Religions for Peace Asia (ACRP) Executive Council Meeting Held in Sri Lanka

-Next ACRP Governance Assembly is to be held in Singapore-

Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP) holds their Executive Council meeting once a year. This year, they met from May 28 to 30 in Kalutara Province, Sri Lanka. Seventy-three participants from 18 countries attended, including online participants.

The agenda of the Executive Council meeting included a report on the activities and progress of the action plan, which was approved at the 9th Governance Assembly in 2021, including the “Flagship Projects (priority implementation projects)” being promoted by the ACRP, as well as discussions regarding the hosting of the next Governance Assembly.

As part of the discussion, RfP Singapore, RfP Pakistan, and RfP Japan expressed their willingness to host the next 10th Governance Assembly.

After deliberations by the Executive Council members, it was decided to hold the next assembly in Singapore in 2026, which will mark 50 years since the first assembly was held in Singapore, with great anticipation of the support of the government of Singapore and the collaboration of interfaith networks.

In the individual chapter’s reports, representative of each chapter, Asia Pacific Women of Faith Network (APWoFN) and Asia and the Pacific Interfaith Youth Network (APIYN) reported on their efforts made in line with the ACRP’s action plan.

In addition, representatives from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and some other chapters reported on the progress of the “Faith and Positive Change for Children, Families, Communities, and Initiatives (FPCC)” ongoing project, which was jointly established by UNICEF and WCRP/RfP. The FPCC project manager spoke of the outcomes of the project, noting that for the first time since the COVID-19, the FPCC was able to develop initiatives related to the elimination of violence against children and improvement of their health.

On May 30, participants traveled to Colombo City for a Public Peace Forum under the theme of “The Role of Religions in Achieving Peace through Economic Empowerment”. The forum emphasized the importance of religious communities being actively involved in political, welfare, and educational initiatives, in addition to economic perspectives, in order to build up a society of peace and harmony.

Moreover, an ACRP’s internal organization, the Asian Trustee hold its first board meeting to strengthen the ACRP’s financial base. Also, in between Executive Council meeting, the APWoFN and APIYN held meetings respectively to discuss future projects and management methods.

In these days when online meeting is becoming the mainstream, this Executive Council meeting was a significant opportunity for leaders of different religions to come together in person and share their views for the sake of peace.

Now that ACRP has begun a full-fledged review of its financial base, we look forward to a wider expansion of our activities in the future.

Lastly, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the members of the Sri Lanka chapter, and many others for their supports in hosting the executive council meeting, and making this meeting a great success.