Interfaith leader joins the Queen for lunch

qe2The deputy director of the UK’s Council of Christians and Jews has joined the Queen and Prince Philip for an exclusive lunch at Buckingham Palace. Elizabeth Harris-Sawczenko was one of just eight guests from all walks of life selected by the Royals to join the special event, where she gifted Her Majesty with artwork by Vetta Alexis. It depicts the traditional Jewish prayer recited on meeting a member of the Royal Family.

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Pope Francis meets top Egyptian cleric at Vatican, ending five-year freeze in relations

sunni

Pope Francis has met the grand imam of Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, looking to heal Vatican relations with the influential centre of Sunni Muslim learning after dialogue was frozen five years ago. The 1,000-year-old mosque and university centre cut contacts with the Vatican in 2011 over what it said were repeated insults towards Islam from Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict.

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