A Message from the Executive Director

Written by Dr. Lucinda Mosher

The Executive Council of Religions for Peace – USA is pleased to announce that Dr. Lucinda Mosher, who began work with us last September in an interim capacity, has been named Executive Director of Religions for Peace-USA, effective April 15, 2009.

Last fall, Religions for Peace – USA conducted a panel discussion at NYC’s Macaulay Honors College (a division of the City University of New York). During the Q&A, one young woman spoke up: “You say you are religions working together for peace and justice. How will you know when you’ve succeeded? How will you know when you’ve achieved ‘peace’?” It was a fair question. These are tumultuous times. Recent weeks have been marred by media reports of events in which religion seems to be working for anything but peace. As a collaboration of many communities who may hold a range of positions on any hot-button issues or events, Religions for Peace – USA does not customarily take official positions. However, it is safe to assume that our Member Communities and Affiliates find the assassination of a physician repugnant; that all were profoundly saddened by the killing of a security guard at the Holocaust Museum in our nation’s capital; that all are deeply disturbed by the violent response to the protests of the Iranian election. In all three incidents, religion (defined as worldview) has played a key role. In the face of all three, we have countless examples of call for cessation of the violence from people who take the tenets, texts, or practices of their own religion seriously. Peace is not a commodity; it is something we must wage without ceasing. Religion is every bit as much of the solution as it ever has been the cause.

- Lucinda Mosher, Th.D., 25 June 209