From June 27th-30th, RFI held its 5th annual Statesmanship and Religious Freedom Seminar in the United Kingdom. Led by Jim Bennett, Director of RFI’s National Center for Religious Freedom Education (NCRFE), the Statesmanship Seminar is RFI’s premier student program, combining interactive sessions with religious freedom scholars, multi-sensory and immersive experiences, and meetings with public officials and civil society leaders working to advance religious freedom around the world. A joint effort of RFI’s NCRFE, Cumberland Lodge, and the Religious Liberty Initiative of Notre Dame University Law School, the UK Seminar is held at historic Cumberland Lodge on the grounds of Windsor Great Park. It also included visits to the Royal Chapel, Windsor Castle, and other sites in the nearby town of Windsor.

Key speakers at this year’s program included:

• G. Marcus Cole, Founder of the Lindsay and Matt Moroun Religious Liberty Clinic and Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School
• RFI President David Trimble
• Paul Marshall, RFI Senior Fellow, Wilson Professor of Religious Freedom at Baylor University, and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom
• Andrew Graham, Senior Counsel and Vice President of Academic Affairs & Strategic Affairs at Alliance Defending Freedom
• Miles Windsor, RFI Director of Strategic Campaigns, International Strategies
• Jack Haughton, Faculty of History at Cambridge University
• Ed Newell, Leadership Development Director at Windsor Leadership
• Robert Řehák, Ambassador at Large and Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Interfaith Dialogue and Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), and Chair of the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA)
• Timothy Cho, Secretariat of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea
• Illia Djadi, Senior Analyst for FoRB in Africa, Open Doors International

The Statesmanship and Religious Freedom Seminar series is the cornerstone of RFI’s work to equip and empower the next generation of religious freedom champions to advance the first principles of religious freedom within their sphere of influence.