IARF News Digest

Religion News Service reports interviews with newly elected Democratic clergy and progressive faith organisers about healthcare, voting rights, living wages, childcare, immigration and opposition to war. The article also includes the Secular Coalition for America’s call for religious neutrality and oversight. Participants distinguish faith-informed public service from theocracy and stress respect for people of every religion and none. The report presents proposed legislative agendas and expectations, including disagreements and challenges in turning activism into policy, rather than suggesting that election wins already guarantee those reforms.

Five Dutch liberal religious organisations (liberal Protestants, Mennonites, Remonstrants, Apostolics and Vrijzinnigen Nederland) are setting up a joint support project, currently called the Vrijzinnig Innovatie Centrum. The aim is to help local people move from a good idea for a liberal activity to realisation by providing help with organisation, volunteers, venue and funding. VVP minister Jasper van der Horst (Assen and Wapserveen) explains the project is not meant as a central ideas bank or a national body that dictates how things should be done, but to strengthen local initiatives. The ultimate goal is inspiring local activities aimed at people interested in meaning or religiosity who do not connect with a traditional church, presenting what liberal organisations have to offer without proselytising. The group is now working towards a one- or two-day meeting for potential makers to share experience, probably in early 2027. Van der Horst says collaboration across organisations brings energy and complementary qualities.

The Hungarian Unitarian Church awarded its highest distinction, the Janos Zsigmond Prize founded in 2023, for 2026 to Unitarian minister, physician and writer Dr. Judit Gellerd and her husband, American religious historian Dr. George M. Williams. The prize was presented on 9 October at the festive gala of the Main Council meeting in Alsobodogfalva, by unanimous decision of the Church Representative Council, honouring their decades of work preserving Unitarian spiritual heritage, building international church relations and supporting education and science. Bishop Istvan Kovacs compared their life paths to two merging rivers. Gellerd, daughter of scholar-minister Imre Gellerd, qualified in medicine in Targu Mures, worked in Miercurea Ciuc and Budapest, married Williams in 1988, moved to the USA, studied theology and was ordained in Corund in 2002, publishing twelve books including works on her father’s legacy. Williams, professor at California State University Chico, researched Hindu traditions and Japanese liberal religious movements and represented interfaith dialogue and religious freedom internationally, notably in IARF, receiving an honorary doctorate in Cluj in 1996. On Gellerd’s initiative the Unitarian Universalist Partner Church Council was founded in 1993, linking more than 200 Transylvanian and Hungarian congregations with North American partners, providing material support and lasting friendships. The couple also brought computers for theology students in the early 1990s, launched a US scholarship programme, created the Imre Gellerd Fund, supported manuscript research and digitisation, denominational schools and the Heltai Press. In thanks, Gellerd quoted Goethe and described her work as a life mission continuing her father’s unfulfilled dreams, while Williams recalled Prince Janos Zsigmond and the 1568 Turda edict, stressing freedom of conscience is still not self-evident.

A national ecumenical coalition is launching Actie Onderdak (Shelter Initiative), asking local churches to provide small-scale, temporary housing for recognized refugees—especially families—who are waiting for municipal housing. The proposed stays would last three months, helping families get to know their new community and easing pressure on crowded asylum centers. The initiative was developed by the Council of Churches in the Netherlands, the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and the Roman Catholic Church, with support from other church bodies. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers is to arrange onward placement after the stay, while refugee-support organization INLIA will assist participating congregations.

IARF President Robert Ince visited North Macedonia, Kosovo and Albania for a week of meetings on religious freedom, interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence, while also preparing the IARF Congress in Albania in 2027. In Tirana he was received by World Bektashi leader Haxhi Dede Baba Edmond Brahimaj at the World Bektashi headquarters to discuss religious freedom, tolerance and concrete cooperation, and to review organisational and logistical conditions for the 2027 Congress, expected to bring about 80 delegates from 25 countries. The visit builds on a long relationship: Brahimaj was engaged with IARF since 2010 in Macedonia, Tetovo hosted the 2016 IARF European Conference with 26 countries through the Macedonia Gjyshata led by Prof. Arben Sulejmani and Tetovo University, giving international visibility to Harabati Baba Teqe. In Kosovo the delegation visited Gjakova, Prekaz, Mitrovica and Pristina, meeting Dervish Rauf Radoniqi, the Jewish community leader Hysen Hyseni, Protestant leader Femi Cakolli, Catholic believers, journalists and others, discussing community life, legal registration, pluralism and coexistence. In Albania Ince also met the State Committee on Cults and representatives of the five traditional communities (Bektashi, Muslim, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant), and was briefed on the organisation of the World Bektashi headquarters. Cultural visits to Durres, Kruja, Lezha and Shkodra explored heritage sites that could form part of a cultural programme for Congress delegates.

Nick Butler-Watts, Innovation Fund Programme Manager at the General Assembly, reflects on his first eighteen months working with Unitarians after nearly fifteen years as a Quaker. He says he felt at home among Unitarians because of their affirmation of same-gender marriage, spiritual seeking, rational thought, openness to other traditions and ethical living. He reports frustration within the movement that Unitarianism remains little known, while congregations are ageing and some at risk. The Innovation Fund was created to give breathing space and fund experiments led locally. In its first year it has pledged just over GBP 500,000 to 26 projects in England, Scotland and Wales, mostly match-funded, generating nearly GBP 1 million for Unitarian life, including mid-week gatherings in Shrewsbury, a community hub in the Swansea Valley, a children’s magazine club in Lancashire, a new worshipping community in central London and an arts festival collaboration in Doncaster. Butler-Watts notes religious participation is declining across Britain, but argues decline can be transformation rather than simple loss, quoting Quaker writer Emily Provance that resurrection is not resuscitation. He says congregations are asking what spiritual community means in 2026 and beyond. The next application deadline is 9 November, and a full year-one report is available.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2–1 that 27 Christian and Jewish religious denominations and associations, including the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), have standing to challenge the Trump administration’s policy allowing immigration enforcement near houses of worship. The ruling reverses an April 2025 decision that dismissed the case for lack of demonstrated imminent harm and lets the lawsuit proceed. Filed in February 2025, the case argues that warrantless ICE actions at worship sites burden religious exercise under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and hinder congregations’ work with immigrants. The UUA welcomed the ruling, citing reported surveillance of UU congregations and the loss of protections for sacred places.

Washington Blade repost 9 October reports ICC 5 October unsealed arrest warrants for four Taliban officials for gender and political persecution as crimes against humanity under Rome Statute Article 7(1)(h) since 15 August 2021 to at least 20 January 2025: supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Education Minister Habibullah Agda and Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadim. Pre-Trial Chamber II interprets gender beyond biology to include socially constructed roles and norms. Charges cover ordering persecution of girls, women and gender-nonconforming persons including LGBTQ, and of allies of girls and women. Follows 2024 announcement for two leaders and January 2025 prosecutor Karim Khan request, first to name LGBTQ victims. Outright 2023 documented systematic assault, detention, floggings and intelligence on gay men and trans women. Afghanistan LGBTIQ Organization director Artemis Akbary calls huge for accountability. Notes US non-recognition and Rubio sanctions.

The article describes Sikhs and Hindus in Punjab funding or building mosques for Muslim neighbours, including a Sikh family’s donation of land in Jakhiwal, where elderly Gajju Khan hopes to hear the call to prayer again. It links these efforts to mosques abandoned after the 1947 Partition and reports that non-Muslim villagers have contributed to more than 165 mosques in nine years. Examples from Jakhiwal, Punawal and Malerkotla show residents giving land, money and building materials and sharing community life. A local imam says villagers continue to protect one another despite wider online polarization.