Ecumenical & Interfaith
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News of Interfaith Organizations

Go also to news of interfaith activity of the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches.

Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions

Networking happens not only at Parliaments but also between them

The host city for a 2014 Parliament gathering will be Brussels, Belgium. As the capital of the European Union, it was chosen to enable a focus on social cohesion amidst the religious, cultural, and ethnic diversity within the European region. As part of this emphasis, Malmo, Sweden, will become the inaugural site for an experimental Social Cohesion Project that will mobilize mainstream religious communities to act as advocates for immigrant religious communities. The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR) also resources cities through its Partner Cities Network through which participating cities share best practices and discover opportunities for cooperative action.

More than 10,000 people from diverse traditions and many nations are expected to participate in the 2014 Parliament, which will last for 7 days and include more than 500 programs, workshops, and dialogues as well as music, dance, artistic exhibitions, and related events. See the web site for the 2014 event.

CPWR has begun a series of webinars; it is possible to sign up to participate in one or to listen online to previous ones. The Parliament Blog, with regular news and current events from the interreligious movement, can be received by e-mail every week or even every day. Additionally, PeaceNext is the social networking site online created by CPWR to "bring together the global interreligious community in dynamic and far-reaching ways" and keep interfaith activists connected between Parliaments. The site has members from five continents and over eighty faith traditions. See an introductory video.

A successful Ambassador Program was launched in 2009. Ambassadors promote the mission and values of CPWR and raise awareness of the interfaith movement. They are expected to build knowledge about and interest in the 2014 Parliament.

Chicago itself hosted a Parliament in 1993 to celebrate the centenary of the Parliament that had been convened at Chicago's 1893 Columbian Exposition, and the Chicago-based CPWR has since partnered with others to develop a series of Parliaments. CPWR early adopted an approach with several intentions:

• cultivating harmony for the sake of the common good, not unity
• fostering the engagement of religious communities with society
  
• enabling religious communities to discovery their shared commitments

providing a framework for expressing visions of a just, peaceful, sustainable future

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The CPWR executive director is Dirk Ficca (pictured), a Presbyterian minister. Abdul Malik Mujahid is chair of its trustees. He is a former chair of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago. Listen to an interview with Ficca. See highlights from the 2009 Parliament in Melbourne, Australia.

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World Conference of Religions for Peace

Religions for Peace adopts goals

The World Conference of Religions for Peace considers itself the world's largest and most representative multi-religious coalition. Its global network comprises a council of senior religious leaders from all regions of the world, six regional interreligious bodies and more than seventy national ones, the Global Women of Faith Network, and the Global Youth Network. William Vendley is the general secretary. See the 2008 report

At its Eighth Assembly in Kyoto in 2006, Religions for Peace set goals:

• Confront violence within our communities when religion is misused as a justification or excuse for violence
• Advance shared security in which all sectors of society assume collective responsibility
• Work to transform conflict  through multireligious collaboration in Iraq, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Israel/Palestine, the Korean peninsula
• Strengthen and equip a global network
• Address poverty through work for the UN Millennium Development Goals
• Mobilize women of faith and launch a global youth network
• Advocate for children and confront violence against them

Available resources in support of the goals include:

• A toolkit for helping religious communities act together on behalf of the issues addressed in the UN Millennium Declaration -- eradicating extreme poverty; reducing child mortality and hunger; combating disease, including HIV/AIDS; achieving gender equality and universal primary education
• A toolkit for fighting violence against women and a manual for women of faith to transform conflict
• A guide for faith leaders on cluster munitions

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has participated in the international organization and its related U.S. council from the first world conference in 1970. Current world council members include Setri Nyomi of WARC and Samuel Kobia of the World Council of Churches. Leonid Kishkovsky (pictured left) of the Orthodox Church of America is moderator. Other Americans are Judith Hertz (pictured right), interfaith co-chair for Reform Jews in the U.S.; Hamza Yusuf Hanson of the Zaytuna Institute, a Muslim; Karen Hurley, president of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations; and Roman Catholic cardinal William Keeler.

Key features of interreligious dialogue outlined in European declaration

The European Council of Religious Leaders - Religions for Peace, meeting in Berlin on March 3-5, 2008 adopted a declaration  that outlines key features of interreligious dialogue. The declaration can be useful in situations even outside Europe.

Reformed Christians take up RFP youth call for arms reduction

The executive committee of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) adopted a statement on the proliferation of arms at its May 2011 meeting, declaring that "WCRC joins the call from Religions for Peace to abolish nuclear weapons, stop the proliferation and misuse of conventional weapons, and redirect 10 per cent of military expenditure to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015." These goals are an articulation of the Religions for Peace youth-led Arms Down! campaign for shared security. The "Arms Down! Campaign for Shared Security" originally sought 50 million signatures to hand over to the UN Secretary General. See the campaign's web pages for resources and information.

Religions for Peace works on "shared security," not "blending faiths"

Speaking on behalf of Religions for Peace at the World Summit of Religious Leaders held in Baku, Azerbaijan, in April 2010, Leonid Kishkovsky said that globalization is misunderstood when it is seen as blending faiths--a process that deprives each tradition of its integrity and spiritual power. He spoke on behalf of calling each community "to affirm the fullness of its faith." Each religious community can collaborate to accomplish more together than any one group can accomplish alone.

In this context Kishkovsky spoke about "shared security," an issue on which Religions for Peace has committed itself to work. "Religious faith and religious communities can translate the moral imperative of love of the neighbor into a political vision of 'shared security,'" he said. "Today, my security depends on your security. If you are vulnerable and insecure, I am also vulnerable and insecure. This is not only an insight into the personal dimension of the human condition. It is also applicable to states and nations and societies."

North American Women of Faith Network launched

The Religions for Peace North American Women of Faith Coordinating Committee has selected as its co-chairs Parker Diggory (pictured), a PC(USA) ministerial candidate, and Ms. Salima Ebrahim of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women. The network was launched in New York, concurrent with the meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women: Beijing +15. Diggery is the North American representative of the Religions for Peace youth network. See a Restoring Dignity toolkit for women and a women's interfaith calendar.

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United Religions Initiative

URI practices are explored in available resources

URI was founded in 2000 after an exploratory period of development. It now claims members from over a hundred religions in 65 countries. Each of its local Circles has at least seven members representing at least three religions. All these operate within a charter built around the purpose of promoting cooperation, ending religiously-motivated violence, and creating a culture of peace, justice, and healing.

See a video that briefly introduces URI and a downloadable resource, Partners in Leadership: Best Practices that Exemplify URI Values and Enliven Leadership, that not only provides a good look at URI but offers guidance useful in other settings. URI’s Interfaith Peacebuilding Guide is a general resource to purchase and download.

Birth of a Global Community: Appreciative Inquiry in Action by Charles Gibbs and Sally Mahe (pictured) [Crown, 2003, ISBN #1893435423], tells the story of URI’s birth and of the process that was “the engine of the new organization and its development.” This Appreciative Inquiry Process helped the organization form in a way that is inclusive, decentralized, and self-organizing. The appendices of the book are recommended for others engaged in planning processes. See a list of other books on Appreciative Inquiry.

URI Kids addresses children via internet

URI maintains a children’s web site with information on various religions, stories, activities, and visuals.

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North American Interfaith Network

NAIN facilitates networking

The North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) traces its origins to 1988 in Wichita, Kansas. Hosted locally by Inter-Faith Ministries of Wichita, 250 religious leaders from 12 religions gathered in what was then understood to be the largest public interfaith event in the U.S. since the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions. Thereafter, NAIN was established to facilitate networking and cooperative interaction among its U.S., Canadian, and Mexican members -- bringing together large and small organizations, from local to international in scope, both interfaith organizations and single-religion organizations that engage in interfaith relations. Its programs seek to build communication and mutual understanding. The most recent gathering was NAINConnect 2011, held in Phoenix, Arizona. A number of youth participants at the event poster their reflections after it concluded. A list of member organizations and their e-mail addresses is posted on the NAIN web site. Individual associate members have a non-voting status with the organization. NAIN operates without staff, organized under the efforts of a volunteer board of directors elected by the membership. The current chair is Bettina Gray (pictured).

See the NAINews blog and subscribe for receiving notification of new posts by e-mail.

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Interfaith Youth Core

IFYC has three guiding ideas

The Interfaith Youth Core has grown out of the inspiration and work of Eboo Patel (pictured). IFYC bases its work on three ideas: First, that interfaith activities should create opportunities for their participants to learn more about diverse religious and philosophical perspectives. Secondly, that direct personal encounters positively impact attitudes. Thirdly, that common service-learning and social action activities influence personal attitudes and create community bonds.

An e-mailed newsletter from IFYC quotes one Christian student from Presbyterian-related Macalaster College who was impacted by an IFYC Interfaith Leadership Institute (ILI). She wrote, “Macalester is a place where people are overly accepting of just about everything . . . except religion. This [Interfaith Leadership] Institute has taught me that we can't just 'Engage Others' and 'Act Together', we also need to 'Voice our Values' and talk about where they come from.”

By the end of the 2011 school year, IFYC had trained leaders on 97 campuses, who engaged an average of 100 students—a reported 10-time growth over just the previous year. Nearly 80 students attended the first summer 2011 ILI and more than 300 campuses will be represented at a White House gathering of schools that have taken on the President's Interfaith and Community Service Challenge which IFYC assists. See a video showing participants in IFYC-mounted ILI.

The new IFYC web site has regular blog entries, an interactive focus on the Better Together campaign with links to other issues, multiple ways to get involved, and multimedia stories of leaders. See a short video.

Faiths Act Fellows are mentored by Interfaith Youth Core

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has set up a program in which some 30 young leaders from different faith backgrounds are recruited to work in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India, and various countries in Africa. Their goal is to show how faith can be a positive force in building global equity. The program is implemented through Interfaith Youth Core. See a video in which the inaugural group of fellows describe their experience.

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