The Székelykeresztúr Unitarian Church District held its 10th Firtos meeting at the renovated Firtos lookout on June 13, bringing together nearly a thousand participants from local congregations and nearby communities. The event featured worship, speeches, cultural performances, communal meals, youth activities, and the inauguration of the new lookout, which symbolized Unitarian presence and community cooperation. The gathering emphasized fellowship, shared service, and the strength of communal unity.

Liz Slade’s June 2026 letter reflects on Pride Month, religious freedom, and the historical struggles of dissenters and LGBTQ+ people for equal rights. She highlights the importance of inclusive faith communities, criticizes growing anti-trans rhetoric, and argues that genuine in-person dialogue and welcome are essential for dignity and liberation. The letter closes by affirming that freedom for one group is bound up with freedom for all.

This article reviews Koert van der Velde’s book arguing that people can be religious without believing literal religious claims. It explains his distinction between belief and religion, and how rituals, wonder, and symbolic practices can still create meaningful spiritual experiences.

The World Bektashi Leader, Haxhi Dede Baba Edmond Brahimaj, delivered a speech at the 30th Berlin International Meeting in the German Bundestag on the theme of responsibility before God and humanity. The address emphasized moral accountability, justice, compassion, interfaith dialogue, human dignity, and the Bektashi tradition’s commitment to peace, tolerance, and service to others.

This page from the Czech Unitarian site reports on the 2026 national assembly in Bratislava. The unitarians called for stronger independence of public media, rejected collective guilt, supported broader burial options including terramation, reaffirmed human rights and opposition to authoritarianism, and emphasized social understanding, environmental responsibility, and spiritual integrity. The page also contains earlier assembly resolutions from 2025 and 2024 on mutual respect, support for LGBTQ+ marriage equality, and community outreach.

On Wednesday, May 27, 2026, the Bektashi community celebrated Kurban Bayram (Eid al-Adha) at the World Bektashi Headquarters in Tirana with prayers, traditional rites, and greetings from religious leaders, government officials, diplomats, scholars, and believers from Albania and the wider Albanian diaspora. The Bektashi World Leader, Haxhi Dede Baba Edmond Brahimaj, offered blessings for greater love, harmony, and mutual respect. Visitors also toured the Bektashi Museum, library, and art gallery.

The Hungarian Unitarian Church signed a framework cooperation agreement on May 21, 2026, with the Via Unitariana Association. The initiative aims to create a spiritual and cultural pilgrimage route connecting Unitarian communities and heritage sites from Cluj to Brașov, with plans for route development, heritage and community programs, reusing unused church properties, and building a multilingual digital platform.

The World Bektashian Leader, Haxhi Dede Baba, donated food packages to the elderly and organizations supporting people with disabilities and the visually impaired during the days of Fitr Bajram.

Liz Slade discusses the role of religious dissent and the right to protest in contemporary society, referencing recent police actions against Quakers, the history of Unitarian and dissenting faith groups, and the need for communities that stand for love, truth, and freedom of conscience.

The Unitarian Universalist Association wrote to President Trump and congressional leaders calling for an immediate end to the war in Iran. The letter says the conflict violates UU religious principles, lacks proper congressional authorization, and is being justified by extremist Christian nationalist rhetoric within the U.S. military. It also criticizes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s evangelical influence and highlights the UUA’s long-standing preference for diplomacy and human rights over military intervention.

This article profiles the 12th-century mystic Hildegard von Bingen and her relevance to modern liberal thinkers. Researcher Kitty Bouwman discusses Hildegard’s visions, her defiance of medieval gender roles by preaching in public, and her ‘eco-centric’ spirituality. Her theology, which views all creatures as interconnected with divine love, is highlighted as particularly relevant for addressing the current climate crisis.

This article features an interview with Rev. Joy Croft reflecting on the 40th anniversary of ‘Growing Together’, a landmark 1985 Unitarian report on feminist theology. It discusses the report’s historical impact on the movement, its focus on gender-inclusive language and structural equality, and the progress of women in the ministry over the decades.

Islamic advocacy groups in the Netherlands say mosques have been increasingly targeted by vandalism, racist graffiti, swastikas, and threatening letters. They are urging the Dutch government to fund mosque security in the same way it funds protection for synagogues, but the Justice and Security Ministry says such decisions depend on local threat assessments rather than an institution’s religion.

This article says Missouri and Florida officials are considering action against Major League Baseball after the league warned players over biblical quotes and religious symbols displayed on uniforms during a Pride Night game. It reports that state attorneys general and Sen. Josh Hawley are pressing MLB for explanations, arguing the policy may amount to religious discrimination.

This is the conference website for the 8th ICLARS Biennial Conference in Palermo, Italy. It announces a 2026 academic meeting on state neutrality and cooperation with religion, with details on the conference theme, program, registration, venues, and accommodation.

The article describes a peace walk in Sri Lanka by 12 Buddhist monks, joined by Christian, Muslim, and Hindu leaders, as a symbol of interfaith solidarity. It also places the gesture in the context of ongoing religious tensions, discrimination against minorities, land disputes, and the government’s challenge of maintaining social cohesion.

Interfaith Alliance announces an updated report on same-gender marriage and religious freedom, released during Pride Month and a decade after Obergefell. The report argues that marriage equality and religious liberty can coexist, encourages faith communities to defend LGBTQ dignity, and urges continued debate with opponents of marriage equality.

The article argues that Buddhist fundamentalism in post-coup Myanmar is not separate from military authoritarianism but works alongside it to legitimize repression, especially against women’s, gender, and sexual minority rights defenders. It describes three main mechanisms of repression: using legislation and religious rhetoric to criminalize activism, enabling physical attacks by security forces, militias, and mobs, and coordinating online harassment, doxing, and surveillance. The piece also discusses how WGSM groups are responding through digital security, relocation, networks, and partnerships, but notes that these measures are strained by fragmented civil society, reduced international funding, and the junta’s efforts to normalize itself through the 2026 elections. It concludes that pluralism, gender justice, and religious freedom are essential to any genuine democratic recovery in Myanmar.

The article argues that India’s current rule denying Scheduled Caste status to Dalit converts to Islam or Christianity is too rigid and may be constitutionally under-inclusive. It explains that the legal framework under the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order, 1950 ties SC recognition to religion, which causes converts to lose reservations and anti-discrimination protections even though caste-based discrimination often persists after conversion. The piece cites NCRB data, sociological evidence, and multiple commissions and court cases to show that caste does not disappear with religious change. It concludes that the Supreme Court’s reaffirmation of an “absolute bar” prioritizes formal doctrine over social reality and may amount to penalizing freedom of religion.

The EU extended sanctions on Russia-related human rights abuses and added two officials, including a prosecutor and a judge involved in the prosecution and imprisonment of Orthodox priest Ioann Kurmoyarov for anti-war statements. The article also profiles Kurmoyarov’s background and explains that his criticism of Russia’s war against Ukraine was based on Christian pacifist and Orthodox arguments.

DW explains how the Alevi community became one of Germany’s largest religious minorities and how it is preserving its identity. The article covers Alevi beliefs, historical persecution in Turkey, migration to Germany, the growth of Alevi organizations, and efforts to document and teach Alevi culture through archives and academic research.

An HRWF conference in Bratislava examined Slovakia’s restrictive religious registration law, which requires 50,000 signatures and prevents new religious communities from gaining legal recognition. Speakers and experts argued that the law is discriminatory and helps foster hate speech against unregistered groups, and they called for reform to protect freedom of religion or belief.

African governments meeting in Ghana advanced a draft charter that critics say would weaken existing human rights protections in the name of “family values” and sovereignty. The proposed charter rejects key commitments on gender equality, reproductive rights, comprehensive sex education, and LGBTQ+ protections, and privileges heterosexual family structures and parental authority. Rights advocates argue it is regressive, dangerous, and heavily influenced by transnational conservative Christian networks from the US and Europe.

This opinion piece tells the story of the author’s father, Noel, whose long campaign for women to be allowed to serve as Lutheran pastors in Australia has finally been recognized with an OAM. The piece uses his life to argue that meaningful social change is slow, requires persistence, and can eventually overcome entrenched resistance.