September/October 1999 Living Now
Imagine Yourself Being Part of the UR
An Invitation to Create a Cooperation Circle
From its beginning the URI has been a vision and an invitation. The vision has been of an unprecedented level of global inter-religious cooperation for the good of all. The invitation has been to all people, all over the world: if you share this vision, you are invited to join in making it real. Every voice matters.
Further work on the organizational concept is underway. We need your help and your creativity to imagine how a UR organization might take root in local settings and around specific interests. We need your help in imagining a world of Cooperation Circles, each coming together to share stories from one faith tradition to another, to save a river, or to organize an inter-religious musical festival for peace; to reach out and meet the challenges of poverty, war, and injustice with unprecedented acts of cooperation.
In the spirit of invitation and vision, we invite you to imagine how a UR Cooperation Circle might take root where you live, or around a particular interest. How might such a group spring into being from your passion, creativity, resourcefulness, and determination? What would be your purpose? Whom would you call together?
The following guidelines, symbol chart, and sample CC can help you craft your own Cooperation Circle. Craft your model of a CC using the following guidelines.
1. CCs have a minimum 7 members and a maximum of 500.
2. CCs welcome and honor diversity. People from at least 3 different religions, spiritual, or cultural traditions/professions must be present.
3. People can choose to designate whether their membership is as an individual, as an association, or as an organization. People may come to the UR as individuals or as members of an association or an organization. An association is an informal group that is not legally incorporated. An organization is a formal group that is legally incorpo rated.
TO GET STARTED:
Write the name and purpose of your CC on the worksheet. Decide who will participate. Draw small circles (or use colored dots) to indicate each person who is a member of your CC. Decide what diversity of people your CC will have and the number of people participating. Mark each small circle with an abbreviated name indicating each person's faith tradition or background. Include association and organization members in addition to individual members if you wish.
CCs are intended to be self-organizing, decision-making bodies of the UR. They may organize in any manner, at any scale, in any area, and can come together around any issue or activity which is relevant and consistent with the Preamble, Purpose and Principles. You can create the procedures your group uses for governance and making decisions. The large circle represents the parameters for the entire CC membership. The interior circle represents the decision-making body that emerges within this group. Briefly describe the way you imagine decisions being made in your CC. Indicate the people who might make the decisions by drawing a line that connects them to the interior circle called, the "decision-making council."
For information on Cooperation Circles forming in Oregon, contact Sylvan Simmons by Phone: 503-925-1141, mosaic2@gte. net , or Fax: 503-925-8091.