LWF together green&just empowers youth groups and youth camps to reflect on ecological justice from a biblical and practical point of view and get into action.

On 12 May, the Lutheran World Federation organizes its first virtual conference. Registration is open now. However, the conference is not just useful for personal learning. It is also a great way to engage an group, like a women’s or youth group into the theme of ecological justice.

Here are few ideas:

• Meet as a group on 12 May at a place with Internet access.
• If possible, set up a video projector to watch the keynote addresses and bible studies together.
• Discuss together what you heard in the presentations.
• Post questions together to the speakers.
• After the day, discuss with other what are your next steps in working for ecological justice in your context.

Here are some of the information:
Time: 12 May: 16.30 Indian Standard Time, 13.00 Central European Time, 7.00 Eastern Standard Time

Target group: Church leaders, people active in sustainable development, interested pastors and lay leaders, youth leaders.

Number of participants: 400-600

Format: green&just will be a virtual event. Interactions are in real time on the Internet. Most content will be shown in video. Questions can be asked in real time using text chat.

Languages: English, French, Spanish, German

Keynote adresses: Dr Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Ms Esther Hinostroza Ricladi,  Co-founder, National Center for Mining Women, Lima, Peru Videos of the addresses are subtitled in four languages. The speakers respond in real time to questions in text chat.

Bible studies: After an introduction to the text by theologians, the participants discuss the texts with others from around the world. Webinars: Participants can choose many different topics and get deeper insights. The webinar leaders are going to be highly interactive.

Lounge: Throughout the day, participants from around the world can meet each other one-by-one or in small groups. Technical Requirements: A Computer with Internet connection and speakers/earphones. Churches who do not have these facilities can apply for small grants to visit an Internet Café.

Group participation: The virtual conference is a good opportunity to have global encounters with a local congregational or youth group.

Cost: The Virtual Conference is free of charge. However, if you are able you are invited to donate to cover the costs.

Much more information including webinar descriptions and speaker bios here: http://blogs.lutheranworld.org/wordpress/greenandjust/

(c) flickr.com/redchuck

One crucial point of our meeting was the development of a strategy plan for the office of the National Committee. This strategy aims to improve the ecological aspect of sustainability within the office. Therefore we queried the office last year already, e.g. how sustainable business traveling is arranged.

The conclusion of the process is a paper that suggests to investigate closer the topics CO2-compensation for traveling, the selection of conference centres as well as the use of paper at  meetings.

Furthermore we were able to get to know the city where Luther posted the 95 theses at the church’s door. The director of the LWF-centre established in Wittenberg, pastor Hans W. Kasch delivered amazing insights into his work and made the life of Luther become alive by means of a guiding tour.

In view of the 500^th anniversary of the reformation in 2017 we visited the developing Luther Garden. 500 trees will be planted here, whereas each is representing a church of the global community. Regarding the international character and the ecumenical connections of the LWF we felt this project to be one-of-a-kind.

LWF Youth Secretary Roger Schmidt reported to us about the developments of the LWF in Geneva including the new project of the youth desk „green & just“. We are excited about this virtual conference and hope to „meet“ you there.

Until then sincere greetings from Germany

Sabine and Samuel

On 12 May, we are experimenting with a new event format. LWF Youth hosts a conference open to all ages on sustainable development for a few hundred participants. And you can be one of them – because it happens on the Internet. The virtual conference will feature keynote speeches, bible studies and webinars available in four languages: English, Spanish, German and French. It will be a place to meet and to text chat with Christians from around the world in real time. The conference will also be an opportunity to bring your youth group and friends along. Groups with problems accessing the Internet can apply for support.