The Pluralism Project at Harvard University

A Thirty-Year Legacy

Religions for Peace – USA began as an office within its parent organization, the World Conference of Religions for Peace (now, Religions for Peace International) in the early 1970’s. Although it was created solely to support the work of the international organization, it steadily began developing its own programming along the lines of the international body. In 2000, the U.S. office decided to establish itself as an independent chapter, The United States Conference of Religions for Peace, in order to develop a mission that was more focused on U.S. initiatives. The organization's name was changed in 2004 to Religions for Peace – USA (RFP-USA), and a new mission and vision took hold. Today, RFP-USA's official headquarters are in the Church Center for the United Nations, where the organization has worked side by side with its parent body since its establishment more than thirty years ago.

Diverse Leadership

The governance of the organization is carried out by three bodies: the Council of Presidents, the Executive Council, and the Advisory Council, whose membership encompasses senior U.S. religious leadership, interreligious affairs officers and advocates, scholars, and issue based experts. Together these councils represent over fifty religious communities, making RFP-USA the most broadly based religiously representative organization in the country.

On a day to day basis, the organization is led by Executive Director Rev. BudHeckman and a small staff of young adults, interns, seminary field education placements, recent college graduates, and volunteers. Heckman notes the importance of keeping young adults in interfaith work; he employed the services of more than seven young adults in the summer of 2004 alone. The team of staff and interns is comprised of a number of individuals with varying cultural and religious backgrounds, which Heckman says, “is growing to be as religiously representative as our governance bodies." "Even better," Heckman adds, "interfaith dialogue is happening on a daily basis as we work to realize our organization’s mission.” Many of the interns have also been shared with other religious organizations and private institutions, like the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai'i's and the US Fund for UNICEF, in order to establish more programming collaborations.

Programming

Programming Initiatives of Religions for Peace – USA are developed according to its three areas of focus. In particular, RFP-USA works to:
1) build community
2) address diversity; and
3) examine the role of the US in the World.

Central to the organization's programmatic goals is a focus on interfaith dialogue. Since the adoption of a new strategic focus on interfaith discussion in 1984, the group has facilitated more than thirty formal dialogues. One of the organization’s most wide-reaching dialogue initiatives was the two-year Diversity and Community Project, where it visited eleven communities to hold local dialogues discussing the changing face of the American religious landscape and the issues that resulted from this change. During this time, RFP-USA worked with over fifty-five local interfaith groups and representatives from coast to coast. In 2004, RFP-USA also entered into a project under the auspices of the United Nations Foundation entitled, The People Speak, in which the group coordinated the administration of forty local dialogues to discuss America’s role in the World from a faith perspective. Other dialogues were hosted in 2004 on topics such as Engaged Buddhism and Human Rights Day.

Building Interfaith Community

Among RFP-USA’s programmatic areas of focus is to “build community,” not only among the country’s cities, but also among today’s interfaith movement leaders. For this reason, RFP-USA has been reaching out to other interfaith organizations for cooperation and event collaboration. RFP-USA, for example, acted as a liaison between the North American Interfaith Network and the National Association of Ecumenical and Interrreligious Staff for the 2004 NAIN/NAEIS Connect Conference in New York City. In the past two years, it has also sponsored a young adult scholarship contest for the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington. In January of 2006, the organization will be hosting a gathering for U.S. religious leaders from all of the country’s major religious communities.

Other recent joint initiatives of the organization include the co-sponsoring of a 9/11 memorial service, a dialogue on the Sudan crisis, and a forum to recognize the International Day of Peace. Another project, Creative Explorations in Community Building, is being coordinated with the Same Difference Interfaith Alliance in an effort to bring interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding to communities through engagement with the arts. RFP-USA is also combining dialogue and the arts through the development of public service announcements in a special collaboration with Faith and Values Media.

On a monthly basis, RFP-USA reaches out to thousands of interfaith organizations and individuals through its interfaith newsletter which features the work of the organization and that of its member bodies. RFP-USA is also creating an inter-chapter newsletter to connect the regional and national chapters of Religions for Peace International. In this way, chapters can share successful practices with one another and strengthen their effectiveness as they address peace and justice concerns in their parts of the world.

Expanding Local Initiatives

Since gaining an independent 501(c)3 status, the organization has been challenged to form its own mold aside from its identity with Religions for Peace International and to expand its local programming through a strategic focus on local leaders and citizens. Heckman notes, “the work of RFP-USA has a strong historical presence in the work of Religions for Peace International, and we are doing new and exciting interfaith programming apart from them, too.” To Heckman, being a national body is particularly advantageous because the group has essential ties to international and national leaders, but can also work on the local level to bring interreligious understanding to smaller communities nationwide. In sum, RFP-USA has a global vision with the benefit of working it out on a local, statewide, and national level.

Currently, one state chapter of the national body exists: Religions for Peace Hawaii. Although RFP-USA intends to develop more statewide chapters in the future, it is presently focusing its attention on the new project Building Interreligious Councils. The project was implemented in 2003 in an effort to develop three new interreligious councils in the United States where an interfaith structure was lacking and to provide technical assistance for them through the development of a guidebook and formal training process. Out of more than two dozen inquiries, three locations were chosen for this project – Fresno, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Kansas City, Missouri. Through efforts like these, Heckman says that RFP-USA is well on its way to expanding its local presence and widening the scope of interfaith activity in the country.