The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) will hold its 36th congress in Cluj between September 4 and 6 under the title Faith in Reconciliation, the Hungarian Unitarian Church (MUE) announced on Wednesday.

The opening ceremony will be held on Monday afternoon in the Unitarian church in the center of Cluj. The celebration begins with devotion, where Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Shinto, Hindu and Zoroastrian participants, along with representatives of Christian denominations, pray for peace. On the occasion of the opening, religious historian George Williams will give a lecture entitled "The Path to Reconciliation: Understanding History".

The MUE announcement recalled that the legal predecessor of the IARF was founded in 1900, and Hungarian Unitarians were among the founders. The international organization has been a member of the UN's Economic and Social Council since 1955, maintains an office in Geneva and New York, and is actively involved in promoting human rights, religious freedom, and interfaith dialogue. The main goal of IARF is to create the possibility of dialogue between different religions and churches, while firmly standing for freedom of conscience.

The association's membership has expanded over time, in addition to Unitarian and other Protestant communities, as well as Unitarian-Universalist organizations, its key members are the Japanese Buddhist Rissho Kosei Kai, as well as several Japanese Shinto shrine communities, Middle Eastern associations promoting the reconciliation of Abrahamic religions, and the Some of the religious and human rights organizations operating in India.

"The diversity of the association's membership, the wealth of religions and worldviews naturally entails that the members do not have the same opinion on many - even pivotal - issues. Nevertheless, we are all confident that we will succeed in serving the main goal of the association all over the world," reads the MUE announcement.

According to the program available on the IARF website, the main venue of the Cluj Congress will be the hall of the János Zsigmond Unitarian College, the opening ceremony will be held in the downtown Unitarian church, and some parallel events will be hosted by the House of Religious Freedom, inaugurated five years ago.

At the Congress, we hope to explore the ways in which religion can inspire and nurture efforts to create healing, reconciliation and a just peace, the Cluj event's program guide reads, among other things.

More than two decades ago, in 2002, the 31st IARF World Congress was held in Budapest.

MTI