On May 27, 2024, the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation hosted a scientific and practical conference "Religious Freedom and traditional values in the first quarter of the XXI century: trends and challenges". The event was dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Association for Religious Freedom (RARS).
Along with the RARS, the event was organized by the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, the Synodal Department for Church-Society Relations and the Media, and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
At the forum, religious leaders and community representatives, government and public figures, experts and journalists from Russia and abroad exchanged views on the results of the ten-year work of the RARS, discussed issues of religious freedom, interethnic and interreligious relations in Russia and the world, the problems of state-religious and public relations.
With the blessing of Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, the DECR Secretary for Interreligious Relations, the Executive Secretary of the Interreligious Council of Russia, Priest Ilia Kashitsyn, took part in the conference. He conveyed the congratulations of the DECR Chairman to the leadership of the RARS, noting the high quality of the expert work and materials of the RARS and the constructive long-term interaction of the Association with the DECR both in theoretical and practical terms, expressing hope for further cooperation.