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Edition October 2003

General Information

Calendar [top]

A Fimcap-day on the 20^th of November ? [top]

During the last Euroconference (November 2002), the European organisations of Fimcap came up with the idea for Fimcap to organise a world wide Fimcap Day. A day on which the children of all the member organisations could feel connected. 20th of November was proposed as the day, since it is the universal Children’s day… At the next General Assembly, Fimcap Europe will present this idea more thoroughly, but maybe we can do already something small now.
Therefore these two points: a small suggestion and a prayer that you can use in your meetings that day.

• Suggestion: To play a game or do an activity that you have learnt abroad, or bring the world into your meeting with a globe or a map or a game ‘journey around the world’.
• Prayer: This prayer can be used at the beginning or at the end of your meeting, after informing your members about the Children’s-Rights and the connection of children and youngsters in the framework of Fimcap…:

Life-giving God,
Father and Mother to children world wide,
Today we feel strongly connected
with children and youngsters of all colours and cultures.
We pray to You for children who suffer from war and violence,
for youngsters forced to be soldiers in the conflicts of adults,
that they may meet people who provide them with a safe environment
in which they can grow up to become workers of Your Peace.
We pray to You for children who die from hunger,
that they may be given this day their daily bread.
We pray to You for children who don’t have the opportunity to go to school,
for youngsters who don't have the chance to get a proper education,
that national authorities and world wide solidarity do an effort for them
in ensuring good possibilities for their futures.
We pray to You for children who are exploited in work-situations,
who are abused mentally or physically, who are the victims of human-trading,
that they may meet responsible adults who set them free from this injustice.
We pray to You for children who don’t get proper health-care,
that multinational medicine-producers may open their hearts
and make it possible that all children en youngsters world wide
get access to the medication they need.
We commit ourselves to do all that lies in our possibilities
to give all children and youngsters their rights.
Therefore we live by Your commandment:
‘love each other, like I have loved you before’.
For this we pray to You,
in the Name of Jesus, our brother,
for now and forever.
Amen.

Wim Selderslaghs,
Fimcap Europe Chaplain

Partnership

Chiro Flanders in South Africa [top]

‘We build our nation in the spirit of Christ’
3 - 26 July…Three weeks to discover South-Africa and it was so valuable!

We, a group a 13 Chiro leaders spent the first days doing some sight-seeing in the capital Kaapstad. We got used to the country and its habits (like driving on the left side of the roads). Afterwards we were split up in little groups and put across the whole country to visit the local Chiro groups and to live in host families. We lived mostly with the local Chiro leader’s family.

We came across lots of differences concerning the age groups (only three):
the juniors 7 - 15 years, the youth club 15 -25 and the ‘seniors’ 25 -35 years.
During holidays, some Chiro groups meet up to three times a week. Chiro youth work is done in close collaboration with the Church. They meet in the church, pray and sing a lot. During mass, the whole Chiro group is sitting in front. We will never be able to dance and sing as well as them! They have beautiful voices. There are many different ethnic groups, 11 official languages and many different religious beliefs.
Although the Apartheid has been abolished for many years, many coloured and black people are daily confronted to hard life conditions. You see townships and squatter camps and big areas with shelters out of corrugated iron where whole families live.
During the discussions, we discovered that Chiro has completely another significance than originally meant. During the Apartheid time, Chiro work was an alibi for black people to gather. Since there was an interdiction to gather, they could only meet at Chiro to discuss politics, discrimination and inequality. That is why Chiro in South Africa is mainly a black movement. Today they do not concentrate anymore on Apartheid, but there are other crucial issues to work on: unemployment, criminality and AIDS.
We also had a lot of fun with our friends of Chiro South Africa. They took care of us in such a nice way and gave us the opportunity to have an unforgettable experience!

Ilse, Bart, Griet, Els, Sofie, Vanessa,
Katleen, Lotte, Kris, Sylvie, Machteld
AND the super leaders Rebecca and Mieke!

Africa

Fimcap Africa Bureaumeeting [top]

Zénon Manirakiza, President, Fr. Daniel Osei Yeboah, Vice-president Fimcap Africa, Sylvestre Nyamuhwata, Secretary General met in Gitega (Burundi), July 12 – 13th 2003
It was the first formal presidium of FIMCAP Africa after 3 years. FIMCAP Africa needs a strategy to operate in Africa. The number of conflicts in the continent makes it very difficult to work in and communication needs to be improved. Zénon reported that all communications to various regions were not answered. He only got information regarding some regions (e.g. Southern Africa) through the Fimcap magazine Link. The presidium wondered why movements communicate to the Headquarters but do not get in touch with FIMCAP Africa. The Presidium invites the African organisations to send the information also to the African Bureau. It is necessary to create a database of the organisations including the following elements: membership in terms of numbers, leadership, useful addresses: post, telephone, fax and e-mail. A questionnaire is to be sent to members to find out about their objectives and to set up a strategy so as to start building FIMCAP AFRICA and make a plan of action.

Some News:

West Africa – Fr. Daniel reported of getting in touch with Gambia but communication with Ghana is poor. War in Liberia makes it difficult to make any headway. Sierra Leone is doing fine and after the war they have started building up the various C.Y.O Units. At present they are preparing for National Camp in December.
Central Africa – Xaveri Rwanda had Golden Jubilee celebrations Xaveri Congo, Burundi, and Uganda were encouraged to support or participate in the celebrations. Xaveri Burundi and Chiro Burundi also are seriously preparing for their Golden Jubilee celebrations which will take place in August and October respectively
The Presidium intends to facilitate a series of workshops on Regional level based on the Theme Ubuntu. This is in line with the recommendations from Fimcap Africa General Assembly held last December in Durban, South Africa. There will be workshop on Conflict and Peace Resolution, Reconciliation and Reconstruction, Fighting HIV/AIDS, Democracy and Good-Governance etc.
They also intend to visit the organisations to strengthen members of Fimcap Africa and show solidarity especially to movements that are in conflict situations, and to promote Fimcap and extend its membership. Visits from the Presidium will be more effective as Fimcap members will see new faces, and receive messages of support and encouragement.
The Presidium deliberated on whether it wouldl be possible to have an administrative centre for Africa. The idea is to help build up Fimcap Africa. The Presidium is aware of the need to fundraise and to centralize all kinds of informationsconcerning Fimcap Africa.
The whole idea of fund-raising was discussed for some time. It was imperative that Fimcap Africa should start doing fund-raising. Since it is becoming difficult to get funds for projects in Africa due to the present conflicts, it was been agreed to collaborate with the ICB and Fimcap Europe on this matter.

Based on a report of Sylvestre Nyamuhwata
Fimcap Africa Secretary General

Sierra Leone [top]

Reviving Of Catholic Youth Organization

Much has been said and seen about the rebel war in Sierra Leone which ushered in almost 11 years of atrocities, untold hardships, devastation and lost of precious lives and properties. Thank God today things have changed through the efforts of the International Community together with the people of Sierra Leone. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and all the other warring factions who where involved in the war have disarmed.
The processes of Repatriation, Resettlement, Reintegration and training of ex-combatants have taken place with difficulties.
All the facets of the country have been working and so one can say that the current situation in Sierra Leone gives hope for a brighter future.

The Catholic communities were not spared by the tragic conflict. Most of the parishes have been badly affected. Infrastructures like churches, schools, hospitals and clinics were either burnt down or looted completely. The processes of reconstruction have started but will take a long time to complete them as funds are very limited. The Catholic Youth were disoriented/disorganised. Most youth ran to neighbouring countries, while others became internally displaced. With the exception of those who were in the cities it was impossible to organise youth groups by the church. The Regional and National Co-ordination no longer exists. The hierarchy of the church is trying to organise the whole system with difficulties.

The project aims at reviving CYO and putting in place its diocesan and national structures by the end of the year 2004.
All diocesan chaplains and co-ordinators will be brought together to assess the current Units of the C.Y.O in the Country. They will be charged to gather all data of the various C.Y.O Units, the leaders, zonal/ core team leaders and relevant information or contact addresses.
Plans and strategies will be worked by a Central Committee who will be comprised of the chaplains, co-ordinators and other co-opted members especially former members with good experience of the Organisation.
Leadership training will be given to the Co-ordinators and other leaders who in turn will go and train unit leaders as well. Experts will be invited from Ghana to facilitate this initial training.

Fr. Daniel Osei Yeboah

CYO Ghana [top]

In May (15-18) CY0 Ghana organised a national female leadership training course centred on HIV/Aids, Skill development, Issues on Women, Leadership ad Carrier guidance, CYO methods and Techniques. There were 48 participants representing thirteen dioceses in Ghana.

About HIV/AIDS:

The participants were given a lot of information on the disease, how it is acquired, prevention and treatment. The trainer discussed with participants how a patient should be cared for through the Compassion techniques which are being advocated now. Two female AIDS patients came to give testimonies that the disease is real and showed how they were affected.
On skill development, the participants were taught how to make wreaths, simple decorations using coloured pears and ribbons and how to parcel gifts nicely for presentation. The participants were taken through many interesting issues on female leadership and guidance to give them confidence as future women for the Church and the Country. The resource person was Mrs Charlotte Wrigley-Asante, the co-ordinator of the Gender development Institute – the African Centre for Human Development.
The participants also had the chance to make a short educational and observational tour to important places in Adooagyri town. Led by the national CYO organizing secretary Snr Crusader M.V. Quaye-Foli, they went to see an Orthopaedic centre, a Secondary school, the Catholic Conference Centre, and a Catholic clinic. This took two hours and very relaxing. At the end of the course all participants went back home, very Happy and satisfied. They were all very eager to take to their colleagues the information received.
Next year a joint (male & female) officers follow-up training on a Provincial level will be organised.

PS: Our delegates whom we have sent to the Philippines have returned home safe and happy about the experienced gained. We thank Fimcap and all benefactors whose various support made the program possible and successful.

Greetings of peace and love from Ghana CYO
Victor Quaye-Foli

Kiro Congo [top]

02 May - 08 June 2003, a delegation of the national secretariat , that means myself and the chief of the national services went to visit the 2 Kasaï and Kamina. This visit had been decided at the last meeting of the national Board aimed at encouraging the Kiro Groups of the two Kasaï, to bring them some necessary materials to the good functioning of the movement and to see the situation on the spot so as to improve our work. The Kiros of the following places (Kananga, Muene Ditu, Luputa, Tshiabobo, Tshilomba, Tshianvi, Lusuku,Mbuji mayi, Cilenge, Kamina, Kabondo Dianda et Luena) were very happy with this visit and expressed the wish for more frequent visits in the coming years. In the meantime we will keep contact through regular mailings as planned during the meetings.

César BAMWEPELA
Secrétaire National, Kiro Congo

Xaveri Uganda [top]

A Xaveri priest is consecrated a bishop !!!!!!

Rev. Fr. Robert Muhiirwa, an active Xaverian member, was elected by Pope John Paul II as the next Bishop of Fortportal CatholicDiocese, succeeding Bishop Emeritus Paul Kalanda.
When the news reached our National Xaveri Office, Uganda, we felt very privileged and proud for having attained such responsibility of high calibre in our Mother Church.
On 15th June, 2003 at Virika Cathedral Church of Fortportal Diocese, the new Bishop was consecrated by His Eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala at a colourful ceremony honoured by the Papal Nuncio to Uganda Rt., Rev. Christopher Pierre and twelve (12)other Bishops of Uganda.
The Xaverians participated fully in all arrangements and entertained the guests as well as ushering.. We are grateful to the Almighty God for all the Blessings He has given all of us in Uganda.

Kind regards to all Fimcap member organizations universally and best wishes.

Dennis Musisi
Xaveri-General Secretary

Latin America

News from Haiti [top]

The secretariat of the Kiro Movement in Haiti is proud to present you the new national board elected last February by the delegates of 9 dioceses and the other members of the Bureau. Here are the names of the new committee: Edner Alouidor executive secretary, Pierrogène Davilmar National secretary, Jean Luckner Romulus National treasurer.
This new committee is ready to work hard for the Kiro movement. We are sorry not to be able to participate in the World camp and hope to be present at the next intercontinental activity.

Edner Alouidor
Executive secretary

Asia

Chiro Taiwan [top]

Meeting with Marcel Goffaert 26/08/2003 in Antwerp

Marcel Goffaert, Scheutist in Taipei who has been doing Chiro work there for many years, is now no longer their official chaplain, however he is still active.
Chiro was founded by a Flemish nun in 1970 . She translated quite a lot of Chiro material in Chinese. The Mandarin language is the official language, also in schools. Taiwan has its own parliament and president, but the international relations are often going through China. Taiwanese is a Chinese language that is much spoken, and accepted as a school language in some rural areas. Chiro is a federation of youth clubs. There is a national board that offers services for local groups ( training, meetings,..) with different feed-back. They organise training courses each year, and a diocesan summer camp, for all groups and leaders.
Groups are organised on parochial and school level. The Bishops want to intensify the activities in schools, and would like to have training courses organised for teachers. In the last years there has been more attention to Chiro Work in the parishes. They see that schools have often a better infrastructure than the parishes and that the parishes need extra support.
There are about 30 groups in the Diocese of Taipei. There are also others who are less linked with the national board. Chiro is for children 12+. They meet weekly and their activities are training, discussions, catechesis and games.
Their main problem is to find leaders. When they are 18, they often go to higher schools, sometimes in other towns and can not afford to come back on weekends. They also feel too grown-up to work with children The social status “student” is a very important one. International work is very problematic as there are very few people who speak English. That is the reason for their absence at Fimcap meetings.

Zeger Van Besien
August 2003

Europe

EuroContact 2003 [top]

Alitupa Zawadi, meaning “He gave us Gifts” was the chosen theme for this year’s Eurocontact hosted by ZAK Malta. Participants arrived from Chiro - Belgium, Jong Nederlands - Netherlands, Erko – Slovakia, Ateitis –Lithuania, FDF – Denmark. CCCCCE-Catalonia and Jubla –Switzerland. On Sunday 10 August, together with the Maltese participants they all made their way to the Archbishop’s Seminary where they spent a week together doing various activities.

Activities varied from team building exercises, an International evening, games with socially excluded children, crafts, night expeditions, and a Mass @ Sunrise which stole the show!
Here are some comments which I gathered during the first few day of Eurocontact.

Luke (ZAK) - Very nice and full of activities. Difficult to remember all the names but it does not matter. The activities are interesting but the challenge is for all of us from different cultures to work well together.

Bernard (ZAK) - We have new activities and are enjoying it with the foreigners. I like it because the activities are being held in different places around Malta.

Paul (Jong Nederland) - It's a pity that only forty people are here this week and only these forty are having fun. We could have had more young people from the different countries. It is fun to have games in the sun and sea.

Josfien (Chiro Belgium) - Well organised. I am having fun.

Wouter Mertens (Chiro Belgium) - It's very good and all the Maltese girls are lovely.

Wouter Verstraete (Chiro Belgium) - We arrived on Saturday in the evening and it was very hot. We slept in B'Kara and the next day we went to Golden Bay and it was the first coast that I saw in Malta and my impression was "Yeah baby ! Yeah". On Sunday we went to the Seminary and got back to the rest of the wonderful group. The welcome party was big fun. The next day we had ice-breakers to get to know everybody and let everyone know about our strange names. Maltese girls are very spontaneous. We had a big teambuilding game to learn how to co-operate with people we did not know before and this was a great experience and we started to become friendly. On Tuesday we went fishing. I saw a lot of fish but I couldn't catch one. In the afternoon we visited a farm and in the evening we went to the beach for a BBQ. There was music and some time for reflections. We also swam and the BBQ was the best till now.

It is clear that participants enjoyed the whole event but it was not only them who enjoyed it. All volunteers, animators together with the participants have spent a week as a big Fimcap family sharing different experiences and having fun.

Miriam Teuma
ZAK Malta

European Bureaumeeting [top]

The European Bureau met in Köln, Germany 26-28th September 2003. KJG Germany (Katholische Junge Gemeinde) hosted us in a beautiful and comfortable Youth Hostel.
The delegates of the European organisations arrived on Friday evening from many parts of Europe, Slovakia, Catalonia, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany (delegates and guests from KJG), Malta, Denmark and the Link editor as guest from Austria. There were some main points on the agenda. The first point concerned the intercontinental level, with news from the Fimcap presidium and the preparation of the General Assembly in summer 2004 in Barcelona. The bureau members were asked to suggest some topics for the study theme to be decided on at the next ICB meeting in October. Another important point was the world camp. Some time was given for a presentation of the world camp, which was a very positive experience, with pictures, comments and some information, also during the informal time in the evening! The next point concerned the very successful Eurocontact in Malta. The evaluation has been very positive. The only disappointing aspect was the poor participation of some European organisations.
An other main point was the presentation of the World Youth Day that will take place in Köln in 2005. KJG is involved in the preparation on the spot and presented possible co-operation with Fimcap organisations for the preparation and organisation of possible activities during the World Youth days.
The organisations presented the latest news about their new year theme or past summer activities, like bilateral exchanges and visits, like Roundabout and similar activities. Morten from FDF gave us some news about the Euroclass project and invited European organisations to host a participant for a practical training in spring. Other topics were the Fimcap Day set on the 20th of November, the presentation of an inter-rail game (FDF), the partnerships, the upcoming projects, like the Euroforum in Lithuania (15-18th of April) the Eurocontact in Belgium, and the seminar in Malta in April. The meeting ended on Sunday.

Many thanks to Holger and KJG for hosting the Bureau and the very nice Saturday evening in the centre of Köln!

Corno de Mol
Fimcap Europe President

Roundabout [top]

Chiro Flanders meets Ateitis in Lithuania

6 leaders and a member of Chiro Heulen have been to Lithuania. Together with youth from other organisations they took part at a camp. It has been a very enriching experience. Next year it will be the turn of people from Lituania to come to Belgium.
A leader of the Chiro, Bjorn Deleu, took the initiative to have an exchange and contacted the international commission of Chiro. They examined together the opportunity to go to Lithuania, former USSR.
The journey by bus took 30 hours and the group arrived rather worn-out at Panevezys.
It was a rural area, and the camp was quite like a normal camp, even if it differed from the traditional Chiro Camp. There are more theoretical workshops in the morning and in the afternoon, they always go for a swim in a lake nearby. They are used to foreign exchanges, as they had some people from Italy and Ireland to visit them last year. It was a very pleasant experience.
The Chiro leaders took part in all activities and exchanged a lot of activities and games. Communication was not a problem as most youngsters from Lithuania are already quite good in English
After the camp that lasted a week, they were hosted by families for some more days. We learned a lot about their culture and their country.

Bjorn Deleu

Tears don’t lie!

The first common Roundabout of Germany, Malta and Spain took place in Hattgenstein / Germany with groups from CCCCCE Val d’Aran, Zak from Zebbugg and KJG from Bad Mergentheim.
Altogether 47 female, 17 male participants and their animators set up a camp of 14 days according to the motto “Europe – with body, spirit & soul”. The very first activities like – ice breaking games, a discovering hike and an opening disco were activities based on this main theme. After these three activities, at least on the third day, the three nations built one common harmonic group at the Eucharistic celebration with the community of Birkenfeld.
The program consisted of three well-balanced topics
Culture: Visit of a copper mine, visit of the German Diamond Museum and a city rally in Trier.
Sports and Fun: Sports tournaments, going for a swim, visit of an ‘aqua park’ and a big adventure park.
Assembly: Typical activities of KJG like ‘Spachteln’, handicrafts, batiks, painting Mandalas, a eucharistic celebration or just some free time for reflecting.
Special experiences were possible throughout the “evenings of the nations”. The participants prepared their typical food and drinks in order to start a ‘fiesta’ with dances, songs and games.
Finally the farewell-tears only stopped because of the hope of meeting again on Malta in 2004.

Jürgen Leuser

Switzerland [top]

Ranfttreffen - With youth on the way during a winter night 20-21st December 2003

About 2000 young people come together at Flüeli-Ranft (near Luzern) every year during the last weekend before Christmas. The 28th Ranfttreffen is a very special meeting organised by the youth organisation of Blauring & Jungwacht.
On Saturday afternoon, hundreds of groups of participants from all over Switzerland will start a walking tour in the winter night towards Flüeli-Ranft. During a first break (in a house) the group members have the possibility to get to know each other with a game on the theme of this year “All.Nothing”.
Some days before Christmas the paths and roads will be marked and enlightened by hundreds of candles to show the way. At the second stop, here will be bread, soup, tea and different activities to participate in: i.e. folk dancing, singing, listening to music, New Games, indoor climbing, doing handcrafts or just the opportunity to talk to people.
At midnight the young people will walk down to the very small valley “Ranft), enlightened by thousands of torches and candles, where a special service will be celebrated outside at half past two in the morning.
Then there is just the way to walk to a house where everybody will get a small breakfast.
We would be happy to welcome many international guests and members of Fimcap organisations, that means you! For questions and more information please contact the international committee of Blauring/Jungwacht by the e-mail international@jubla.ch or tel +41 43 455 92 49. We will arrange that your group will be accompanied by someone of our international committee during the “Ranfttreffen”.

Pascal Vonlanthen

Alegria - A big event for children and leaders of the Canton Zurich!

On the 13th of September there was a big event for all the Blauring and Jungwacht children and leaders of the canton Zurich.
The theme was Alegria, which means joy in Spanish.
All the children received a white T-shirt. A big playground with different games and creative workshops hosted 1100 kids from 7 to 15 years. In their own Jubla groups the children tried to move on big skis, they did body painting, made blind parcours in the forest, played different football variants, crossed a “crocodile” river, painted a big community painting and did many other games. On a wall there was a big piece of textile on which they wrote down what joy meant for them. Most written words have been peace, their Jubla group, friends, luck and a good life. On postcards they wrote a good wish for another person. Of course, they had also some food for lunch. For the closing event a clown couple was invited to reflect on the day. All the children received a balloon with a postcard attached. On the commando of the clowns we let the balloons fly up in the sky bringing all the wishes to the world! It was very emotional. After a prayer the children left together with their leaders and made their way back home, wearing the T-shirt with painted symbols as souvenirs of the games they played,
In the evening there was a big party for the leaders with two well-known Hip Hop groups from Switzerland as special guests. People could dance and listen to the music, and talk outside with friends from leadership training courses.

Nicole Schlemmer

Belgium [top]

Patro

The theme of the year „Patro @ le monde“ focuses on a closer network amongst local groups and on setting up a “web” (telephone, internet). This will happen in two steps: first, the groups will receive 2 games that will enable them to get in touch with their closest surroundings: parents, the neighbourhood, the village. Then, the local groups will be invited to take part in a twinning project. Once the twinning groups are fixed, they will be invited to organise activities together, mail to each other, meet mutually and build together an object that will symbolise the exchange. A commemorative inscription will be handed out to each group.
The next two years, the priorities of the movement will concentrate on teenagers in youth work. The first step will be to have a look at the situation in the Patro and in other movements. Then we will work out tools and a specific training course for group leaders for the teenager section. In this way, we hope to increase the number of teenagers in the local groups.

Fabian Pantalone

Malta [top]

World camp: a ripple effect

A very big map of the Philippines, the Filipino spaghetti dance, Filipino costumes...That is how it all started. On arriving back in Malta, Christine, Nadia and myself, who participated in the Fimcap world camp tried to share some of a newly ignited Filipino spirit with our fellow Zak friends. Therefore inspired from the initiatives discussed back in the Philippines about doing games in our respective countries... we tried to kick the idea off at our National camp with 200 members
The outcome was very positive. ZAK people were very interested in playing it...and alas!! You could see people doing bamboo dancing, weaving newspaper bags and eating raw eggs... ( not Balut, which is a Filipino delicacy consisting of an cooked egg including the embryo).
The game stimulated ZAK people to ask more about the country and of course more about the world camp and Fimcap. Thus we might say that an objective...the one of spreading the World camp Fimcap spirit....sufficed.

Marvic
ZAK Malta

Germany [top]

National Assembly KJG

From June 10 to June 15 2003 KJG organised its national assembly in Altenberg near Cologne. 150 delegates from all over the country participated for this annual meeting. The national board has now a new member, Beate Lippelt, responsible for finances. A new international commission was set up after having gone for several years without one. Two women and three men will start in September to promote international youth work and Fimcap activities in dioceses and parishes in Germany.
The delegates discussed how to deal with homosexuality. The Pope and the German bishops declared homosexuality is not the right way of life but some members of KJG live as gay or lesbian people and the delegates tried to find their best way through this difficult issue.
The Pope invited all young people of the world to the XX World Youth Day. This big event with one or two million young participants would start in august 11 2005 in many dioceses in Germany. There will be many possibilities to meet German youth and to experience the daily life of German families. The main event would start in August 16 2005 in Cologne. Around the cathedral of Cologne the participants will have the chance to experience the universality of the Roman Catholic Church. The meeting ends on Sunday August 21 2005 with the Papal mass. The delegates decided to organize a permanent meeting point for both members of KJG and Fimcap friends. You will get more information about this soon.

Holger Witting

Slovakia [top]

National leaders meeting

"So, then, anyone who hears these words of mine and acts accordingly is like a wise man, who built his house on rock."(Mt 7, 24) These are words of the Gospel. However for the leaders from eRko (Slovakia) these words meant more during 28. - 31. 8. 2003 in Trencin. In fact this was our theme of our national leaders meeting. Usually this meeting lasted for one day so this was the first meeting of such type in our 13 years history.
We met to discuss, to share, to create, but above all to build a house on rock in our hearts. We had a very good spiritual program created by our pastoral committee, we had also a gospel concert, workshops, relaxing activities and a festive party. A Greek-catholic bishop held an interesting discussion and celebration was. It is worth noting that a small part of eRko leaders are not roman- catholic, but Greek-catholic. Even, though this is a smal group in eRko, we roman-Catholics, want to know and understand better the eastern celebration of holy mass. After the celebration, we discussed topics like eRko and its task in the society and the church, children and family, co-operation with parents of our children in groups...etc….. Bishop Milan Chautur was very heartfelt and said some important and inspiring points, which we want to discuss in more detail in eRko. We finished our national meeting by a symbolic act. We wrote a prayer on balloons and allowed them fly to the Heaven to our Father. We stayed in a student hostel, which we changed into the eRko - town, with eRko streets and squares... It was nice to meet so many leaders of eRko, so many people, who are so close to me, close to my thinking and to my heart. We lived for 4 days like one really big eRko family (about 200 participants), with our Heavenly Father and I am thankful to the Lord for every minute I have spent there.

Juraj

Denmark [top]

FDF starts network in Balkans

Cross Religious Directions is a co-operation between youth NGOs, FDF and organisations in South East Europe with a special interest in working for religious tolerance.
The participating organisations are from the ecumenical organisation European Fellowship and organisations with whom FDF just have started co-operating.
The network consists of both organisations belonging to specific Christian or Muslim confessions and organisations with members from different religions. There is a broad diversity of young people in terms of social, ethnic, political, cultural and religious identities.

The network focuses on the lack of understanding among the different religious directions in SEE. During the conflicts in Balkan there has been an increasing intolerance and isolation between religious groups. Religion is used politically, justifying ways of action. That way religion becomes a way of expressing distinctiveness, which is reflected in the way many youngsters define their identity.

The Cross Religious Direction Network believes that a wider religious knowledge and understanding will help in overcoming prejudices and xenophobia. This is an important tool for creating peace and understanding in the Balkan. The network aims to create dialogues among people from different religions through face-to-face-meetings, via web etc. It is important to promote inter-religious understanding between the different religious positions through activities like music, outdoor life, games and leader training activities.

In the last months the partners have started the co-operation with success due to good seminars, co-operation with European Fellowship and the implementation of three summer camps with both Muslim and Christian participants. In two years the network will focus on activities based on reaching a broader religious understanding.

For more information contact Bjarke S. Petersen
from FDF at bjarke.petersen@fimcap.org

Deadline for the December Link edition: 20 November 2003
Please send your articles to mdeblonde@web.de or carmec@bsab.com. Thank you.

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