BACKGROUND
Faith to Action Network has held three previous Conventions (2019, 2021, 2023). As part of its
mandate, Faith to Action Network leverages on these platforms to promote experience sharing
and learning among the faith organizations and also with secular organizations. The Network
will hold its 4th Convention from 23rd-25th September 2025.
The Faith spiritual traditions support, inspire, and call us to uphold the inherent human dignity
of all people. Religions and spiritual traditions motivate believers and followers for the common
good, to actions that end suffering and improve lives, and for service to humanity and the
integrity of creation.
Religions and spiritual traditions also shape what people discern to be right and wrong, sacred
and profane, and often emphasize the obedience to rules and regulations as well upholding
justice. At a time of shrinking civic space, when human rights are under threat, and there is a
persistence of discrimination, marginalization, hatred, conflict and suffering, we are called to
affirm human dignity, justice, and freedom for all.
Sacred texts and traditions are at times misinterpreted and misused, and injustice perpetrated
in the name of religion. There is urgency to uncover and amplify life-affirming texts, traditions
and practices, and convene the faith change-makers to equip ourselves with knowledge, skills,
and courage to speak out against hatred, injustice, violence, and abuse of power.
The Interfaith Convention 2025 theme, Faith Actors: Stewards of change, reaffirms the
responsibility of faith actors to serve not only as moral guides but as active and responsible
change agents. Amid rising global inequalities, social fragmentation, and shrinking civic space,
this convention seeks to spotlight the unique role of faith communities in healing divides,
advancing rights, and building inclusive, compassionate societies.
ABOUT FAITH TO ACTION NETWORK
Faith to Action Network is an interfaith network of faith organizations from Bahai, Buddhist,
Confucian, Hindu, Christian and Muslim organizations. It offers faith organizations a platform to
engage on issues they are grappling with, in particular, women’s rights and gender equality,
sexual and reproductive health and rights, peaceful, just and inclusive communities.
Our members’ faith traditions call on us to uphold human dignity, human wellbeing and social
and gender justice. Sometimes, our diverse faith teachings lack answers to the everyday
challenges faced by communities. However, we all have a mutual interest in finding solutions to
shared problems and articulating a compassionate voice. We look for opportunities to engage
in brave debates, mutual learning, increased collaboration, while partnering constructively with
other faith organisations, governments and other stakeholders. We are convinced that when
we all join hands, we can exert powerful influence on leaders and communities for better
health, gender justice and peaceful coexistence. Faith to Action Network brings together
diverse faith actors and faith institutions – clergy, lay, youth, women and men – to engage in
dialogues that addresses the day-to-day issues of all communities in safe spaces. A foundation
laid in interfaith partnership and collaboration to address shared challenges and advance
common good is key in harmonious living.
YOUTH PRE-CONFERENCE
To center intergenerational leadership and amplify youth voices, the Interfaith Convention 2025
will include a Youth Pre-Convention, scheduled for 22nd September, 2025.
This dedicated youth space will bring together young faith leaders and activists from across
traditions and regions to:
â–ª Share their experiences and visions for faith-driven change
â–ª Explore the role of youth in upholding human dignity and social justice
â–ª Build skills in interfaith dialogue, advocacy, and digital engagement
â–ª Strengthen youth-led networks and strategize for collective action
The youth pre-convention will include sessions of interaction and dialogue with faith actors,
especially senior religious leaders and theologians) to share the challenges and opportunities
young people face within diverse contexts in responding to rights violations. The outcomes
and insights from the Youth Pre-Conference will directly inform the main Convention, ensuring
that young people are not only included but are actively shaping the interfaith agenda.
CONVENTION OBJECTIVES
The objectives of 4th Convention seek to stimulate participants to better understand,
engage and plan action on:
â–ª Freedom of Religion and Belief in order to advance peaceful coexistence and
pluralism.
â–ª Gender just laws, policies, norms, and practices.
â–ª Improved Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.
â–ª Building a faith actors’ movement
â–ª Resourcing interventions to promote stewardship in shifting funding contexts.
The desired outcomes of the Convention are that participants have:
â–ª menu of harvests of inspiring practices for replication and scale-up
â–ª gained awareness, new knowledge and skills about their own and other religions and
inter-religious action,
â–ª inspired and learnt from each other and shared experiences on how to draw on religion
to take social action,
▪ strengthened inter-personal relations, expressed solidarity for participants’ challenging
situations, celebrated each other’s successes and achievements,
â–ª planned and coordinated national, regional and international interreligious actions,
â–ª found an opportunity to network and form strategic partnerships with other like-minded
faith institutions.
â–ª understood the dynamics of a shifting funding priorities and sustaining
PARTICIPANTS
The 2025 Faith to Action Network Convention brings together faith actors and other
stakeholders who seek a safe space for expression as well as transparent dialogue on divergent
views in order to engage in common interfaith action. They include representatives from Bahai,
Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Hindu, and Muslim communities, as well as youth and women
of faith, clergy and lay leaders, theologians, scholars, faith-based practitioners, and civil society
allies. Participants will come from diverse cultural, national, and ethnic backgrounds, with
particular representation from regions where Faith to Action Network and its partners operate.
STRUCTURE AND METHODOLOGY
The Interfaith Convention 2025 will take place over three days, offering an engaging and
inclusive platform to showcase the contributions of the international interfaith community to
achieving SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing, SDG 5 Gender equality, SDG 16 Peace, justice and
strong institutions, SDG 17 Partnerships for the goals. It, further, contributes to the Inner
Development Goals (IDGs), strengthening participants’ transformational skills for sustainable
development.
A particular focus of the Convention will be on interfaith, intersectional, and international
approaches to topics and issues in the three Convention sub-themes of Advancing women’s
rights and gender justice, Faith partnering for justice, peace and inclusivity, and Health
rights. Convention attendees will engage in panel discussions, participate in plenaries, share in
parallel sessions, poster presentations and exhibitions as well as fire place/by the moonlight
storytelling. Various interactive approaches will be utilized to promote participation and
enhance inclusion.
Dialogue and sharing among Convention participants is key to the success of the Convention.
Sharing our knowledge and experiences with people of other religions and engaging in mutual
learning helps us understand better our own beliefs and that of our Neighbours and transforms
ourselves by enhancing our self-confidence. Accepting the inherent dignity of God’s creation,
we cannot find space for prejudice and discrimination. We open our hearts to new encounters
and engage with the lived reality of other people, resulting in new friendships and
enlightenment and creating new relationships and links. Discovering each other’s strengths
and weaknesses helps us engage in new partnerships, and strategize and plan together. we need more inclusive inter-religious spaces. How to engage in an egalitarian dialogue is of equal
importance and systematic efforts will be made to ensure diverse participants’ full and equal
participation and substantial involvement in this interreligious gathering.
SUB-THEMES
- Advancing women’s rights and gender justice
This Convention sub-theme will address a diversity of ways faith change-makers are advancing
women’s rights and gender justice, from community-based initiatives in the prevention and
survivor-led response to gender-based violence (GBV) to advocating in global policy arenas to
defend sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Faith-based methodologies for
transforming social norms, addressing barriers to health services (including family planning),
and reforming discriminatory laws will be shared. - Faith partnering for justice and peace
This strand of the Convention invites participants to share their work, interventions, case
studies, and experiences that highlight peace and security issues; inter-religious dialogue for
peace; environment/climate and conflict; themes such as youth or women and peace and
security; healing the healer; and more. Sharing innovative approaches and/or methods, best
practice examples, but also less successful projects will help learning and designing
transformative, solution-oriented interventions. - Dignity, equity and acceptance
Presentations under this Convention sub-theme may speak to religion and cultural traditions;
inter-generational partnerships; migration, welcoming the stranger and living as neighbours;
inclusion of less visible, marginalized and/or underrepresented members of faith communities
(e.g., people living with disability, LGBTQI+, religious minorities, survivors of mental health,
others). Ending prejudice and othering is fundamental to inter-religious respect and freedom
of religious belief (FoRB); how to build and sustain FoRB is therefore crucial for thriving
multifaith, multicultural communities and societies.
LOCATION AND TIME
The Convention will be held at Kyaka Hotel, Machakos, close to Nairobi, Kenya on 23rd – 25th
September 2025
INFORMATION
For more information about the Convention, please contact:
Email: convention@faithtoactionetwork.org
