Participants in the LWF Peace Messenger Training gather at the start of the day Friday September 22, 2017 before touring Jerusalem. Photo: Ben Gray

Interfaith and Peace

Contributing to a peaceful world through interfaith engagement

Conversations among people of different faith traditions and working together contribute to mutual understanding and trust between faith communities, social communities, and nations.

Faith-based organizations such as the LWF are increasingly recognized as vital partners in building sustainable societies and working for justice and peace, particularly by the United Nations; at the same time, there are tendencies to exclude religion from the public sphere.

Conversations among people of different faith traditions and working together contribute to mutual understanding and trust between faith communities, social communities, and nations.

We aim to equip our member churches and World Service country programs with tools and resources to engage, collaborate and contribute to peacebuilding in the local, national and global contexts.

Taking concrete steps to peacebuilding and interfaith engagement, we

  • contribute Lutheran theological perspectives to interfaith conversations
  • foster interfaith learning and interreligious literacy among communities and religious leaders
  • equip member churches to engage in interreligious relations in their context
  • support interfaith initiatives on advocacy and diakonia, to make an impact and build bridges between faith communities

We collaborate with ecumenical partners, interfaith actors, and religious leaders on human dignity, justice, and peace in our advocacy work. Working together, wherever possible and at all levels, we contribute to collective action, holding governments accountable and mobilizing people to uphold human dignity and advocate for the integrity of creation.