United Religions Initiative (URI)

What is the United Religions Initiative (URI)?

URI is the world’s largest grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network with more than 800 members in over 95 countries worldwide. The aim is to cultivate and connect grassroots change-makers across religious, cultural and geographic boundaries, 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.

What was the inspiration behind URI?

From this inspiration beginning in 1995, a vision took shape to create a grassroots organization whereby people of diverse faiths from all sectors of society would cooperate to build peace and justice for all. Between 1996 and 2000, people from diverse religions, spiritual expressions, and indigenous traditions worked together to create the URI Charter. Today, thousands of people around the world bring their unique talents to URI to create profound actions of care, compassion, cooperation, education, and peacebuilding.

URI Purpose, Mission & Vision:

PURPOSE: The purpose of the United Religions Initiative is 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. VISION: URI envisions a world at peace, sustained by engaged and interconnected communities committed to respect for diversity, nonviolent resolution of conflict and social, political, economic and environmental justice. MISSION: URI is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world.

How does URI achieve its mission?

At the heart of URI is a global network of locally organized “Cooperation Circles,” or CCs. Each CC is a local or virtual group that includes at least 7 members representing at least 3 different religions, spiritual paths or indigenous traditions. CCs organize around local needs and visions in accordance with the Preamble, Purpose, and Principles of URI. These grassroots organizations are supported and served by eight URI regions around the globe.

We People of Diverse Religions