August 31, 2007 in Church, North America, Youth participation
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: Read the rest of this entry →
August 30, 2007 in North America, Youth participation
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: Read the rest of this entry →
August 29, 2007 in Church, Ecumenism, Faith, Life, LWF, Youth participation
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: Read the rest of this entry →
August 27, 2007 in Justice, Life, LWF, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, UN, Youth, Youth participation
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.
