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

A World of Neighbours is building 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.

Recruiting change agents

Will Europe choose to remain a diverse, humane, and welcoming society? Empowering grassroots practitioners will be one of the most critical factors for the future.

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.

we are practitioners

Each one of us is accomplished to work on the frontlines of accompaniment and integration in innovative ways. We are resilient, curious, we go the extra mile and we are religiously and culturally literate. We believe in impact and sustainable change.

We are locally well-connected to organizations and systems, we are resourceful and cost effective, solution-oriented and knowledgeable. We create tailored responses to newcomers’ needs, we listen and observe carefully. We work on a basis of reciprocity and are always collaborative towards people in need.

Achieved in 2022–2023

Practitioner Support

Annual Meeting (4 days, 44 attendants)
Public Online Learning & Exchange Events
Two Home Group Series (Fall/Spring), 56 participants
20 Group sessions
+/- 250 personal sessions (one on one)

AWoN Research

Focus groups and interview sessions with AWoN pracitioners, resulting in 1) guidelines 2) role of religion 3) brave spaces
Book on AWoN methods, background and best practices, to be released early 2024.
Research and input on methods and impact (language cafe’s, interreligious praxis and more).

Incorporation of the Foundation

Statutes
Bank Accounts
Accountancy
Codes on religion, brave spaces, network guidelines, child protection, gender equality
Core Story

Fundraising

CERV Grant Proposal
Fundraising Group
Fundraising goals and plans
Dirk Ficca Memorial Fund
Grant for AWoN Connect
Grant for Communication

Communications

Storytelling in all our channels
Google Workspace set up for practitioner collaboration
Awareness and Fundraising

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.