Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
Composed of dynamic voices from across the political, professional, spiritual, and geographical
spectra, united in a single purpose - to eliminate nuclear weapons once and for all.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Remembering Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr.
October 3, 1933 – September 3, 2026
By the Rt. Rev. William E. Swing
In 2008, former Secretary of State, George Shultz and I were talking about URI and about the need to marshal energy around the elimination of nuclear weapons. I told him that URI was structured around Cooperation Circles, and he suggested that we form a Cooperation Circle to serve that purpose, i.e. the elimination of nuclear weapons.
I told him that I would recruit the URI person at the United Nations, Monica Willard, and the nuclear weapons expert, Jonathan Granoff. He told me that he would recruit
Ambassador Thomas Graham, Ambassador James Goodby, the famous physicist, Sidney Drell and the former Secretary of Defense, William Perry.
But Cooperation Circles are intended to be made up of grassroots people; these people were anything but grassroots. Nevertheless, we became a Cooperation Circle of URI. Grassroots to follow.
We became grassroots when we made a video (www.voices-uri.org/nuclear-prayer) about the prayer that we said every time we got together. If you watch the video, you see that all people are equal in prayer, especially in praying for the elimination of
nuclear weapons. Those weapons make everyone “grassroots.”
If you watch the video, you will catch a glimpse of the soul of Tom Graham. Yes, Tom worked on the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, yes, on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, yes, on the Anti-Missile Treaty, yes, on the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and yes, on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty. And much, much, much more!
He was proudly from Kentucky. Served this nation diligently and with insightful erudition. And he put his finger in the dyke that kept all of us, for the moment, from being drowned in radiation. And he worked hard to the end. URI played a tiny roll in Tom’s life, but the soul of his life was expansive and embraced so many of the grace notes of living.
Voices - Nuclear Prayer Day 2026
GLOBAL DAYS OF PRAYER AND ACTION
ONLINE EVENTS Presented August 8th, 9th 2026
August 9th - watch Nagasaki, Nuclear Prayer Day and interfaith Actions. Includes a new 30 minute film entitled, "The Nagasaki Bells: Ringing Out Peace for a Nuclear Weapons Fee World".
The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, founding President of URI, shares the Nuclear Prayer that he wrote and that inspired Nuclear Prayer Day and Global Days of Actions, Aug 6-9. Our closing speakers share Interfaith actions and prayers to continue the call for peace and justice.
August 8th - Creating a World Free of Nuclear Weapons. Looking to the past and toward the future with hope and determination to affirm that lasting security is built not through fear but through wisdom, cooperation, justice and compassion.
VOICES YOUTH AWARD PRESENTED
August 2026
Joel Naoki Christoph receives award certificate from URI Executive Director Karen Volker
Joel reflects, "At school in Germany, I listened to survivors of atrocities who came to tell us what they had lived through. I never imagined I would one day know such people myself. Years later, I interpreted for Hibakusha, the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on the Peace Boat voyage. Putting their words into another language taught me how much they were entrusting to whoever was listening. That generation is leaving us while the weapons remain. This award belongs to them as much as to me. It strengthens my resolve to keep their testimony at the center of my own work."
Fresh works on the nuclear threat by Voices members and partners - click to read:
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Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute "The Moral, Practical, Necessary Invigoration of Nuclear Sanity"
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Back From the Brink's new podcast series
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An Ordinary Insanity, (29 minutes) produced by Daniel Ellsberg and endorsed by Jonathan Granoff.
War and the Prospect of Nuclear War Call Us to Prayer and Action for the Sake of the World
On the heels of the Doomsday Clock being reset to 85 seconds before midnight and the expiration of the New START Treaty without a new deal agreed upon between the United States and Russia, the current war in Iran is alarming for many reasons, including for the risks for a growing, global nuclear arms race. In this article, Michael Ramos from Voices invites us to return to the roots of our deepest values and prayer to ground us for concerted and collective action toward a world free of nuclear weapons.
Pray with us for these two critical events in 2026:
The Doomsday Clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moving closer to midnight, at 85 seconds; and, the expiration of the New START treaty regarding limiting and reducing nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia by mutual agreement. These two events are interconnected: we live in a moment where the roots of spirituality and prayer are needed more than ever to bring us to our collective senses and to proactively work for peace and toward the abolition of nuclear weapons.
This article from Global Issues in which our Voices member, Jonathan Granoff, is quoted, makes the connection and urges us to prayerful action.
VOICES - The BIG Question at the end of 2025
How to participate in the future of Voices
Review the Letter from the Rt. Rev. William E. Swing to the Voices faithful on an opportunity to support the future of Voices.
Voices presents its first Annual Report. Click to review the year in photos and memories.
IMAGINE A WORLD FREE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS
Watch our Zoom from September 15th, 2025, where we are commemorating peace and the elimination of nuclear weapons with a live discussion. Our conversation featured Haneen Khalid, our 2025 Voices Youth Award winner, along with Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr., former senior U.S. diplomat; The Rt. Rev. William E. Swing, founder of Voices and United Religions Initiative; and Anna Ikeda, Representative to the UN of Soka Gakkai International
