World peace starts next-door
A World of Neighbours is a European interreligious network. We believe that peaceful global coexistence starts on a small scale: the practice of living together with those nearby.
Europe is at a crossroads
People tend to choose the easy solutions, like blaming someone else for their problems. But we need each other, the only way we can solve things is together. How you choose to act matters.
That’s why A World of Neighbours want to build a network from the bottom up, where people of different faith and origin can support and learn from one another, in their encounters with refugees and migrants. Because we’re all neighbours.
Recruiting change agents
Will Europe choose to remain a diverse, humane, and welcoming society — or will it lapse back into narrow nationalism?
Empowering grassroots practitioners will be one of the most critical factors for the future. A World of Neighbours is now recruiting 60 practitioners in 22 countries across Europe.
Making real difference
With one foot in the grassroots realities, directly engaged with people on the move, and the other foot in the wider world, practitioners are key actors; ensuring refugees and migrants will have ”a seat at the table” with leaders, whose decisions over their lives mean the difference between despair and self-determination.
It all started with a Swedish Archbishop
During the height of the refugee crisis in 2015, Antje Jackelén, The Church of Sweden’s archbishop since 2014, asked herself what role she should play as a religious leader in Europe.
As the horrors of the Syrian refugee crisis continued to dominate public and political discourse, it became clear to her that advocating and empowering refugees and migrants across Europe was of vital importance.
Published: 2019-10-24
Site visits in search of practitioners
The call to action was loud and clear: After three years of planning, the Church of Sweden’s A World of Neighbours initiative began by conducting site visits across Europe in search of the people committed to a humanizing and mutually transforming encounter with refugees and migrant and therefore embodying palpable solutions to the challenges of our time.
Dirk Ficca, senior advisor to the archbishop Antje Jacklén, and Anna Hjälm, program director for A World of Neighbours visited and sat down to talk to 150 actors in 11 countries, from different faiths and in different professions.
