wfn.org | United Religions works toward global charter

[ENS.parti@ecunet.org (ENS)]

February 10, 1998
Episcopal News Service
James Solheim, Director
(212) 922-5385
jsolheim@dfms.org

98-2084
United Religions works toward global charter

	(ENS) The United Religions Initiative (URI), a San Francisco-based movement "to bring religions and spiritual traditions to a common table," recently gained support and is developing specific strategies, according to Bishop William Swing of California.
	The Rev. William Rankin, former dean of the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has become vice president of development for the URI. The goal is to raise $10 million by 2001. Joining Rankin as a key adviser is Dee Hock, creator of the Visa card.
	The initiative--founded by Swing during the 50th anniversary for the United Nations in 1995--will create "an oasis of hospitality, and arena of diplomacy" for world religions. The intent is to form a "permanent, daily, global assembly" where "they will seek to make peace among religions so they might work together for the good of all life and the healing of the earth," Swing said in January.
	URI currently is working toward the signing of a global charter in June 2000, which would lead to creation of United Religions, "a new global organization with the potential to change the course of human history," Swing said. Last June, 200 advocates assembled at Stanford University to begin writing the charter, and leaders are planning regional conferences in Cairo, Nairobi, Brussels, New Delhi, Venezuela, and New Zealand.
	The URI also intends to call the world's religious and spiritual communities to commit to 24 hours of non-violence on December 31, 1999, as a "time of reflection, repentance, and resolution to offer the deepest values of their faith as a gift for a better world," Swing said.

(Information about the URI can be found at the website www.united-religions.org)

--Based on a report by Bob Williams, communications director in the Diocese of Los Angeles.