16 - 22 June is Refugees Week 20 June is Refugee Day Refugee Week is the world’s largest festival celebrating the creativity, resilience, and contributions of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. This year’s theme, Community as a Superpower, reminds us how kindness, connection, and small everyday acts build stronger, welcoming communities for all. Community starts with a smile, a greeting, or sharing a meal. It inspires healing, resilience, and belonging, exactly what millions of displaced people around the world need. (fb)

URGENT: A call to protect our oceans At RfPUK, we recognise that a healthy environment is not only vital for survival but is a foundation of peace and stability. A peaceful society cannot exist without clean air, safe water, fertile land, and thriving oceans — the very elements that sustain life and foster harmony. On 9-13 June a Multi-Faith Declaration to protect the Oceans was launched at the United Nations Oceans Conference in Nice. The Declaration spearheaded by Faiths for UNOC3 represents a landmark interfaith commitment to marine conservation and ocean protection. It was developed through a rigorous collaborative process involving representatives from diverse faith traditions and organisations marine conservation experts and policy specialists. It articulates shared spiritual values for ocean protection whilst providing concrete policy recommendations to support marine conservation. Chair of RfPUK Women of Faith Network Ravinder Kaur Nijjar, also representing Sikhs in Scotland, spoke at the launch of this important declaration. She believes that faith communities need to put into action the directive in religious scriptures to care for and protect the whole of Creation, including land and marine life. Ravinder presented the Sikh morning prayer: ‘Air is the Guru, Water is the Father, and Earth is the Great Mother of all’, instilling feelings of deep gratitude towards nature which, like a parent, selflessly and lovingly nurtures and sustains all living beings. She encourages all to sign the declaration and the call to action and protect our oceans. The faith leaders and representatives present were on 11 June able to handover the Multi-Faith Declaration to the UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Anderson and UN Ambassador Peter Thomson, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean. (fb)