Significant Dialogues
In 1996 the IARF held its 29th World Congress at Iksan in the Republic of Korea, in cooperation with Won Kwang University on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The Won Buddhists hosted a Congress that was marked by a significant dialogue between Japanese and Korean members of the IARF, a large number of young adults who met before the Congress and participated throughout it, and a moving interfaith service at the Demilitarized Zone for peace on the Korean peninsula. Representatives of Palestinian and Israeli IARF groups stirred the Congress with their speeches, and Muslim participants from Bangladesh and India made presentations. The Congress Proceedings were published for the first time on the Internet at the IARF web site (http://www.iarf.net), and Rissho Kosei-kai produced a Congress video that is currently available in PAL and NTSC formats.

Since 1996 the IARF Chapter in India has sponsored many interfaith forums to promote tolerance, and the Social Service Network has initiated a loan program. New IARF members include an indigenous community from Mindanao in the Philippines and a research group of young Muslim scholars in Egypt. In 1997 the International Interfaith Centre co-sponsored the first interfaith peace conference in Northern Ireland. European conferences with young adult programs co-sponsored by the International Religious Fellowship were held in 1997 at Hilversum in the Netherlands and the following year at Bad Boll in Germany. Also in 1998 the IARF Coordinating Council for South Asia held a young adult conference in Leh-Ladakh in the Himalayas that included the first interfaith public event in that region.