Multiregion Meeting of the United Religions Initiative – 30 May 2017

Don Frew, CoG National Interfaith Representative

The United Religions Initiative (www.uri.org) is the world’s largest grassroots interfaith organization, with over 850 local groups (called Cooperation Circles or “CCs”) in over 100 countries, involving several million people.  CoG members have been involved from the earliest days of the URI; I have served on all of the URI’s elected Global Councils (i.e. Board of Trustees) since its founding in 2000.  

 

 

The URI is administered through seven “geographic” Regions – Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America & the Caribbean (LA&C), the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), North America (NA), South East Asia & the Pacific (SEAPac) – as well as an eighth, the “Multiregion” (www.urimulti.org).  The Multiregion was created for all those CCs whose members are in more than one Region or whose purpose is inherently trans-Regional (e.g. the Environment, Women, Youth, etc.).

 

 

I coordinate a Multiregion CC – the Spirituality & the Earth CC – which was a founding CC of the URI.  Our purpose is: “To foster and facilitate communication and cooperation between all those who feel a spiritual connection with the Earth.”  We have members from many indigenous, tribal, Pagan, nature-based, and Earth-centered spiritualities, including many current and former CoG-members: Gus diZerega, Rowan Fairgrove, myself, Greg Harder, Anna Korn, Katya M., Diana Paxson, Catherine S., Rachael Watcher, and the late Deborah Ann Light.  I have served as a Trustee for the Multiregion and Rachael has served as its Regional Coordinator.  (BTW, more URI Trustees have been members of the S&ECC than of any other CC in the URI.) 

I am also one of the coordinators for the Earth Wisdom MCC (aka en Espanol: MCC Multiregional “Sabiduría de nuestra Madre Tierra”).  An MCC – or MultiCooperation Circle – is a group of three or more CCs that come together around a common purpose.  I have long been a proponent of CC’s being members of the Region in which they are located and members of one or more MCCs in the Multiregion that help them connect with others with shared interests.  The Earth Wisdom MCC was founded in 2011 “to foster and facilitate communication and cooperation between all those who live a life of ceremony in honor of Mother Earth.”  This wording was carefully chosen to focus on shared indigenous spirituality, rather than on being indigenous people.  There are many groups for indigenous people, but in those groups Christianity often ends up swamping local indigenous spiritual traditions, as the vast majority of indigenous people today are Christian.  Earth Wisdom member CCs are:

Asia

Rainbow CC (West Bengal, India)

Women’s Welfare and Rehabilitation Center CC (East Medinipur, India)

LA&C

Amaru CC (Ayacucho, Peru)

Movimiento Ecuménico Interreligioso de Pueblos Indígenas CC (LaPaz, Bolivia)

Qewña CC (Jujuy, Argentina)

Multiregion

Spirituality & the Earth CC (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela)

The current Regional Coordinator (RC) of the Multiregion is Frederica Helmiere.  On the occasion of the Multiregion reaching 50 member CCs, she organized a Zoom online conference today called “50 CCs in 50 Minutes”, in which each CC would have one minute to describe itself to the rest of the Multiregion.  I was asked to present on the Earth Wisdom MCC and the role of MCCs in the Multiregion and the URI as a whole.  As usual, timing for a conference call with people all around the world is dicey; for me in Berkeley CA it was at 7:00am.  We didn’t get 50 CCs, but we did get 35, with messages sent in from another six.  A full list of the Multiregion CCs and what they do can be found at the Multiregion website – https://urimulti.org/cooperation-circles – but I’d like to highlight a few from the conference call (Some of the following info is taken from the CCs’ web pages.)...

 

 

Paul Chaffee (USA) spoke about The Interfaith Observer CC.  If you don’t already know about it, The Interfaith Observer (TIO) has become the leading online journal on the interfaith movement.  You can read, comment, and/or subscribe at www.theinterfaithobserver.org.  I serve on TIO’s Board.

Bosco Ng (Hong Kong, China) told us about the Wedo Global CC, which was created to enhance cultural understanding of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong among the Chinese majority population, to reduce negative perceptions and racial discrimination. It provides training opportunities inside and outside Hong Kong for under-represented ethnic minorities.

Omar Hatem (Alexandria, Egypt) explained RadioTram CC.  It promotes free expression, human rights, gender equality and tolerance through radio in Egypt.  The channel was founded and fully funded by young people.  They present ideas, talent, projects and activities that emerged among youth following the 2011 Arab Spring.  Learn more at www.radiotram.com

 

Shoshanna Abrams and Josh Thomas (USA) told us about the Kids4Peace CC, dedicated to ending conflict and inspiring hope in Jerusalem and other divided societies around the world by bringing kids together from divided communities in summer camps and other youth programs.  With a membership of 1,150 worldwide (500 Jerusalem youth, 350 Jerusalem parents, 150 USA youth, 150 educators & volunteers), K4P brings together Jews, Christians (Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox), Muslims (Sunni and Shi’a), Unitarians, Druze, Bedouin, and families with multiple religious practices.  This is a good example of how CCs can vary in size and scope from a handful of people meeting to talk once a month to much larger programs with global reach.

Suchith Abeyewickreme (a Multiregion Trustee from Sri Lanka), Vincent (Malaysia), Sharon Vaswani (the Philipines), and Matthew Youde (Wales), talked about various global youth oriented programs, including the URI Global Youth CC and the Global Youth Ambassador CC.  The URI engages youth all over the world in interfaith programming focused on developing peace and understanding.  Suchith told us where to find info about the Talking Back to Hate campaign of the Global Youth CC: http://www.uri.org/files/resource_files/TalkingBackToHate%20_FinalReport.pdf

I was particularly excited to hear about two relatively new Multiregion CCs: The RISE CC (Revivers of Indigenous Spirituality and Ecosystems – www.risecircle.org/) and the SE Indigenous Interfaith Council CC.  Nonty Sedibe (South African Sangoma living in Spain) told us about the former, which aims to support fellow indigenous and Pagan spiritual leaders in reviving and empowering earth-based wisdom traditions to survive to serve future generations.  Tom Blue Wolf (USA) told us about the SE Council and their efforts to preserve and share traditional ceremonies.  Wow!  Two groups with which I must connect!  (There is a good bio of Tom at http://www.uri.org/action_areas/indigenous_voices/circle_of_wisdom_keepers)

Audri Scott Williams (USA, and one of the Trustees for the Multiregion) talked about the Global Indigenous Network CC and their project to create a seed-bank of plants used in indigenous ceremonies around the world.

 

Shruti (India) explained the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance CC (GIWA).  This is a HUGE effort connected with the United Nations to focus on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (hence WaSH).  GIWA and the URI are combining networks to maximize our impact in parts of the world that need us most.  You can read about work in India at www.gangaaction.org/

Claire Marie Pearman (Cairo, Egypt) told us about the CARAVAN CC, focused on peace-building between the religions and cultures of the Middle East and the West through the arts.  They are a UN NGO and have art shows traveling around the world.

Hooma Multani (Costa Rica) of the La Villa de Arcilla CC (or “House of Clay”) is building a sustainable eco-village in Costa Rica to host international interfaith events

Despina Namwembe (Uganda) brought us up to speed on WIN-URI, the Women’s Interfaith Network of the URI.  While not a formal MCC, it functions in much the same way.  Its members are all members of other CCs doing work around women’s issues.

Monica Willard & Deborah Moldow (USA) coordinate the URI’s efforts at the United Nations through the URI at the UN CC.  The URI is an EcoSoc NGO (in UN-speak).  Their work is especially focused around the International Day of Peace (21 September), the UN Sustainable Development Goals, World Interfaith Harmony Week (1st week in February), the Commission on the Status of Women (in March), and the Indigenous Forum (in May).

Karen Watson (USA) brought us up to date on the relatively new LGBTQ CC.  Finally!  The presence of LGBTQ+ people has been the “third rail” of interfaith for decades.  It’s great to see a group dedicated to creating safe space for LGBTQ folks involved in the URI. 

(Note: Sometimes a Multiregion CC doesn’t have its information on the Multiregion website yet, in which case it should be at the URI general site at http://www.uri.org/cooperation_circles/explore_cooperation_circles)

That was just 15 of the 41 groups we heard from!  There is a LOT going on in URI’s Multiregion, and that’s just one of eight Regions!  To learn more, check us out at www.urimulti.org and www.uri.org.

Blessed Be,

Don

Update from a National Interfaith Representative – the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative

Don Frew, 11 May 2017

Merry meet!

I haven’t posted in a while; not because I’ve been inactive, but because health issues usually left me too tired to do a report after meetings and events.  Fortunately, two health crises this year (diabetic keto-acidosis & hyperthyroidism) both complicated my life and improved it dramatically.  When the doctors know what you have, they can give you the right medications.  I had felt like I was just winding down and getting old, but now I am much more strong, awake, and active.

So, on the occasion of my 57^th birthday, I just finished a Zoom conference call of the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative.  Of the 31 Trustees we have residing in 22 countries, 19 were able to attend (16 being needed for a quorum).  Some were on the call from home, some on their phones – one at a train station in Delhi, India, where it was 110 degrees in the shade!  Accommodating all of us meant meeting at unusual times for some; for me, just at 7:00am.

 

 

 

Highlights of the call and where the URI is now include…

An opening reflection was led by URI Executive Director Victor Kazanjian (Christian / USA).  He focused on cycles of birth & death and remembrance of friends who have passed.  (EricTomarompong, President of the Muslim / Christian Peacemakers Circle in the Philippines was shot and killed last week while working on Muslim / Christian dialogue in a war torn region – http://muslimchristianpeace.blogspot.com/)  This was a reminder that interfaith efforts in many parts of the world involve action in conflict areas that are very much not safe.

[As I post this - May 25 - I get word from Victor that Father Teresito "Chito" Suganob of the Peacemakers Circle and members of his parish were taken hostage from the Cathedral of St. Mary's in Marawi City in Mindanao in the Philippines by ISIL-linked fighters.  We are all hoping for their safe return.]

Thirty-eight new Cooperation Circles (CCs) have joined the URI so far this year, bringing our total to 851 CCs in over 100 countries, involving several million people!  You can find info about all of the CCs at (http://www.uri.org/cooperation_circles) but just a few highlights from new CCs in April and May…

* The National Coalition of Religions and Community Together (Bujumbura, Burundi, Great Lakes, AFRICA)

* Society for Health Education and Development – SHED (Anantaporamu, India, ASIA)

* La Villa de Arcilla (Based in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, LATIN AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN)

* Youth Today Foundation CC (Blantyre, Malawi, Southern Africa, AFRICA)

* Women Organization for Rural Development – WORD (Kadiri, Anantapur, India, ASIA)

* Greater Concord Interfaith Council (Concord, New Hampshire, United States, NORTH AMERICA)

* Building Better Society CC (Yangon, Myanmar, SOUTH EAST ASIA & THE PACIFIC)

* Advocates for Grassroots Inter-Religious Cooperation (Pagadian City, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines, SOUTH EAST ASIA & THE PACIFIC)

We just held our Circles of Light annual fundraising dinner, at which the first Chair or the URI’s Global Council was honored by having the position of Chair named “the Rita Semel Chair” henceforth.  I have mentioned Rita Semel (Jewish / USA) many times in my reports.  She helped found the San Francisco Interfaith Council, the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, and the URI.  She has been doing intercultural and interfaith work in the SF Bay Area since covering the signing of the United Nations charter here in 1945 as a cub reporter. 

Speaking of the United Nations… The URI is a NGO at the UN, where we are in the process of formalizing relations with the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the United Nations Environmental Program, the United Nations Population Fund, the United Nations Department of Public Information, the World Federation of United Nations Associations, the Office of Genocide Prevention, UNESCO, and the United Nations Development Program. Having formal relations goes a long way when your trying to work together on the ground to improve things in various parts of the world.

Each year, the Global Council meets several times by Zoom and has one face-to-face meeting.  We try to move these meetings around the world, to make it easier for people to attend.  This year, the meeting will be in Sarajevo, Bosnia, in September.  Travel to and getting visas for Sarajevo has been a bit tricky, so Victor will be stopping there to help work things out on the ground with Foreign Ministry of Bosnia and Herzegovina on his way back from visiting interfaith groups in Russia later this month.  In anticipation of the Global Council meeting, several working groups – consisting of Trustees and outside advisors – have been focusing on aspects of the Global Council’s work and preparing materials to help move the meeting along in a productive way.  The working groups are: Organizational Sustainability, Growth & Impact, Connectivity & Visibility, Capacity Building & Leadership.  With an international organization that is as multicultural as ours, we can’t just assume that one administrative culture fits all.  We are trying to build something that allows everyone to express maximum creativity for the good of all. 

I chairing a group that is working with the Mills Legal Clinic at Stanford Law School on upgrading our Bylaws to fit the kind of organization we are becoming, even though we haven’t really become it yet.  URI founder Bill Swing (Christian / USA) is fond of saying that “we are building the airplane that we are already flying”.  If so, then some of us are trying to write the instruction manual when we don’t know what kind of plane it will be yet.

Twenty-three Global Council members are part of the “Principle 19 Project”, based on the URI’s Preamble Purpose and Principles (http://www.uri.org/about_uri/charter/preamble_purpose_and_principles).  #19 reads: “We are committed to organizational learning and adaptation.”  This group is working on ways for us to understand and measure our impact in the world.  How do we know if we are succeeding?  What can we show others?

[BTW, I just took a break from writing this so Anna and could attend the commencement ceremony for Michelle Mueller at the Graduate Theological Seminary here in Berkeley.  Michelle is a former CoG National Interfaith Rep for Youth and just got her Ph.D. in Cultural & Historical Studies of Religion for her dissertation “Performed Polygamy and Polyamory in the Media Age: The ‘Teleducation’ of Nonmonogamous Religious and Spiritual Families in Reality Television”.  She also just had a baby, so… Yay, Michelle!]

The URI will be launching its new website in September, but in the meantime, the Multiregion of the URI has already launcher theirs: https://urimulti.org/  (For those who don’t know, the URI is organized into seven geographically proximate Regions and an 8^th “Multiregion”.  The Multiregion inclused all CCs who either have members in more than one Region or are focused on a global topic that crosses Regions – like Women or the Environment or Peace.  CoG-members have been most active in the Multiregion.)

“In February, the URI announced a new partnership with the Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), a global grassroots training organization that focuses on empowering women to develop local environmental projects: www.womensearthalliance.org.  URI and WEA are developing a global training program called The Ripple Academy.  The Ripple Academy will unleash a global cadre of women leaders allied to forge and amplify solutions for peace, justice, and environmental healing in communities around the world. The Ripple Academy will bring together the best of URI’s and WEA’s models, offering a coordinated training experience to equip leading change-makers with the skills, tools, and alliances they need to build bridges of cooperation and environmental solutions for generations to come.”  (Victor’s words)

The URI continues to work on building an endowment – the URI Foundation – to fund the day-today actives of a global interfaith organization.  So far, the Foundation is managing a little over $1.1 million in assets.  The URI’s current annual global budget runs a little over $3.9 million, so we have a ways to go before an endowment can cover our expenses.  Treasurer Becky Burad (Christian / USA), as always, gave a thorough report.  I pointed out that, not only can this be difficult to follow for English-speaking Trustees who may not have any background in business, but the Global Council includes many Trustees for whom English is not their first language and who come from cultures with different ways of handling business affairs.  I suggested that she give a workshop at our face-to-face meeting on how to read and understand her reports.  She agreed on both counts.

Chief Phil Lane (Yankton Dakota & Chickasaw / USA) is an At-Large Trustee focusing on URI’s relations with indigenous peoples.  He gave us an update on how things are progressing with the Standing Rock group.  He offered a song for those continuing the work of Standing Rock and for the URI member killed in the Philippines.

There was a lot more, but this is a snapshot into the ongoing work of the URI’s Global Council.  For more of the work on the ground by the over 850 Cooperation Circles, just check out www.uri.org or, for a focused view of what’s going on in your particular area of interest, go to http://www.uri.org/action_areas

Blessed Be,

Don Frew