SAN FRANCISCO – This year’s CBS Christmas Eve Special will present a groundbreaking interfaith program on the theme “MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH”, produced by the United Religions Initiative (URI), a global grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network, and broadcast on Thursday, December 24 (11:35 PM ET/PT, 10:35 CT) on CBS stations nationally.
“At a time when horrific violence in the name of religion dominates the news, and prejudice and intolerance threaten to undermine our diverse communities, the world needs to know that peace among religions is possible in our communities, in our country and in our world,” said the Rev. Victor Kazanjian, Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative.
Coming together to create this Interfaith Christmas Special are leaders from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America, representing Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Indigenous, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Native American, Sikh, Shinto and Unitarian Universalist traditions.
The hour-long special, “MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH”, features an interfaith Christmas Eve celebration at St. Gregory’s of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco, CA, interspersed with wishes via video from people of different religions from around the world. The program also includes inspiring stories of interfaith peacebuilders from conflict areas like the Middle East and Western Africa. These powerful stories highlight the often-dangerous but essential work of promoting peace and cooperation between people of different religious, spiritual and cultural traditions.
“This program is a gift of light and hope in the midst of a world too often filled with darkness and despair,” said URI Founder, the Right Rev. William E. Swing, former Episcopal Bishop of California.” “It is the gift of a far larger story than what we often see, a story of ordinary people of different faiths living together peacefully, working together and making contributions to their communities together. This message is a gift of peace for the whole world at Christmas.”
Headquartered in San Francisco, the United Religions Initiative (URI) is the world’s largest grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network, operating in 92 countries. URI brings people of different faiths and cultures together to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing. For more information, visit www.uri.org. URI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which relies on individual contributions to further its work.
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