Nazareth, Israel, and Jakarta, Indonesia —
An Evangelical Christian pastor and a Muslim leader have met to discuss conflicts roiling the Middle East and their global reverberations. They shared their heartfelt concern about the complex and often problematic interplay of religion, nationalism, and war, as well as their concern for the future of their religious communities and for humanity at large.
Nahdlatul Ulama Chairman KH. Yahya Cholil Staquf and Reverend Botrus Mansour, Secretary General of the World Evangelical Alliance, agreed to pursue concrete lines of cooperation to address a range of urgent religious, regional, and global challenges.
Both faith leaders are deeply rooted in their respective faiths and enjoy the trust of an enormous number of religious followers. The 80-minute video conference took place on April 16, 2026, hours before a temporary ceasefire was declared in Lebanon
The two leaders agreed to pursue concrete lines of cooperation to address a range of urgent religious, regional, and global challenges.
One of the pressing needs of our time, the leaders concluded, is for the emergence of new lines of cooperation among religious leaders and their communities, in order to foster mutual understanding and peace in a rapidly changing global environment.
The WEA Secretary General expressed his profound concern and sorrow with the accelerating decline of the Middle East’s indigenous Christian population, including the migration abroad of many Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem and the Galilee.
Mr. Staquf described NU’s efforts to forge a binding consensus among the world’s diverse faith communities and nations, to ensure mutual security and facilitate the contextualization of obsolete and problematic tenets of religious orthodoxy often used to legitimize conflict.
Rev Botrus Mansour, the World Evangelical Secretary General, is committed to holding similar meetings with Jewish leaders.
Below is the full text of the joint statement issued following the important meeting:
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