Ms. Marites Africa (PCFI founder/executive director & founding regional coordinator of the URI in Southeast Asia Pacific) & Dr. Shakun Vaswani (PCFI VP & current regional coordinator of URI-SEAP) shared on the brief history and their involvement in the global interfaith network of URI in the Southeast Asia-Pacific region.
After some introductory URI videos were shown, the program concluded with the reading of the URI Preamble, Purpose and Principles.
We share with you once again the URI PPP:
URI Preamble:
We, people of diverse religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions throughout the world,
hereby establish
United Religions Initiative
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.
We respect the uniqueness of each tradition, and differences of practice or belief.
We value voices that respect others,
and believe that sharing our values and wisdom can lead us to act for the good of all.
We believe that
our religious, spiritual lives, rather than dividing us,
guide us to build community and respect for one another.
Therefore, as interdependent people rooted in our traditions,
we now unite for the benefit of our Earth community.
We unite to build cultures of peace and justice.
We unite to heal and protect the Earth.
We unite to build safe places for conflict resolution, healing and reconciliation.
We unite to support freedom of religion and spiritual expression, and the rights of all individuals and peoples as set forth in international law.
We unite in responsible cooperative action
to bring the wisdom and values of our religions, spiritual expressions and indigenous traditions
to bear on the economic, environmental, political and social challenges facing our Earth community.
We unite to provide a global opportunity
for participation by all people, especially by those whose voices are not often heard.
We unite to celebrate the joy of blessings
and the light of wisdom in both movement and stillness.
We unite to use our combined resources only for nonviolent, compassionate action,
to awaken to our deepest truths,
and to manifest love and justice
among all life in our Earth community.
URI Purpose:
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.
