Ethics · Society · Theology · Mission · Sociology of Religions
As every year, the Director of the International Institute for Religious Freedom and International President of the International Society for Human Rights presented the two German Yearbooks on Religious Freedom (Jahrbuch Religionsfreiheit 2017) and the Yearbook on the Persecution and Discrimination of Christians (Jahrbuch Verfolgung und Diskriminierung von Christen 2017) to Pope Francis personally.
Schirrmacher was a plenary speaker at the International Religious Liberty Association's 8th World Congress on Religious Freedom, August 22-24, 2017, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Bp Efraim M. Tendero, Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, together with Bp Thomas Schirrmacher, Associate Secretary General for Theological Concerns, paid a visit to His Excellency Dr. Gjorge Ivanov, President of the Republic of Macedonia.
Together with Dr Uziel Santana, law professor from Brazil and Director of the Latin American Office of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), and Dr Gonzalo Ramirez, President of the National Congress of Costa Rica, Thomas Schirrmacher praised Regent’s Park College of Oxford University for its achievements in the last 60 years. In a small ceremony remembering, that the college was licensed by Oxford University 60 years ago, they donated a large plate, which now hangs at the main hall of the college.
The director of the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) has given a guest lecture on the philosophy of religious freedom at Oxford University. He urged the academic community to make “FoRB” (Freedom of Religion and Belief) an important topic in several academic disciplines, like law, sociology, history, and religious studies.
On behalf of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Prof. Thomas Schirrmacher has for the second time met with ‘His Holiness’ Mirza Masroor Ahmad, the fifth Caliph of Ahmadiyya Muslims. The two met this time in the Caliph's headquarters in London. The discussion revolved around the common struggle for religious freedom.
At this landmark event with more than a thousand listeners the questions posed were, is religion an instigator or a peacemaker in conflicts and pisions in society? To address such issues, religious leaders from various faiths and scholars joined to explore the depths of history, theology and politics.