Daniel Hostetler, a member of Christ Community Mennonite Church in Schaumburg, Ill., is the new executive director of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. He begins this role on April 20.

He is the first Anabaptist to hold this position and will be based in Chicago, Ill.

Since their first worldwide gathering, or “Parliament,” in the year 1893, the Parliament of the World’s Religions has sought to bring followers together in peace so that knowledge and acceptance of attendee’s diverse religious and cultural beliefs could reduce the ignorance and confusion that creates conflict.

The next event will be held in Salt Lake City in October and features such luminary speakers as the Dalai Lama, Karen Armstrong and Deepak Choprah.

Hostetler will be working to make certain that the greater Anabaptist community knows of the event and feels welcome to attend.

Hostetler leaves his role as director of operations and finance for World Relief, a Christian nonprofit organization that deals exclusively with refugee and immigration issues.

Hostetler holds a board position with another nonprofit organization that honors an Amish ancestor of his, the “Jacob Hochstetler Family Association,” and he also served as a delegate with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in 2009.

As a delegate to the Mennonite Church USA convention Pittsburgh 2011, he offered potential wording to the eventual 2014 Revision of the 2003 Churchwide Statement on Immigration.

Hostetler has made numerous visits into Amish communities in Indiana and Illinois, attending services and visiting afterwards, and has made numerous pilgrimages into Hutterite Colonies in Minnesota, focusing primarily on Elmendorf in Mountain Lake, Minn.