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The Dicastery for Promoting Interreligious Dialogue is hosting a conference in Rome on the importance of women building a culture of interreligious encounter.

At the G20 Interfaith Forum, which took place 12-14 September in Bologna, Peter Prove, director of the World Council of Churches (WCC) Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, spoke on religious commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those focusing on children, hunger, water and sanitation.

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca, spoke on “Is Christian Ecumenism a Model?” at the G20 Interfaith Forum in Bologna, Italy being held 12-14 September.

World Council of Churches acting general secretary Rev. Prof. Dr Ioan Sauca will participate in the G20 Interfaith Forum, to be held in Bologna, Italy on 12-14 September.

An interfaith peace prayer service in Rome organized by the Sant'Egidio Community on 20 October drew Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Sikh and Hindu leaders who and prayed together.

In a 24 July statement on Hagia Sophia, Religions for Peace reiterated its commitment to the universality of heritage as something that can create peace and respect for all faiths. “We call for calm, in times when we see the use of religious sentiments and institutions in a manner that is divisive, thus pitting some believers against one another,” reads the statement. “We stand on the side of peace, and of deliberate, intentional, coexistence, particularly as we hear of the voices, and see the actions, of divisiveness and hatred from many quarters.”

Religions are often thought of as distinct and competing traditions, but the phenomenon of people belonging to multiple religious traditions is widespread, according to a World Council of Churches (WCC) publication presented during the European Academy of Religion in Bologna, Italy.

As part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Centro Pro Unione, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit spoke on 15 November in Rome about “What Does Mutual Accountability Mean for Christians and the Christian Life?”

The Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) of the Vatican and the Office of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation of the WCC met in Geneva from 16-18 April. Staff from the two offices united in prayer, fellowship and joint work on a document titled “Education for Peace in a Multi-Religious World”.

Protecting human freedom and dignity is a vital contribution to peace-building by religious communities, said Ecumenical Patriarch His All-Holiness Bartholomew I as he spoke at the Al-Azhar International Peace Conference on 27-28 April in Egypt.

A 50-year-old religious text can shape interreligious relationships crucial for peace-building today, found participants in a workshop organized by the WCC and attended by guests from the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (PCID) on 28 October.

During this year’s Muslim festival of Ramadan, the Turkish ministry of religious affairs has permitted the call to prayer by a muezzin and the reciting of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, within the historically Christian site of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

Churches in Europe have a crucial role to play in responding to the arrival of refugees in Europe, Germany's interior minister has told a gathering in Geneva of governments, United Nations agencies, church and faith groups and civil society organizations.

The WCC has hailed news of a resumption of talks between Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders on the longstanding division of the island of Cyprus.

“As faith communities and religious leaders, we are obliged constantly to remind people about the obligation and responsibility to choose peace through dialogue,” said Bartholomew, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.