Interreligious Association for Peace and Development

UPF maintains that any successful strategy for peace must take into account the spiritual dimension of our human identity, experience and interactions. Based on this worldview, UPF initiated the Interreligious Association for Peace and Development as a partner organization to the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace. Through interreligious dialogue and exchange of viewpoints among the world’s religions and faith-based organizations, terrorism, violent extremism and the world’s ills can be proactively addressed. 

Interreligious Association for Peace and development LINK to forum report >>

Religious leaders are well-situated to deal with community-based concerns and can play a significant role in reconciliation and building a culture of peace. Due to their moral authority and emphasis on human rights based on the principle that we are one family created by God, religious leaders can help rebuild divided societies and assist in humanitarian services for the alleviation of hunger, disease and trauma due to violence and war. The world’s religions and faith-based organizations can provide a unique set of valuable resources for achieving a just and peaceful world.

Founding IAPD Resolution

November 10-14, 2017 at the Lotte World Hotel, Seoul, South Korea 

As participants in the Interreligious Leadership Conference sponsored by the Universal Peace Federation and the American Clergy Leadership Conference on November 10-14, 2017, focused on the theme, “Addressing the Critical Challenges of our Time: The Role and Responsibility of Religious Leaders and Faith-Based Organizations,” we affirm the unique and essential role that religions are called to play in bringing about a world of lasting peace, a world in which people of all nationalities, ethnicities, races, cultures, and worldviews may live together in mutual respect, harmony and cooperation, as one family under God. 

 Throughout the ages religion has served as a guide to humanity, leading us from darkness to light, establishing the foundations of morality, and providing a vision of the good society. The teachings and scriptures of the great religious traditions are humanity’s greatest treasures. We dishonor them at our peril. 

 We also recognize that persons within each of our religions have fallen short and failed to embody those universal ideals that are espoused within our traditions. Religion, too often, has given rise to conflict. 

 We resolve to overcome the divisive tendencies that have emerged within religion and to work to promote dialogue, mutual respect and cooperation so that we may more effectively work to solve the critical challenges of our time, including poverty, hunger, injustice, environmental degradation, family breakdown, corruption, conflict and violence. 

 Not only should religions cooperate with one another---Christian, Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, and others---they should also work together with the leaders of governments and civil society and the private sector, as partners for the sake of building the world envisioned by our founders, our ancestors, and, indeed, all people. 

 We applaud the leadership of Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon and her late husband Rev. Sun Myung Moon for their vision and work over many decades to establish one family under God. On this day, November 13, 2017, we endorse the proposal to establish a new interreligious association, known provisionally as the Interreligious Association for Peace and Development.