Religious and value-based organizations from five continents have agreed to form a coalition for the UN Decade for Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding, and Cooperation for Peace.

Equal participation and shared responsibility in society are at the basis of a peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims, participants at an inter-religious symposium in Tehran, Iran, declared last week.

Sir Sigmund Sternberg, a co-founder of the Three Faiths Forum, which promotes understanding between Christians, Jews and Muslims, has been presented with a Responsible Capitalism Lifetime Achievement Award.

The World Council of Churches along with some Christian world communions, the World Evangelical Alliance and the Roman Catholic Church are expecting some 50 church leaders and experts at a high-level Christian-Muslim dialogue in Switzerland.

Senior representatives of the Vatican have used the annual Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue message to Muslims for the end of the month of Ramadan to urge the two faiths to work together in promoting family life.

The scale of the challenge and the glimmer of new possibilities in interreligious understnading is on display at the 16-18 July international interfaith conference convened in Madrid by the Muslim World League.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus and author Peter Matthiessen are among those who have said they will attend an interfaith climate summit being organized by the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden in Uppsala in November 2008.

Leaders of the World Jewish Congress have endorsed a call by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia for more dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims worldwide to reinforce common values among the Abrahamic faiths