The Congress is hosted by the Kazakh Government and they pull out all the stops in hospitality for the delegation, who travel from far and wide. The meeting is peppered with various excursions to museums, musical recitals and introductions to the country's rich cultural history. This is my second trip to Kazakhstan and once again I've not been brave enough to try their national drink of mare's milk, maybe next time.

But it's not all museums and mares milk, this gathering is intended to be a forum for interfaith dialogue based on mutual respect, tolerance and understanding. Significantly, however, there were many calls for the Congress to move on from interfaith dialogue to concrete actions. Rev Dr Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (Switzerland) spoke of the 'traffic jam of dialogue' and called for a shift from merely sending a message to making a difference. Another call to action came from Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Under-Secretary General of the UN, Director General of UN Office at Geneva who reminded the Congress of the Millennium Development Goals and the vital role that faith communities have to play if they are to be met.

In his address on day one, the Bishop of Croydon, Nick Baines (representing the Archbishop of Canterbury), warned of the power of words, the danger of hypocrisy and the need for religious leaders to become poets who hold out the promise of hope in ways that people can comprehend. He followed this with an intervention on day two to ask for honesty as a fundamental prerequisite for interfaith dialogue and action. To suggest (as many do) that religions do live together in peace in places like India, Iran, etc. is to entertain fantasy. The persecution of religious minorities is a serious matter and other speakers endorsed the bishop's call for this to be taken seriously in a future Congress. To read the Bishops's personal blog click here.

Day two has seen this undercurrent take centre stage. While the speeches of those on panels has tended to focus on traditional forms of interfaith dialogue, with little talk of practical next steps, audience members have persistently demanded that mechanisms be put into place in order for the goodwill in the room to be passed on to those working at grass root levels."We must look towards ways in which we can work together to make a difference, either by advancing existing programmes, or through new initiatives" said one.

I hope that these calls to action, voiced at the III Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, are communicated far and wide by all those who took part. If they are then the Congress has the potential to do great things at the hands of its members, all of whom are clearly committed to the cause of interfaith action alongside dialogue.

Kate Holden
Executive Assistant

Mr Blair spoke candidly about the various strands of his philanthropic work and commitments - which range from interfaith work- through the establishment of his interfaith charity The Tony Blair Faith Foundation- His role as Quartet Representative in the Middle East, providing governance and capacity building to African Nations through his Africa Governance Initiative and his Climate Change work.

He highlighted the fact that none of these challenges can be surmounted alone and independence no longer exists: we are now 'Interdependent'. No one nation is strong enough to deal with these challenges alone - "not even America ." However, he warned that if the worlds' nations are to work together effectively they must focus on their common values and a shared sense of purpose: the pursuit of Justice.

"That's the only way a global community works: through justice, fairness, solidarity, treating people as equals, as partners, whatever their colour creed or nation.

So that's what I do, and if the power nowadays is less, in time at least, I hope the influence can be more."

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation is setting out to achieve greater interfaith understanding through practical programmes: by encouraging different faiths to work together to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals, with an initial focus on malaria; to increase religious literacy by connecting classrooms across the world; and by nurturing a deeper intellectual understanding of the dynamics of faith and globalization. Please visit our projects page to find out more.

The Round Table was the brain child of Geoff Boisi, businessman and philanthropist, who established it in March 2005. Its mission is to promote excellence and best practices in the management, finances and human resources development of the Catholic Church in the U.S. by greater incorporation of the expertise of the laity.

The theme of this year's conference was communication. Over 150 leading Catholics, from the States and elsewhere, bishops, priests and lay leaders of Catholic organisations, heard Mr Blair speak on the challenges of leadership and communication in today's world.

Emphasising that he was speaking as a very new member of the Catholic Church and was not being prescriptive, Mr Blair suggested that there were five main challenges for leaders, whether of the Church or any other major body. The first was to maintain clarity about direction and vision, especially, in the Church's case, the vision of mercy and compassion which the Church offered. The second was to recognise that we lived in an age and a world without deference and, notwithstanding that, the Church needed to be out in that world unafraid and undaunted; third , to strive to ensure that a balanced picture of the Church came across, acknowledging problems but also making sure that the good work of the Church in schools, health care and pastoral outreach was better known; and fourth to recognise that all institutions had to evolve and deal with new issues. One example of this last was the new imperative in a globalised world for better inter faith understanding and action, which was what his Faith Foundation was set up to encourage. Finally , any organisation needed to be confident in what it did and to offer people a vision of hope - in the Church's case, a vision of grace and hope that we could be better people and could build a better world.

Mr Blair answered a wide range of questions on, among other things, the Church's contribution to debt relief, to peace making and issues around Catholics in politics. Mr Blair was warmly received by this distinguished audience and received a standing ovation for what he said.

William Chapman
Director of Policy

Yet in a world in which 4 billion people - two thirds of the population - are of faith, can we be sure that young people are equipped to participate as global citizens if they do not understand much about the world's major religions? How can we ensure that a lack of knowledge does not lead to prejudice, antagonism and tension?

There are some significant opportunities at hand. We are already seeing how new technologies are stimulating radically new approaches to teaching and learning. Why not apply these technologies in such a way as to encourage students of different faiths to learn directly with, from and about each other to support encounter, exploration and exchange between students from different countries and cultures?

A new global education programme from the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, Face to Faith, is designed to do just that. The initiative was launched formally on Tuesday 9th June by Tony Blair who took part in a video-conference between three schools in the UK, Palestine and India.

Developed by an international group of educational experts and piloted in more than 10 countries on three continents, Face to Faith uses video conferencing, an online community and a course syllabus to support exchange between young people of different faiths. Face to Faith also contributes to the project component of the 'Global Perspectives' IGSCE from Cambridge Assessment as well as to a range of national RE, Humanities, Social Sciences and Citizenship qualifications and curricula.

The programme has already been taken up by schools in India, Singapore, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Thailand, Indonesia, Lebanon, the US, UK and Canada, who have recognised the programme's potential to improve young people's religious literacy. Young people involved in the pilot are already reporting how their understanding of the role of faith in today's world has increased by learning from those of differing social, cultural and religious perspectives. As a student from The Indian Heights School in New Delhi commented; 'It's so much more interesting and real to learn directly from people of a different religion rather than simply reading about them in a book.'

To find out more, click here or email education@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation would like to introduce its new education programme: Face to Faith.

Imagine bringing together young people of different faiths across the world to learn directly with, from and about each other. Imagine equipping a new generation with the skills to recognise the similarities and to respect the differences between diverse and often conflicting worldviews. Imagine creating a safe space for meaningful conversation about and between different faiths. Face to Faith, a new global education programme designed to improve young people's religious literacy, aims to turn these aspirations into reality.

Face to Faith supports encounter, exploration and exchange between young people of different faiths. Through structured video-conferencing, an online community and a course syllabus, Face to Faith encourages secondary school students from across the world to work together in investigating big global issues; sharing their opinions, values and beliefs; and exploring the reasons for similar and different views.

Developed by an international group of educational experts, underpinned by the Toledo Guiding Principles and piloted with more than 1000 students on three continents, Face to Faith addresses a range of different curricula subjects including humanities, religious and cultural studies and social sciences. Students involved in the pilot are already reporting how their understanding of the role of faith in today's world has increased significantly by learning directly from those of differing social, cultural and religious perspectives.

"It's so much more interesting to hear directly from those of a different religion than simply to read about them in a book."
-Indian student in Face to Faith pilot

Face to Faith will officially launch in early June. If you would like advance information, please click here or contact Leila Walker, Face to Faith Programme Manager, at leila.walker@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org. We hope that your school will sign up on Face to Faith and join the lead schools already part of the programme from Palestine, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Singapore, UK, US and Canada in global conversation about and between different religions.

Annika Small
Director of Education

Why of his many meetings in the Middle East did he choose this context in Jerusalem to highlight these ambiguities? Well, obviously, the divisions between the Abrahamic faiths are acutely felt in Jerusalem where their histories intersect. But It is surely also because the internet and globalisation both demand, and have increased the importance of, interreligious dialogue. This is because true dialogue seeks a proclamation of Truth that will counter half-baked fantasies on religious websites, what Pope Benedict called "the din of egotistical demands, empty promises and false hopes that so often invades the very space in which God seeks us." And dialogue at its best can be a joint search for solidarity, understanding, and commonalities - against fragmentation, misunderstanding and hostility.

The Pope's words certainly found a resonance in the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. The overarching theme of our work is Faith and Globalisation. It is now being taken up in interdisciplinary university courses on three continents. Our Face to Faith programme is linking up classrooms and school children around the world via the internet to allow them to share a deeper understanding of their faiths. Our Faiths Act programme is engaging young adults in a dialogue of life and action against the scourge of malaria.

Nonetheless interreligious dialogue creates fears in many people of faith. It would be foolish to pretend otherwise. Is there not a secret intention to proselytise and convert people? Or, isn't there a dangerous slide into settling for the lowest common denominator of religious practice and values, an option for a kind of religious "grey sludge." For those on the wilder side of a psychological weakness for conspiracy theories, isn't the real agenda of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation the creation of some new world religion?

Well, this is what Tony Blair had to say when he launched the Foundation in Britain at Westminster Cathedral in April 2008: "The Foundation will be expressly NOT about chucking faith into a doctrinal melting pot. It is not about losing our own distinctive faith. It is about learning about living and working with others of a different faith." Click here to read the full transcript of Tony Blair's speech at Westminster Cathedral.

The irony is that interfaith dialogue, in the experience of most people who undertake it, tends to increase and deepen the understanding of a person's own faith rather than dilute it. New insights are gained and dimensions that had been unnoticed come into prominence. Another faith can act as a mirror reflecting things that it had not been possible to glimpse before. There are large pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the streets of the beautiful Iranian city of Isfahan, reflecting her veneration in the Shi'a Muslim tradition. But I doubt if any Christian seeing them feels inclined to renounce a distinctive faith in Christianity, or to chuck their "faith in a doctrinal melting pot." The immediate inclination is more likely a questioning: do they really believe the same as me, what different beliefs are in play here beneath the similarity and why? And what do I believe?

A surprising number of people these days do change their religion, recent sociological surveys indicate, but there is absolutely no indication that this phenomenon is because they have become too immersed in inter-religious dialogue. The opposite may be true. It can sometimes be because they have grown up intellectually in a religious ghetto that has allowed no light to fall on their own faith from outside. Then they suddenly make a disturbing discovery with no understanding to deal with it and throw out the doctrinal baby with the bathwater. When young people from different faiths faithfully follow the compassionate teachings of their different religions, and combine to promote the Millennium Goals and to combat malaria, are they going to change their religion or grow in respect and understanding of each other's faiths? Most people would intuitively know the answer to that. This "hands to hearts to heads" approach to interreligious dialogue, a dialogue of life and action, is, of course, the vision behind our Faiths Act programme.

"Lives of religious fidelity echo God's irruptive presence and so form a culture not defined by boundaries of time or place but fundamentally shaped by the principles and actions that stem from belief," Pope Benedict said to the interfaith organisations in Jerusalem. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation "ambassadors for the Millennium Goals are drawn from three countries, Canada, USA and Britain and have a variety of religious motivations for "acting together for the Common Good." With many others in our Faiths Act campaign, they will be building a global compassionate culture for the future.

Now there's a conspiracy that will need watching.

Ian Linden
Director of Faiths Act

I wanted you to be among the first to know about The Tony Blair Faith Foundation's new education programme, Face to Faith.

Imagine bringing together young people of different faiths across the world to learn directly with, from and about each other. Imagine equipping a new generation with the skills to recognise the similarities and to respect the differences between diverse and often conflicting worldviews. Imagine creating a safe space for meaningful conversation about and between different faiths. Face to Faith, a new global education programme designed to improve young people's religious literacy, aims to turn these aspirations into reality.

Face to Faith supports encounter, exploration and exchange between young people of different faiths. Through structured video-conferencing, an online community and a course syllabus, Face to Faith encourages secondary school students from across the world to work together in investigating big global issues; sharing their opinions, values and beliefs; and exploring the reasons for similar and different views.

Developed by an international group of educational experts, underpinned by the Toledo Guiding Principles and piloted with more than 1000 students on three continents, Face to Faith addresses a range of different curricula subjects including humanities, religious and cultural studies and social sciences. Students involved in the pilot are already reporting how their understanding of the role of faith in today's world has increased significantly by learning directly from those of differing social, cultural and religious perspectives.

"It's so much more interesting to hear directly from those of a different religion than simply to read about them in a book."
-Indian student in Face to Faith pilot

Face to Faith will officially launch in early June. If you would like advance information, please click here or contact Leila Walker, Face to Faith Programme Manager, at leila.walker@tonyblairfaithfoundation.org. We hope that your school will sign up on Face to Faith and join the lead schools already part of the programme from Palestine, Pakistan, India, Lebanon, Singapore, UK, US and Canada in global conversation about and between different religions.

Annika Small
Director of Education

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has been involved in many of these activities. Tony Blair spoke at a gala dinner on 21st April in Los Angeles as part of Brit Week, which is a celebration of the British connection with California. All of the proceeds went to Malaria No More (MNM)- with whom the Tony Blair Faith Foundation is working in collaboration to eliminate deaths from malaria.

Faith groups are already playing a major role in delivering progress on the ground in this area. But if faith communities work together they can achieve so much more than they can apart.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation has been helping to bring the world's faiths together to galvanise collaborative action and to rid the world of this entirely preventable disease. As part of the Foundation's activities in Canada, in conjunction with the Belinda Stronach Foundation, Mr Blair and Ms Stronach held a roundtable discussion at the Multi-Faith Centre in Toronto on 23rd April where many faiths were represented and a commitment was made from those present to work together against ending deaths from malaria. He also spoke at a lunch event hosted by the Canadian Club of Toronto the following day, 24th April, where he talked in detail about the role that faiths can play in malaria prevention, and the good work that young people can do.

Young people of faith have a particular role to play in this grand vision. As the change-makers for future generations, they have the capacity for establishing a new vision of inter-religious interaction that places the protection of the poorest and most deprived at its centre. As a way of harnessing this special role the Tony Blair Faith Foundation has established, in collaboration with the Interfaith Youth Core, the Faiths Act Fellowship - a young leadership programme. In the week leading up to World Malaria Day 30 young people of diverse faiths aged between 18-25 from the UK, the US and Canada were announced as Faiths Act Fellows. Click here for information on UK, US and Canadian Fellows.

Two of the US fellows: Randa Kuziez, a Muslim from Missouri and Benjamin Bechtolsheim a Jew from California were on the panel at the One World Against Malaria Summit in Washington on Friday 24 April and spoke candidly about what they hope to achieve in their roles. The Tony Blair Faith Foundation's Chief Executive Ruth Turner later gave a heartfelt speech where she pledged support for the Faiths Act Fellows and the great work they are about to commence.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation collaborated with the Centre for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA) and MNM in bringing the world's faiths to the table at the Washington summit, where a wide spectrum of African and American religious leaders were represented. The Foundation announced that we will be partnering with CIFA in a major programme to integrate faith communities in national malaria control. This is starting in May 2009 in Nigeria where an interfaith national steering committee, (NIFAAM), will be convened led by the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Archbishop John Oneiyekan. NIFAAM have received a grant of $2 million from the Global Fund via the Nigerian Government to carry out their co-ordinating and mobilising work. This builds on work done in Mozambique and will be extended to other African countries in coming years.

Altogether, it was a busy week for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation as we engaged in fundraising for malaria-related projects, we convened faith leaders in two countries to talk about the part they can play in malaria prevention, and announced our cadre of exceptional young people, our Faiths Act Fellows, who will begin their anti-malaria work on this August. We hope that, in working to bring faiths together around this issue, we have made a worthwhile contribution to the cause in the run up to World Malaria Day.

They are representatives of the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith from all over Canada: Toronto, Saskatoon, Westmont, Edmonton, Mississauga and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. Working in interfaith pairs, they will reach up to tens of thousands of people of faith through outreach activity, informing them about the devastating impact of malaria and the opportunities open to faith communities to work together to save millions of lives. They will be hosted by the Micah Challenge Canada in Ottawa, the Canadian Centre for Ecumenism in Montreal and the Multifaith Centre at the University of Toronto.

The Foundation has received hundreds of applications from around the world and has chosen just thirty extraordinary young people of faith to be ambassadors for its Faiths Act programme. The Faiths Act Fellowship comprises 30 outstanding young people of diverse faiths aged between 18-25 from the UK, US and Canada. From August 2009, they will embark on a ten month journey of interfaith service.

Malaria kills a child in Africa every thirty seconds. Yet it is entirely preventable. Places of worship are present in every village in every part of Africa, forming effective networks in practical ways to reach people in need everywhere. The Faiths Act Fellows will galvanise faith communities in the developed world to support those in Africa, and demonstrate that if faiths work together, they can do even more than what has been achieved apart.

Sara Eftekhar, a student from North Vancouver selected for the fellowship said:
"I believe that each individual in society has power to reach his or her potential and at the same time share a general responsibility to help those in need. As stated in the Koran, those who help the ones in need, they will have their reward in the end by their lord and this is the belief that I practice in my community. My faith has inspired me to have compassion for other human beings regardless of their religion, race or gender."

Tony Blair added, "I am delighted we have been able to select such an outstanding and admirable group of young people from the hundreds who applied for a position in the Fellowship. I am certain they will accomplish a tremendous amount. Faith communities around the world have historically achieved great things to combat global problems. I believe that by faiths coming together to tackle the problem of malaria deaths, as part of a global coalition, we can really prevent this disease."

On the run up to World Malaria Day (25 April) Tony Blair was in Canada helping to raise awareness of the issue and the role that faith communities can play, particularly if they collaborate their efforts, to help scourge the world of this entirely preventable disease. Alongside the Hon Belinda Stronach, he convened a roundtable meeting of diverse faith leaders, for the second time, where they reached agreement to work together to galvanise faith communities to tackle deaths from malaria. He also spoke at the Canadian Club in Toronto, the proceeds of which went towards the Canadian Faiths Act Fellows programme.

They are representatives of the Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu faiths from all over the States: Washington, Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey, Florida, Missouri and Michigan. Working in interfaith pairs, they will reach up to tens of thousands of people of faith through outreach activity, informing them about the devastating impact of malaria and the opportunities open to faith communities to work together to save millions of lives. They will be hosted by the Centre for Interfaith Action on global poverty (CIFA) , Malaria No More in Washington, Islamic Network Group in California, Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago and Interfaith Action, Sharon in Massachusets

Tony Blair added, "I am delighted we have been able to select such an outstanding and admirable group of young people from the hundreds who applied for a position in the Fellowship. I am certain they will accomplish a tremendous amount. Faith communities around the world have historically achieved great things to combat global problems. I believe that by faiths coming together to tackle the problem of malaria deaths, as part of a global coalition, we can really prevent this disease."

Eboo Patel, Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, said "I believe in the power of young people around the world to build inter-religious cooperation and advance a transformative ethic of volunteerism. I am pleased to begin working with such an exceptional group of young leaders to mobilize faith communities around the globe to eradicate deaths due to malaria."

They are five Christians, three Muslims and two Jews from all over the UK: Leicester, London, Liverpool, Middlesex, Bradford, Birmingham, Belfast and County Antrim.
They are being hosted by Blackburn Cathedral in Lancashire, St. Philips Centre in Leicester, the Christian Muslim Forum and Tzedek and the Jewish Social Action Hub in London who will help them make contact and work with local faith communities.

Sean Rose from Twickenham, who has been selected as one of the fellows, said "I am thrilled to have this opportunity to put my faith into action in such a fundamental and necessary way: to me, faith is proven by doing. I have always been motivated by a strong call to justice and I am excited about practically demonstrating the value of interfaith work with such a diverse and committed group."

Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury said, "The Faiths Act Fellowships initiative which the Tony Blair Faith Foundation has initiated is a fine example of the way in which young people can show in the most practical terms what it means to be people of faith. By their giving of their time to others they demonstrate the love of God for all; by their working together in Faith pairs they demonstrate the positive contribution of all religions to the good of the world; and by their return to work in their communities they show others how to follow the same path.

"I congratulate the TBFF, the Christian Muslim Forum, Tzedek and the Jewish Social Action Hub and Blackburn Cathedral on this inspiring initiative."