Converging Futures: Where Gender Justice, Democracy, and Faith Meet
A convening report from UUSC, Faith in Democracy, and Political Research Associates on the intersection of gender justice, democracy, and faith.
Why progressive movements cannot win without faith.
Image: 2026 — Converging Futures
Fifty leaders, more than a dozen countries, one shared commitment.
In March 2026, UUSC convened approximately 50 faith leaders, movement organizers, researchers, and funders from more than a dozen countries in Lisbon, Portugal. Over three days, participants worked across Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, and secular traditions, as well as across feminist, LGBTQI+, racial justice, democracy, and human rights sectors. They came together around a shared premise: the intersection of faith, gender justice, and democracy is one of the most strategically important and most underinvested fronts in the global struggle against authoritarianism. This report synthesizes what they surfaced, analyzed, proposed, and committed to.
At its center, the convening reached a clear conclusion: progressive movements cannot win without faith, and faith-based organizing is democracy infrastructure. Across the countries represented, progressive faith leaders are already doing this work. They are training imams, mobilizing rabbis, reclaiming Hindu theology, marching with migrants, contesting authoritarian legislation, building queer faith communities, and telling stories that make new futures imaginable. What they need is not a new vision or a new analysis, but resources, coordination, and the recognition that their work is not peripheral to the defense of democracy but central to it. The full report offers analysis, sector-specific guidance, and the action plan this emerging field needs. Read it below, share it widely, and consider where you can help build this ecosystem.
Key Takeaways from Report
This graphic brief summarizes the report’s core ideas, from key definitions to what each part of the movement can do next:
Drawn From the Conversation
Explore the visual syntheses created live during the convening by artist Claudia Lopez.
Each one maps the analysis, tensions, and strategies that emerged across the three days.
What we are calling for is something more demanding: a pluralist, multiracial, feminist democracy in which the full participation and dignity of all people is the measure of the system’s legitimacy itself.
Converging Futures, Convening Report, Pg. 12
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