Kristen Glass, director for young adult ministries, reflects about the church wide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the role of young adults in it. She allowed us to re-publish a text that she has written for her own blog: Continue reading
Monthly Archives: August 2007
Participation of young adults in the ELCA: The best seat
Posted in Church, North America, Youth participation
Participation of young adults the ELCA church wide assembly
This summer, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (member of the LWF) had its churchwide assembly. That is the highest decision making body of the church and brings together more than 1000 voting members from all parts of the church. Often, it is not easy for youth and young adults to engage in such an environment. Every discussion seems to be very formal and sometimes one gets the impression that all papers were so well prepared that you can’t change anything in it.
This year, 91 young adults were voting members at the ELCA church wide assembly. I would say they should have been even more but still – it is a significant number. In order to help them to participate meaningfully, Kristen Glass, the ELCA director for young adult ministries, organized a pre-assembly. I asked her what they were doing there. Here is her answer: Continue reading
Posted in North America, Youth participation
Internship with the Lutheran World Federation
Spending ten months in another country. Getting to know people from virtually every part of the world. Working at the center of the ecumenical movement. Learning, praying, advancing ideas, supporting the worldwide church.
In short, that is what the youth internship in the Lutheran World Federation is about. To bring it a little bit more into order I’ll explain what you would have to expect if you are selected: Continue reading
Youth and Information Technologies
I admit it. I am fascinated by the communication possibilities that the internet gives me. I communicate with a lot of people by email, I use instant messaging, I have access to a huge knowledge base, I can use a blog and after writing for an hour, there are actually people on the other side of the globe who can read it right away.
Make no mistake: Not everything about computers and the internet is good. There are people addicted to gaming and don’t have actual friendships anymore, there is disgusting content distributed through the internet. That must not be forgotten.
Nevertheless, one thing is clear. If you want, to participate in the world as it is today: Access to a computer and the internet is helpful, to say the least. People who do not have access face serious disadvantages.
Yet, there are millions of young people who do not have access to the internet. And many of those who have a certain access do not use it in a beneficial way.
At the end of September, the “Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technology for Development” organizes a Global Forum about Youth and ICT (or Information and Communication Technology). They are expecting several hundred young people and experts in the field. LWF Youth is present with four young people: Julia Fauth from Germany, Jeruel Basalong (Evangelical-Lutheran Church of the Phillipines), Josephat Suweh (Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Kenya) and will participate, as well. Our hope is that we can identify some major issues young people face when it comes to ICT and the access to it.
In the next few weeks, we are going to explore a few issues involved. If you have any ideas in what area we should look at or any kind of opinion, you are as always invited to share it in the “comments” section. You simply have to click on “comments” right under this post and you can write a comment.
Posted in Justice, Life, LWF, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth participation
EAPPI- being a witness in Israel/Palestine
In 2002, after calls from local churches in Jerusalem, the World Council of Churches started a new program that would serve as a witness and help create an international ecumenical presence for peace and justice in the Holy Land.
The Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) has brought over 300 people to the Holy Land to accompany Palestinians and Israelis in non-violent actions and concerted advocacy efforts to end the occupation. Its objectives are to:
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- Expose the violence of the occupation
- End the brutality, humiliation and violence against civilians
- Construct a stronger global advocacy network
- Ensure the respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law
- Influence public opinion in home country and affect foreign policy on Middle East in order to end the occupation and create a viable Palestinian State
- Express solidarity with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists and empower local Palestinian communities/churches
- Be an active witness that an alternative, non-violent struggle for justice and peace is possible to end the illegal occupation of Palestine
It is also unique in that it is for people of different generations, including youth (young adults). Check out their website at http://www.eappi.org/.
Posted in Church, Ecumenism, Justice, Middle East
And so it begins…
On Monday I start a whole new chapter in my life. That is when I start studying at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, on a track to become an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
In a time where you can become a certified pastor online over the internet in just a few hours here in the USA, the ELCA requires its pastors to complete four years of undergraduate study, and then three years of graduate study, completing a Masters in Divinity, one year of internship in a parish, and a summer of Clinical Pastoral Education, in addition to several other things.
Even writing that, it has been hard to let that sink in. I am committing the next four years, three in school and one on internship, to becoming an ordained minister. After three years of traveling and doing service work, having different odd jobs, and just being open and available to do anything at any time, I am saying that, for the next four years, I am going to be in the USA studying.
That’s a difficult thing for me to do. What if this great conference comes by, and I want to go? Or, what about an opportunity to do service work in West Africa? Or, how about a job that I’ve always wanted- I can’t and won’t just leave seminary!
It is something that I have prayed about a lot. And, the call I felt was strong and clear. I couldn’t just ignore this call because I was having so much fun!
And, because I am convinced that this is what God wants, I trust that everything will go according to God’s plan, whatever that might look like. It will be challenging, but also fun, and I am already excited to get started. Now, I have to get to the not so fun part- packing!
Social networking for a cause
Yet another new social networking site – this time for a cause. If you join now your project could win 10,000 USD (great marketing strategy!) They have a catagory for religion that is currently empty – it would be great to see young people take the lead by establishing the discussion thread. Lots of other discussion threads relating to our work on social justice, peace and poverty, are just beginning. Check it out:
http://beta.razoo.com/welcome?code=SpeedGranting
How to solve stress???
we are as Christian live in a complex world. There are many things that we can face every day that cause our lives so colorful, exciting, sad or one of them is stress, how many of you ever felt stress, when the life looks so dark and everything is bad… wanna die… fuiihh… there were a girl came to my house and said that she wanted to end her life because she feels unfair. she said that her mom do more loves her sister than her… and everything that she does are wrong… she was crying and really looks no hope of life when I talk with her… I tried to talk with her in deep caring and love and pray with her… she is still feel bad and sad and I try to keep contact with her… so… I need your help…
Maybe some of you ever stress and you got recover or you ever faced the same case with me or maybe you have a skill to handle this case… please share… I need your help… how to help her… and maybe by your answer in this blog, it is not only her will get healing but maybe also others…
in love and prayer
benny
Posted in Life
I was a Steward
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Its amazing how the time passes so fast!!!!. Its almost a year when I had the chance to participate at the World Council of Churches Stewards Programme. And I have to say it was the most wonderful experience, becuse I had the oppotunity to live for three weeks with other young people all around the world Gambia, Kenya, Zambia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Haiti, Armenia, Begium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Ukraine, England, Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Jordan, Lebanon, Canada, Usa, Fidji.
I must say that the participation of my country on these ecumenical issues as youth body was not notable. I knew about this oportunity for the Youth Desk of the Lutheran World Federation. It was surprising to me because I thought that the fact that I was not single could be problem. But it wasnt. They accepted me as one of them too.
Only when you live these experience you can realize how important is to accept each other on their context. The fact to live under the same roof for 20 days, sharing the same food, the same feeling of sharing our experiences as Christians, gives as the chance to discover our costumes, our way to do things, the different languages, denominations. But what makes us one is that we all believe in one God, who has many faces, and colors but still the same.
Those three weeks makes us a real family, I can not say that we agree all the time, but we certainly tried to understand each other.
The first week we attend the Ecumenical Leadership Seminar at the Jhon Knox Centre, some of the issues we studied were: Community of Women and Men, Inter- Religious Dialogue, Health, Healing and HIV/ AIDS, Economic Justice, Bioethics, Overcoming Violence and others.
The second week we worked at the Worl Council of Churches which was very exciting, we were asked to chose what kind of task we would like to develop during the Assembly, so my friend Irena from Belgium and I decided to be in charge of the Documenttion Office so everyone of us were working for the Press Office, Translation Office etc. we all worked hard for a week.
The orgnization of the group was in charge of the “great” Lukasz Nazarko as we called him, because during the preparation for the traveling he was dealing all the time with visas, transportation, and all what means being on charge of 26 people. I thank to Natalie Maxson the Programme Executive for the Youth Programme, because she worked very hard organizing the Ledership Training Seminar for us, and every activity we developed during our time in Geneva.
We were able to enjoy the city the last week, we had the chance to visit the Ecumenical Centre for Studies named Bossey, its a beautifull place, looks like a real castle, where many people from all around the world makes their Ecumenism Studies.
At the end of the third week we present our Ecumenical Projects to develop once we returned to our countries. Mine was about trying to organize an ecumenical Youth group with other churches like Presbiterian, Methodist Church and Lutheran in Colombia.
At the present time we still communicating each other for a Yahoo Group, I know some of them are reading this blog, so I want you to know I remember every moment we spent togheter!!!
I really strongly encourage you to participe in this very exciting event certainly I learn a lot from each one of you, tolerance and love for each other.
Posted in Life
Settling for less
When I was in Africa, a local man, when we were talking about politics and corruption, told me that he was tired of the ‘West’ always telling them how it needs to be done.
Now, even though I am from the ‘West’, I usually don’t even try to defend it. In fact, that would be stupid, irresponsible and impossible. It is important that we admit mistakes that we have made and are making, and then ask for forgiveness and change our behavior. Why do we always think that we know best?
The reference in this conversation had to do with corruption in the government. He, like others I have met in the global south, is against corruption, but argues that corruption is and will always be a part of their politics. It is not even a topic worth talking about, goes the argument, because one candidate will be extremely corrupt, and maybe the other will be a tad less corrupt, but both (or all) will be corrupt. Therefore, the ‘west’, as in governments and donor organizations, should stop pressing them on the issue and just understand how things work.
Some might call this a realistic approach, but that doesn’t mean it is not an important issue. Corruption is an injustice, for the country and its people. When there are injustices, we should demand change, and work for that change in a constructive way.
We also have corruption in the United States government. A lot of it, in fact. It is a different kind of corruption- gone are the days (largely) when people passed politicians envelopes stuffed with cash. Now, instead, it comes in the form of giving political favors to businesses and individuals who have given to your campaign. This is an injustice, and we should work to right this wrong, too.
We will never have the kingdom of heaven here on earth until the second coming. Poverty, disease, slavery, homelessness, hunger, human rights violations, corruption, and many other injustices will always be a part of this world until then. Man, there are just so many injustices happening! It would be easy to give up and give in. There will be many obstacles in working for good and we will probably never be able to totally eliminate all of these injustices.
Jesus even told us that we will always have the poor amongst us. But, by his example in action and in words, he advocated change by caring for these people, providing for them when necessary, and even learning from them. Jesus was realistic in his statement about the poor, but he was also clear that we should work for the ideal. He sets the example and lays down the mission for us. I hope we don’t settle for less.
