Bishop William E. Swing - The United Religions Initiative

 

Bishop Swing served as the Episcopal Bishop of California from 1980 until his retirement in 2006. In that capacity, he was a national and international leader in response to the AIDS crisis, co-founded Episcopal Community Services to address San Francisco’s homeless problem, and co-founded Community Bank of the Bay to support local businesses and the economy. He served for over two decades on the board of the American Foundation for AIDS Research and was active in San Francisco on a daily basis with alcohol and drug rehabilitation, Latino immigrant ministries, and care for the elderly and homeless. In 2008 the Bishop Swing Community House, a permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless adults, in the South of Market, San Francisco was named after him.

 

Bishop William Swing is the President and Founder of the United Religions Initiative. He had the original vision of United Religions Initiative in 1993 in response to an invitation from the United Nations which asked him to host an interfaith service honoring the 50th anniversary of the signing of the UN Charter. The United Religions Initiative is a model to the United Nations. In 1996 he traveled to China, Japan, South Korea, India, the Middle East, and Europe seeking guidance and commitment from leaders of many of the world’s religions, including the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, Islam’s Grand Mufti of Egypt, and the Archbishop of Canterbury.