Become a Friend of EIFA

A Brief Overview

The Edinburgh Inter-Faith Association was officially formed in 1989 to promote and facilitate inter-faith encounter and creative engagement between the faith communities of our religiously and culturally diverse city for the benefit of the whole community. Twenty years on from its creation EIFA has become nationally and internationally known for its creativity, innovation and leadership in inter-faith work.

The formal membership of EIFA is made up of communities from 10 faith traditions present in Edinburgh and they are: Bahá'í, Brahma Kumaris, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh and Unitarian.

EIFA supports and leads grassroots and city wide initiatives. We also facilitate a range of public events including small themed panel events, public forums, roundtable dialogues, public talks, conferences, film screenings, storytelling, cross-community visits, special visits to Edinburgh and Scotland by globally know religious leaders and Nobel Prize laureates. Alongside this EIFA organises an annual ‘Inter-Faith Week’ programme and partners in a large scale Edinburgh Festival programme. EIFA also provides a secretariat for the Conference of Edinburgh's Religious Leaders.

We also provide training, consultancy and partnership functions to local and national government in various departments and services as well as to health care providers, police, media organisations, education and to other voluntary sector and community organisations.


A Call to YOU!

Our global community faces challenging times and now inter-religious encounter, dialogue, co-operation, and creative engagement have become new priorities between faith communities to create and foster a culture of peace both locally and globally.

Within our city and wider neighbourhood we have the opportunity to respond to the challenges and look to what we can do now to promote unity, co-operation and respect within the place we live and beyond. This is an active commitment to embracing spiritual values, engaged citizenship and peaceful living.

Our New ‘Friends’ Scheme

Our new ‘Friends Scheme’ is open to those who share and wish to support the aims of the Edinburgh Inter-Faith Association. We now invite and encourage you as an individual, or group to become a ‘Friend’ today!

Joining the new EIFA ‘Friend’ Scheme is a statement of your support and a direct contribution to the sustainability of The Edinburgh Inter-Faith Association.


As a ‘Friend’ of EIFA you will receive the following benefits:

Personal invitation to special events
Early notification of VIP Visits
Personal copy of the ‘Inter-Faith Matters’ Newspaper
Personal Copy of our Festival programme
Personal Copy of the Inter-Faith Week programme
Invite to Annual Lecture and Civic Reception