United Religions Initiative’s purpose is to fill the space between religions with interfaith bridges so that the grassroots people of all faith traditions, indigenous communities and humanistic groups can cross over, and discover other believers, and take positive actions together.

William E. Swing

United Religions Initiative

Topic: Society & Civil Religion

“United Religion Initiative’s purpose is to fill the space between religions with interfaith bridges so that the grassroots people of all faith traditions, indigenous communities and humanistic groups can cross over, and discover other believers, and take positive actions together. URI is not a religion, nor a United Nations of Religions. URI is grassroots and singularly tries to fill the void between religions with something that the world needs desperately: bridges between cultural, religious and spiritual differences.

Religions are about salvation. URI is about civilization. People around the world have responded to this mission of URI; in a few years, URI has expanded to more than 665 Cooperation Circles in 85 countries, touching the lives of over three million people daily.”

William E. Swing

William Edwin Swing (born 26 August 1936) is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States. He was the Bishop of California, based in San Francisco, from 1980 to 2006.
Swing was ordained a deacon at Huntington, West Virginia, on June 11, 1961; he was ordained a priest at Wheeling, West Virginia, on December 20, 1961, and consecrated as the seventh Bishop of California at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, on September 29, 1979. He is the Founder and President of the United Religions Initiative (URI), an international NGO working to promote interfaith cooperation. He is an author and inspirational speaker and has received numerous awards for his commitment to service.

Civil Religion, Civil Society

Beversluis, Joel. Sourcebook of the World's Religions an Interfaith Guide to Religion and Spirituality. New World Library, 2000, pp. 154-155 [Bishop Swing: Responding to George Shultz's Testimony 2 February, 2015].

William E. Swing