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News
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URI 10th Anniversary and UN IDP Celebration in Barcelona, September 25, 2010 |
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Dear friends,
On 24th and 27th September 2010, the URI Europe board met in Barcelona (Catalonia/Spain), graciously hosted by Elisabeth and the UNESCOCAT/AUDIR CC. It was a very successful meeting, including:
- board meetings with strategic planning, planning for the URI Europe Assembly in Istanbul at the end of October,
- a lunch meeting with the Catalonian network of interfaith organisations, coordinated by UNESCOCAT/AUDIR,
- the URI 10th Anniversary and UN IDP (International Day of Peace) celebration by UNESCOCAT and URI Europe.
The URI 10th Anniversary and UN IDP celebration took place at a public library in the centre of Barcelona with a beautiful view of tropical garden scenery. About 150 people participated, with people standing as there was not enough room for them all, despite the fact that it was a special holiday weekend.
       
An interfaith choir sang wonderful songs from different faith traditions.
Several people gave short speeches:
- Felix Marti, Founder and Former President of UNESCOCAT, who signed the URI Charter in Pittsburgh in 2010,
- Nathalie Reverdin, President of AUDIR, who participated in a Latin American URI Assembly,
- Karimah Stauch, Kiran Bali, Martin Gurvich and Sheikh Bashir for URI Europe.
Francesc Torradeflot led the programme. He first participated in URI at the URI Europe Assembly in Budapest, Hungary 2000.
        
URI Europe awarded UNESCOCAT/AUDIR a certificate of recognition for their excellent work for peace, justice and healing.
We are deeply grateful to ELISABETH LHEURE and UNESCOCAT/AUDIR, whose hospitality was just fantastic!!!
Warm greetings
Karimah |
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URI EUROPE ASSEMBLY "WALKING THE TALK - BRINGING INTERFAITH ACTION TO EACH TOWN IN EUROPE" |
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Â
ISTANBUL, OCTOBER 27-31, 2010
URI Europe (United Religions Initiative Europe) will hold its 7th Regional Assembly from October 27 to 31, 2010, in Istanbul, Turkey. The conference title is "Walking the talk - bringing interfaith action to each town in Europe".
Approximately 55 participants will come from 17 countries all across Europe, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
URI Youth Ambassadors and special guests will come from Australia, Lebanon, Morocco, the UAE and the USA.
The participants belong to a variety of religions and worldviews and have a passion for interfaith cooperation for peace, justice and healing.
This is particularly important at a time of economic difficulty, where in many European countries easy judgments and the stigmatisation or exclusion of whole groups are on the rise.
In response to this situation, URI's interfaith circles are working on a daily basis to promote respect, friendship, mutual understanding and community cohesion.
URI is so pleased to be graciously welcomed in Istanbul, a city that bridges the continents and is a European Cultural Capital 2010.
The programme will include the creation of an action plan for promoting interfaith work across Europe. As URI aims to expand its network and deepen the impact of its work, special training on how to create and carry out new interfaith activities will be offered.
United Religions Initiative (URI) is a global interfaith network of over 450 interfaith Cooperation Circles in 75 countries on all continents. It has consultancy status at the United Nations (UN) with representatives at UN headquarters in New York and at the UN in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was founded in 2000, when the URI Charter was launched in Pittsburgh. URI Europe is registered in Antwerp, Belgium. |
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Golden Rule Tour with Mussie Hailu and Lone Klemmensen |
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Dear friends,
Â
I have just received confirmation that the first event of the European Golden Rule Tour will be in week 11 in 2011. I have waited for the school to confirm, as they will cover the cost for Mussie’s ticket to and from Africa.
As many of you know, Mussie is the URI Continental Coordinator for Africa and works for the UN in Addis Abeba in Ethiopia.
Exact dates of the tour are to be confirmed soon.
Let us do some brainstorming about the Golden Rule tour during the URI Europe Assembly in Istanbul (27th-31st October 2010).
It is a great project which can help unite the European URI CCs.
Â
Thanks and good wishes
Lone Klemmensen
URI Aarhus CC Â |
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New website launched for URI’s Multi Region |
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URI’s Multi Region has a new website: www.urimulti.org. This new and improved Multi Region Web site – version 2.0 – was announced by the Multi Region’s Coordinator, Lance Trumbull. The Multi Region is one of the eight URI regions. While the other regions are geographically defined, the Multi Region is the home of the URI Cooperation Circles (CCs), which have members from different parts of the world.  Lance Trumbull stated: “Although the ‘old’ Multi Region site was pretty good and has functioned well for the last three and half years, I thought it was time to develop a site that could not only inform people about what is going on with the Multi Region but also give individuals an opportunity to learn more about URI itself. I also found it important to inspire people with a strong web presence – a strong handshake and first impression to the world and to all of those who want to possibly become affiliated with the Multi Region or with URI in general. Enjoy the Multi Region’s new virtual home!†|
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Anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter and the URI Charter |
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By the Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs, URI Executive Director  Dear Friends,
greetings of love and peace. Â Nine years ago this coming Friday, 26 June 2000, the 55th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter, founding members of the URI from around the world gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA to sign URI's Charter. Â Work on the Charter was formally launched with URI's first global summit - Discovering the Steps for a United Religions Charter -Â at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, California, USA, 24 - 28 June 1996, and with a goal to sign the Charter on 26 June 2000. Attended by 55 people of diverse faiths and vocations, that summit established that URI would work from the grassroots up, rather than focusing on the top religious leaders, that we would include the leadership of women as well as men, and that, in addition to religions, we would include people who considered themselves as spiritual more than religious and people of indigenous traditions. Â We also realized that if URI was to be a truly global organization, people from all over the world had to participate in its creation. For that to happen in a meaningful way, it wasn't enough to hold yearly global gatherings in San Francisco, even if people from around the world participated. It was essential, we decided, to take the URI vision out into the world, to engage people where they lived, in their home contexts, in dreaming of what the URI should be and then planning and working to make that shared vision a reality. In addition to this strong direction, the summit produced the origami star, created by Walter Gray, that would become URI's logo. Â So it was that between mid-April and mid-May 1997, URI held regional summits in Oxford, UK; New York, New York, USA; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. |
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News from the URI Global Council and staff meeting, June 2009, in San Francisco |
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The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs, Executive Director of URI, writes about his experiences during the Global Council and staff meeting Â
 Dear Friends,
Greetings of love and peace. June, 6th, 2009
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I write from my room at the Vallombrosa Retreat Center at the end of a day that began on the sad note as I talked with Pele Pele in Nigeria and learned that his request for a visa had been denied. It was easy to hear the disappointment and pain in his voice and to feel a deep sense of powerlessness at the realization that all our best efforts had not been enough to secure a visa for one of our community to be with us. And we still wait to hear if Tareq Altamimi will be granted a visa in time to travel here. We continue to hold both Pele and Tareq in our hearts.
This first day our staff meeting began with a sacred opening and a circle of reflection that balanced the joy of being together with a deep sense of the heartbreak everywhere in this world in crisis. Â |
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