Learning, community & connection

Beginning a Quest for Free-Religion

Our new monthly Free-Religion Colloquium explores Free-Religion—with a hyphen—as a possible “creative and liberative force” within our diverse religious traditions. It is an open inquiry with no predetermined answers: participants will share wisdom and practices they have found liberating, meaningful or transformative.

The first speaker is Prof. George M. Williams, past IARF president, historian of religions and author of Cosmic Sage, the biography of Shin’ichirō Imaoka, available in the IARF Library.

Friday, 23 October · 08:00 and 17:00 UTC—two 90-minute sessions.

IARF members and non-members are welcome. Enrol on the course page for Zoom links, materials and reminders. New users should create an account first, selecting their IARF affiliation or Invited, and allow time for account approval. Please share this invitation with friends who might enjoy the conversation.

Advisory committee: George Williams, Rev. Andrew James Brown, Yuji Inokuma, Michinori Maruta, Stephen Schwichow, Gail Sandlin and Stephen Polmar (Secretary).

For questions about the Colloquium, contact Secretary Stephen Polmar by email or through the IARF Network.

Mujerista Theology and the Divine Epistemologies of the Everyday

Emma Serrano explores the contribution of Ada María Isasi-Díaz, originator of mujerista theology: its roots in Latin American liberation theology, its distinctive insights and the movements it has influenced.

Saturday, 24 October · 17:00 UTC.

27 October · History & religious texts Jesus and Slavery: Reading Between the Lines of the Gospels Norbert Nagy, a Unitarian minister in Transylvania and Oxford doctoral researcher, explores freedom and unfreedom in the world of Jesus. Drawing on historical-Jesus research and slavery studies, he asks whose lives remain overlooked in the Gospels, and what the sources allow us to recover about enslaved people’s experiences.

Tuesday, 27 October · 17:00 UTC.

Catch up in another language

Recordings are becoming accessible across more languages, with translated subtitles and voiceovers. Here is what you can watch now:

Open each recording through its title above and choose the language or translated version you would like to watch. The discussions by IARF President Robert Ince and Mathias Becker belong to BEYOND’s series on freedom from different religious perspectives.

A glimpse of November

8 November · 16:30 UTC: Between Science and Spirituality, on Free Religion in the age of modernity, continues Pascal’s series on its revised schedule.
14 November: Rev. Dr. John C. Dorhauer presents Christian Nationalism: The Rise of Religious Bigotry in the United States at 18:00 UTC.
18 November: the Colloquium welcomes Rev. Andrew James Brown of Cambridge Unitarian Church; programme details and times will follow. Explore his Imaoka Shin’ichirō and Free Religion course.
22 November: Rev. Maruta continues The Twelve Links of Dependent Origination with part two.

Keep an eye on the course pages for updates and joining details.

IARF in Geneva

From left: Johannes Spindler, Rev. Dr. Esther Suter, Prof. Nicolas Levrat, Peter Le Poole and Sander Winckel.

An IARF delegation visited Geneva on 9–10 September. Peter Le Poole, Esther Suter, Sander Winckel and Johannes Spindler attended meetings and events during the 63rd session of the Human Rights Council. They also met with the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, staff of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and colleagues of NGOs in the NGO Committee Geneva on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

The conversations centered on the financial crisis in the UN, the role NGOs can play in collecting reliable, firsthand information on behalf of international human rights work, and the situation of minorities in particular countries. The financial crisis threatenes to diminish the effectiveness of the UN system, which makes it even more important for the UN to receive information from NGOs on local circumstances. Similarly, the proposed merger between UN Women and UNFPA could the affect the role the UN plays in advancing the situation of women. It was a very succesful visit, and helped to strengthen IARF's ties both with the UN and with other NGOs. A concrete outcome was that IARF co-sponspored the side event on September 14 of the Quaker UN office on conscientious objection to military service.

Peter le Poole

Yezidi petition reaches the Dutch parliament

A petition co-signed by IARF was presented to the Dutch parliament’s Committee for Asylum and Migration on 22 September. The handover recorded 6,015 signatories. Nara Silo spoke for the Yezidi delegation, and Dutch Chapter member At Ipenburg attended. The petition calls for a reassessment of the protection available to Yezidis facing return to Iraq.

Protecting the Kawahiva’s forest home

Survival International has renewed its appeal for formal recognition and protection of the Kawahiva do Rio Pardo Indigenous Territory in Brazil. Physical demarcation is complete, but presidential approval remains a separate step. Our new article explains why land protection matters for an uncontacted people’s ability to continue their own way of life, and links to Survival’s email-writing campaign.

Protecting UN commitments to women and girls

IARF has co-signed NGO CSW Geneva’s Coordination Without Consolidation, opposing the proposed merger of UN Women and UNFPA. The statement warns that renegotiating UN Women’s mandate could dilute established commitments to gender equality and women’s rights.

For a liberal religious organisation, protecting those commitments means defending equality, personal autonomy and freedom from discrimination. The statement identifies inadequate funding as the underlying problem and supports better coordination without a merger: reform should improve delivery while preserving agreed rights and standards.

EME meeting · 22 October

Our Europe and Middle East regional group meets online on Thursday, 22 October at 16:00 CEST / 14:00 UTC. Join the regional conversation and catch up with fellow members.

A forum for member-group representatives

A separate EME forum is planned for 4 November: a two-hour conversation with representatives of member organisations and chapters. Groups will receive individual invitations with joining details and be asked to nominate one or two representatives, ideally from their leadership, board or secretariat. It will create space for consultation and exchange across the region.

Explore EME’s new website

Visit eme.iarf.net, now a dedicated section of the IARF website. It brings together regional news, member groups, conferences, study tours, learning and resources, with a direct connection to the EME discussion group on the Network.

Berdyaev on freedom, dignity and responsibility

Two new English translations of Nikolai Berdyaev—The Destiny of Man and Slavery and Freedom—explore conscience, creativity and the struggle for personal freedom.

Read The Destiny of Man
Read Slavery and Freedom

G. J. Heering · The Fall of Christianity

Gerrit Jan Heering, a Dutch Remonstrant theologian and influential voice in liberal Protestantism and Christian pacifism, challenges the churches’ support for war in The Fall of Christianity.

His works entered the public domain in 2026; we will try to include and translate most of them in the IARF Library.

Free Religion in nineteenth-century New England

David M. Robinson explores Free Religion’s links with transcendentalism and Unitarian radicalism in “The New Epoch of Belief”.

Join the conversation—and take the Network with you

The IARF Network is our meeting place between events: groups, discussions, courses, resources and community updates. If you have not joined yet, please register and introduce yourself. You can also install the Network as an app on your phone or computer: open it in your browser and choose Install App from the Network menu.