Food is an easy way to foster interfaith dialogue and peaceful coexistence, since it breaks down boundaries between communities and people.

Individuals open their homes to share dinner with 8-12 people from diverse religious backgrounds. During dinner, a trained facilitator leads the discussion and participants are invited to actively listen and share stories. A judgment free zone, these individuals are not expected to be experts in their religious tradition. Another similar practice involves people of different faiths getting together for dinner to welcome refugees in their country and community. Furthermore, people of different backgrounds can also be encouraged to share their dinner with people in need of shelter. Backed by their respective religious teachings, the interfaith group gathers to give assistance to the deprived, which is a value shared by many religions.

Sharing food can also be implemented in a yearly tradition. The Interfaith Food Day is a day in the year to discover diversity within a school or a workplace through food and traditional dishes. This initiative can be carried out for students to take pride in their development in a diverse and international environment while fully embracing their own identity.

Interreligious courses are an effective method to foster interfaith dialogue, as they educate. Different projects and pathways can be used to establish curricula and courses on interfaith coexistence, such as a national interfaith civic education. This can be formulated and organized by an interfaith organization that works closely with the education ministry of a given country to implement it. Through this unified national education curriculum, the youth are taught about understanding and accepting others’ beliefs, and that their citizenship entails a respect for all people regardless of their faith. Another project involves offering a year-long University course on interreligious issues, after which participants are awarded a diploma of interreligious affairs. The goal behind such a course is to inform students about our multi-religious world. This can be implemented in primary schools as well, through basic instructions on different belief systems and practices of their respective countries’ religions. Outside the school context, an educational activity can be conducted in parishes to bring together children of different traditions, such as Jewish and Christian faiths, on weekends to learn about the teachings of both religions. Other programmes and projects can offer a set of classes to learn about the history, development and contemporary practices of the world’s major religions. Such a program is designed for individuals seeking additional and informal education, and willing to participate in evening classes scheduled after work or university.  

This promising practice happens in multi-religious societies throughout the whole year, and is based on a citywide network of diverse faith communities, which provides resources and temporary housing for families experiencing homelessness. Different religious communities come together to lead cooperative societal projects. They partner up with local authorities to create links between religious communities, through social work. Young people from different religions are encouraged to give their time to a communal service, or get together to cook and distribute food to homeless people, either on the streets or in community centres. Associations are actively working for the development of communities in need, seeking young volunteers from different religious backgrounds who would assist remote and isolated communities. Their goal is to challenge the traditional way of community building and development, by incorporating a social purpose into the practice. Community development has equally important economic and social effects, thus this practice assists precarious villages or neighborhoods throughout the year, and gives them a sense of community that they don’t often have because of their isolation, for

Interfaith learning through international and interfaith travel to different countries, as well as weekend immersion trips to local houses of worship help build trust and relationships. In every conflict or area of tension, there are different sides to the story. The dual narrative tourism initiative is meant to provide visitors with two successive different narratives from two different guides, each one narrating their own perspective, for them to build their own opinion and expand their understanding of the situation. This practice can also take the form of visits to different religious spaces. Opening one’s religious space to others is a way of showing a facet of one’s religious identity and break down misconceptions. Inviting people to visit a place of worship is an opportunity to increase awareness and educate participants about a particular religion, answer questions and reinforce one’s faith through.

Interfaith travel can involve visiting different regions or countries. Interfaith region consists of touring one given region to shed light on similarities in terms of religious integration. Hence, this practice uses travel and tourism to focus on the question of identity and culture regardless of faith, and fosters interfaith unity through initiating discussions on interreligious similarities and differences.

Moreover, in countries where there are still indigenous communities, city-dwellers and these communities are not well-linked, as they live far away from the cities and are rather isolated. Interfaith travel can enable people from the city to reconnect with their backgrounds and the way their ancestors use to live, in order to recreate a link between all communities and to promote and support the indigenous way of life.

The practice of interfaith theatre can be utilized in different ways to suit the context of the subject matter in question. For example, one practice called Bibliodrama invites participants to understand and discuss the main religious figures present in the holy texts of a religion other than their own. Another form of interfaith theatre brings together youths of different faiths to act together in a play based in a zone of conflict between groups of different religions. Another example is “The Hindu and the Cowboy”, which is a theatrical production created from the stories shared by the residents of Kansas City. It showcases how interfaith communities in a city do not need to be viewed as a ‘melting pot’, but rather as a mosaic, in which each faith has its own integrity and identity and contributes in their own way to the beautiful full image. Lastly, the “Theatre of the People” is a mobile theatre where people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds create and perform a play, and travel together for representations. Along with all the preparations and performances, the theatre troupe engages the masses through workshops in schools and public spaces, and promotes inclusion and reconciliation through art and theatre.

The practice of interfaith prayer is an initiative that can take place anytime, anywhere. It is especially appropriate when there is a natural disaster or tragedy affecting a community. It can also be used during times of peace. Interfaith prayers aim to emphasize the common values of the religions involved. It can also be used when and important religious leader passes away. This gives believers of different faiths the opportunity to come together in an act of solidarity and goodwill. Another form of interfaith prayer involves believers from different denominations of the same religion uniting for prayers at the same location and praying in the same language. This aims at compensating for reduced resources of religious minorities, while giving participants the opportunity to unite with people of different practices in a common prayer. An organization can also invite individuals to a gathering, where they reflect on scriptures from different religions. These workshops emphasize the similarities between religions, instead of just highlighting the differences. Interfaith prayers require a space where individuals can gather, regardless of their faith, to observe a moment of prayer, meditation, or silence, thus share a spiritual moment side by side. 

Youth from different religious and social backgrounds can play a sport together, for example football, in mixed teams to showcase interreligious coexistence. This event normally takes place in the environment linked to this sport (ex: on a football field), with a greater impact when it is implemented in neighborhoods of a city where there are interreligious tensions. It is advised to organize such sport encounters on a regular basis (more than only once as a symbolic event), so as to animate the neighborhood and establish long-term bonds.

Moreover, youth of different cultural and religious backgrounds can gather to hike along and across conflictual borders for peace and as a symbol of unity. Through this initiative, the participants can prove that living and walking through the same path regardless of their differences is possible.  

A religious or interreligious group gets together to raise funds for any interreligious project. It begins with selecting which project(s) will be allocated money and how much.  The process of jointly agreeing on which project(s) is/are to be funded and how crosses boundaries between those participating religious communities. It also allows to focus on activities that all parties involved consider worth supporting. Meeting rooms of religious communities or NGOs or individual homes can serve as a meeting place. By taking professional decisions connected to finance, participants practice interfaith engagement, collaboration and agreement and gain more trust in each other. This, in turn, can trigger a chain of solidarity between different faith communities.

Several religious leaders of majority and minority groups act as volunteer consultants for national institutions of a certain country or try to resolve conflicts between groups. The individuals and groups will be able to advice on how to approach their communities and transmit knowledge about cultures and traditions in their respective beliefs. Through this, bridges are built and contact among groups and between the executive and citizens becomes more trustful.

An interfaith organization invites individuals from all faiths and young leaders to attend an interfaith conference. This conference should preferably take place in a country with high religious diversity. This kind of conference should happen on a regular basis to build bridges between religions and to help jumpstart a variety of a variety of interfaith projects.