It has been several months since an InterfaithNews.Net update has been sent out, for which we apologize; your intrepid editor is preparing to move to St. Paul, Minnesota (USA) next month.

As many in the audience already know, Barcelona, Spain will play host to the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions beginning today (June 7). Please send in your comments afterwards—essays, reviews, critiques, and praise—and we will work to compile them for the benefit of those of us who cannot attend this year’s festivities.

As the last update was written in April, the site now contains news from My, June, and this first week of July, as well as three new polls about the site’s functioning. So please stop by, enjoy, and vote.

Links to the long defunct InterfaithNews.Net website removed April 2012

Three Survey Questions

We would like to think that INN has become a valuable resource for you—but we'd also like to see it become much more. We would love to see INN become a piece of the larger community-building across and amongst religious and spiritual groups the world over. To this end we've begun a series of community polls with these three questions: 1) Would it be useful to be able to leave comments after questions? 2) How often would you like to receive updates from INN? and 3) Would text ads to support new feature development be acceptable? _Link removed_

July 2004 Letter from the URI Executive Director

The July report from Charles Gibbs, Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative, commemorates the 4th anniversary of the signing of the URI charter and shares two stories from URI members in Croatia and India._Link removed_

The Importance and Meaning of Dialogue from a Jewish Perspective

A new survey from ReachingCommonGround.com and Harris Interactive finds that a majority of adult Americans believe that religious differences are the biggest obstacle in the face of achieving world peace, translating this belief into a call for greater respect for other religions in institutional religious education. The survey also finds that religious tolerance is strongly correlated to age. The article also announces an essay competition for youth, with $100,000 worth of prizes. _Link removed_

Teens from Regions of Conflict Gather to Learn to Use Religion for Peace

Beginning June 27, teens from several conflict-ridden areas gathered for a program called Face to Face/Faith to Faith. The program, which runs through July 12 in New York City, seeks to establish the a groundwork for positive inter-faith interaction and resolution of religiously-motivated conflict. Face to Face is sponsored by the Auburn Theological Seminary of New York and Seeking Common Ground from Denver. _Link removed_

Global AIDS Interfaith Alliance to Sponsor African Art Exhibition

While those of us outside of the San Francisco Bay area will not be privy to this upcoming art exhibition, perhaps this unique fundraiser can serve as inspiration and motivation to organizations the world over as they seek to fund their activities and turn our collective idealism into fuel for the upliftment of humanity. _Link removed_

Niwano Peace Prize Awarded to Ugandan Interfaith Organization

Regular InterfaithNews.Net readers will recognize this year's winner of the Niwano Peace Prize: the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative of Uganda, a United Religions Initiative Cooperation Circle working to end armed conflict. They have also won the new Paul Carus Award from the Parliament of the World Religions _Link removed_

Kofi Annan Opens Conference on Naming Evil: an Interfaith Dialogue

United Nations secretary general and Nobel peace prize winner Kofi Annan opened Trinity Institute's 35th national conference May 2 to a capacity crowd at New York's Trinity Church, Wall Street, speaking on the notion of evil in the contemporary world and highlighting the importance of faith in daily life. _Link removed_

No More Crusades: Rethinking Islam in the West

Dr. Bruce B. Lawrence, a professor or religion at Duke University, writes of the need to shift the Western mindset on Islam. In doing so he critiques both Christian and Muslim perceptions of each other, laying out hiw own vision for how the religions can interact more harmoniously in the future. The article concludes with a response from an American Muslim and Dr. Lawrence's reply._Link removed_

Posted with : On the Subject of Religion