WASHINGTON — A team from the Commission for Government Support for Faith Communities in Sweden (SST) met Oct. 7 with the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) as part of an effort to determine how faith communities interact with other parts of society.
The eight-member team traveled to the United States on a fact-finding tour and also visited with the U.S. Department of State. While in the U.S., they sought to learn about the expectations that society and the state have of faith communities and the work done by faith communities to combat anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia.
BWA staff, led by General Secretary Neville Callam, offered a summary of BWA’s work through its seven freedom and justice commissions as well as its involvement in the United Nations, human rights visits, representations and advocacy and recognition through its human rights awards.
The work SST does is particularly crucial at this time as Sweden has taken in the second highest number of Syrian and other refugees among countries in Europe.
As recently as September the government of Sweden allocated the rough equivalent of some $4 million “to civil society and religious communities to strengthen their activities that focus on asylum seekers and for the introduction of new arrivals.” (BWA)
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