations at the UN over statehood for Palestine, in the Middle East, and all over the world.
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September 10, 2011 9:43 AM
I have been reflecting deeply as we approach the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001 and want to share a few words. I grieve the loss of life on that tragic day tens years ago. I grieve the human... Read more...
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September 3, 2011 1:48 PM
Greetings of love and peace from Sri Lanka. We left home at 5:30 AM this morning for a trip to Kandy, a city in the central highlands. It is now 10:30 PM and I’ve just made it back to my room.... Read more...
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September 1, 2011 6:32 AM
Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Sri Lanka. I write in the waning light of the day with a drenching rain dancing on the roof and dripping off the leaves and fronds of the unspeakably green world of diverse vegetation that is Sri Lanka.
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August 31, 2011 8:35 AM
Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Sri Lanka. I write from my room in a hostel on the campus of the conference center of the Sarvodaya Movement. The overhead fan moves the air around and cools the room a little, but blessedly doesn’t drown out the symphony of night noises from all the creatures in this remote and peaceful place some considerable distance from downtown Colombo. Evidently there is a river, complete with crocodiles, on the grounds, but it was dark when we arrived so an exploration will have to wait.
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August 29, 2011 8:50 AM
Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Kottarakkara. I began today, the final day of the holy books conference, the way I begin most days, with stretching exercises, meditation and quiet reflection, and then a lovely walk down the lane past Abraham’s house. This place is so lushly beautiful and the climate here has been ideal. The people are friendly in a gentle way that matches the natural beauty and temperate climate.
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August 28, 2011 5:34 AM
Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace. Today began at KIPS with a peaceful interfaith prayer gathering under a mimosa tree planted seven years ago by Abraham and now big enough to provide shade for our group, seated in a circle of chairs on the red dirt, listening to the music of the Earth and sharing the sacred wisdom of different traditions, listening with open hearts and minds, with joy and gratitude, as small yellow petals floated down from the tree.
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August 27, 2011 5:58 PM
Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Kottarakkara, India. Today was a wonderfully full day – the first day of the Fourth International Interfaith Conference on Holy Books – Holy Books and People of Differing Faiths, as well as the inauguration of the Interfaith Peace Research Institute.
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August 26, 2011 9:08 AM
Dear Friends -- Greetings of love and peace from Kottarakkara, in Kerala State in southern India – a land local people refer to as “God’s Own Country,” at least in part because of its lush green beauty.
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