InterfaithNews.Net

Dear Friends of the United Religions Initiative,

I refuse to live in an “Age of Terror”, though many
politically powerful people and extremists, bent on destruction and death,
see our time through that lens.

I choose, along with URI members and countless other sisters and brothers
around the world, to live in an “Age of
Transformation”. 

This age of transformation is no more risk free than an age of terror, but
it is an age of active hope rather than disabling fear. An age of cooperation
rather than domination. An age for healing ancient and modern wounds rather
than perpetuating an endless, escalating cycle of wounding. An age not for
promoting violence but for creating peace.

Those who believe that this is an age of transformation, and URI members
are among their ranks, choose to risk reaching out to those we do not know to
create cultures of peace, justice and healing. We choose to value, indeed
celebrate our diverse national, religious and cultural identities, while
claiming a unifying identity as citizens of this Earth and children of one
sacred source of all life.

So, without denying the violence of all kinds perpetrated within and by
all nations, often motivated by religious division, we choose to focus
instead on the flowering of human goodness and cooperation that creates the
possibility for a new and hopeful future for humanity.

A small, but stunning example of this movement occurred on 7 April 2005
when bus service connecting the Indian and Pakistani sides of Kashmir resumed
for the first time in over 50 years. China View reported:

An emotional Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said he was proud of
the hundreds of people who had made the bus service possible so that
families divided for more than fifty years could come together.
"Brothers and sisters will hold hands again, parents will meet
children," he said and talked of his dream of a beautiful Kashmir
where there was once again only joy and song.

The Times of India described the journey this way:

Like the peace process itself, passengers face a difficult and dangerous
ride. The 170-km dusty highway from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar clings to the
steep, forested Pir Panjal mountains, perilously close to an often straight
drop thousands of feet to the surging Jhelum.

The road is swept daily for mines. In places, it is single lane and the
wheels of the 19-seater buses come within inches of a sheer drop. Each of
India's buses bears the ancient Kashmiri couplet: "I broke the
sword and made sickles out of it".

A final word should go to Farooq Ahmed Lone, a 25-year-old student in Uri,
the last main town before the border on the Indian side. He commented,
“If this kind of thing continues, then maybe we will get to the point
where we will get rid of the militancy and there will be a better
life.”

URI is committed to daily engagement in the work of interfaith cooperation
to make real the better life that Farooq Ahmed Lone and billions of other
people on this Earth yearn for. We had hoped to have our own peace pilgrimage
of URI members from India to Pakistan in early April, but it proved
impossible to obtain the necessary visas. Still, a Pakistani interfaith peace
conference with honored guests from other countries was convened in Lahore,
and URI remains committed to work for the day when this India to Pakistan
peace pilgrimage will take place, as one of countless URI actions for peace,
justice and healing around the world.

This commitment and hundreds like it will be carried out by our
Cooperation Circles on five continents and supported by the members of
URI’s outgoing Global Council and incoming Global Council, officially
selected on 6 April 2005. News of the new GC can be found on our website
www.uri.org.

It is inconceivable to me that in these early years of the 21^st
century when there is such a flowering of human cooperation around the world,
we would let our time be defined by “terror”.  URI chooses a
different way. We can all choose a different way.

In this spirit, I extend greetings of love and peace to you and to all our
sisters and brothers around the world. And I invite you to join the global
movement to create an age of transformation.

Love,
The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2005 at 10:17 pm and is filed under Culture and Science, URI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.