EYCE Newsletter #17 Drawing near to christmas

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

Dear friend,

As the end of the year draws near, we want to send you some updates and reports about what we have done in the past year and how we prepare to face the next one.

As we continue to struggle in financial aspects, we are tackling structural problems and are carried by prayers and the support of our Member Organisations. The Executive Committee is thankful for all your thoughts, prayers and actions!

Especially in these times, when the sun is setting early, we are awaiting the time of light that are promised in the coming of our God in Jesus Christ as we celebrate it in different traditions but one spirit during Christmas.

Yours in Christ,

Steven, Spyridoula, Anne, Inga, Aida, Harald and Hannah

EYCE Executive Committee

Please pay special attention to the Calls at the end of this newsletter!

44th General Meeting was held in Oslo/Norway

Beginning of November we held our 44th General Meeting. Since the General Meeting in 2021 was held online we were happy to have an in person meeting again. And we were very happy that the Christian Council of Norway and the Church of Norway invited us to come to Oslo. The General Meeting is the highest decision-making body of the EYCE. So on our agenda stood the following discussion points: The work on a short- and long-term strategy for our work in the EYCE as well as discussions about our finances and sustainability within our Member Organisations and the EYCE itself. Two outcomes of the meeting were to establish two working groups which you can find in the Newsletter as well. One is working on activities and the other one will focus on our constitution. Thank you to everybody who attended the meeting and to everybody who made it possible!

General Assembly of the World Council of Churches finally happenen in September in Karlsruhe/Germany

We had the great chance to take part in the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Karlsruhe. Over 500 Delegates from all over the world, and more than 3000 participants in different roles from advisors to visitors to the Assembly, met in the end of August and in the beginning of September in Karlsruhe/Germany, to discuss their shared topics, to learn from each other, to have a lot of fun and to share their personal faith and faith traditions with each other.

Anne, Spyridoula and Steven took part for us. Anne was part of the Design Team for the Ecumenical Youth Gathering and was invited to stay for the GA as Youth Advisor and Spyridoula joined the message team of the Youth Gathering. Steven was our delegated Representative to the GA. It was a great opportunity to connect with young people from all over the world and to connect with some of our Member Organisations that were present as well.

Special thanks to the Evangelical Church of Westphalia which supported us financially to be part of the General Assembly, so we did not have to carry all the costs on our own budget.

Governing Board of the Conference of European Churches in Tallinn/Estonia

EYCE was invited to attend the CEC-Governing Board meeting in Tallinn, Estonia and was represented by Spyridoula. Spyridoula and Christiane, from WSCF-E, who was also invited, created a joint presentation to share the work of EYCE and WSCF-E, which included the exciting things happening, the challenges each organisations is facing, and suggestions for the future to work together with CEC. We are grateful for the opportunity to attend, to connect with various people, and we look forward to hopefully working on different projects and hosting events together in the near future.

General Assembly of the European Youth Forum in Tirana/Albania

The European Youth Forum gathers over 100 National Youth Councils and International Youth Organisations like the EYCE. We were represented by Aida and Steven. On the Agenda were elections for a new board, the exclusion of the National Youth Council of Russia and a position on the human right’s protests in Iran, as well as the continuing discussion about new statutes.

The Assembly was a great chance to connect and to learn about issues and structures of other organisations in the youth sector. Tirana was the meeting place for the GA as it is the 2022’s European Capital of Youth. In a ceremony on Wednesday, before the official opening of the GA, the European Capital of Youth for 2025 was announced. The winner for 2025’s EYC is: Lviv/Ukraine!

We congratulate all of the newly elected board members, especially we want to congratulate María Rodríguez Alcázar, the newly elected president of the European Youth Forum.

European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN)

Aida took part for us in the ECEN’s Enabling Team-meeting in Brussels from 27th to 28th of September 2022. The most important points of discussion were 1) the assembly in 2023, 2) collaboration between ECEN and youth-organisations (EYCE and World Student Christian Federation Region Europe) and 3) ECEN’s future in context of the Conference of European Churches.

We are very happy that ECEN is very eager about youth participation. Aida and Spyridoula are involved in their meetings and in the preparation of the assembly.

The ECEN Assembly 2023 will be held in Denmark from 31st of August to 3rd of September 2023. More information will follow when registration will be opened.

Welcome Harald to the EYCE's Executive Committee!

My name is Harald, and I am from the northern part of Norway. I am 26 years old and study theology and education.

I have grown up in the Church of Norway, and have been active in the youth movement there for many years. In my spare time I like to do voluntary work and be with friends. I work at a soup kitchen run by the church.

Call for Stewards to the CEC General Assembly

Next year the Conference of European Churches will hold their General Assembly. It will be in Tallinn/Estonia from the 14th to 20th of June 2023. Delegates from over 100 churches all over Europe gather for the highest decision-making body of the CEC. One chance to be part of this event is through stewardship. Stewards are a crucial part of making this event happening and help in different areas to make everything work. Besides that it is an opportunity to experience ecumenism work on a European level, to see how these churches engage with each other, towards political institutions and to connect with (young) Christians from different denominations and from all over Europe.

The deadline for applications is on the 20th of January. You can find more information here.

Join our Working Group on Program and Activities

The first meeting will be held just as you will read the Newsletter: 30 November at 19:00 CET. All are welcome and we want to talk about future activity topics as well as about ideas for smaller activities throughout the year. If you are interested, please join via the zoom link here:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81970891820?pwd=NThuTFRKMWVMajlzaUJuZjNadEN5dz09

If you want to join the Working Group, feel free to reach out to Spyridoula so you can be added to the list of people who want to work with us on the activities. The next dates will be announced directly to the people who want to participate.

Call for help to design activities and applications for european funding

The next deadline for grant applications draws nearer. Sadly we did not get the grant for international activity though we had great ideas and put a lot of effort into the application.

To meet the criterias of the European Youth Foundation or Erasmus+, we are looking for help to develop ideas, activities and to bring those finally into applications. If you are or you know an expert in the field of european fundings and activity development for the youth sector, please send us a mail to Spyridoula.

We are looking forward to get help and offer a creative team that is eager to create new activities.

Call for our Working Group on the Constitution

We are looking for members to be part of the process of amending the constitution to reflect the current and future work of EYCE. The group will begin meeting in mid-December to set a schedule for the next year to complete a first draft by March. The committee will also take into consideration the visioning work that happened at the General Meeting. To participate and for any questions, please contact Spyridoula.

Dates

Here are a few heads-up what is going to happen next year and you should keep it in mind or give it some space in your calendar. Also, share those dates with any other young people whom you think might be interested :)

• 14th to 20th of June 2023: General Assembly of the Conference of European Churches - Tallinn/Estonia

• 24th to 27th of August 2023: EYCE 45th General Meeting - place not yet confirmed

• 31st of August to 3rd of September 2023: ECEN Assembly - Denkmark

Questions and Office and new Executive Committee

EYCE is still organised only by volunteers. They do their best to keep the daily operations running. If you have any questions or ideas, please contact us via general.secretary@eyce.org or via social media.

To get to know the new ExCo please check our Webpage. With some of you we already started to have bilateral conversations, if you have not recieved a request until now you are no forgotten and we will get in contact as soon as possible!

In the moment the ExCo is working on applications of European Youth Foundation to get some funding for activities next year. If you are interested to contribute as Teamer to an activity or if you want to help in the application process, please contact Spyridoula. Thank you very much!