Dear EYCE friend,

Welcome to our second newsletter of the year. In this newsletter you can find a glimpse of the work that has been done within and from EYCE. There is also so much interesting work coming for the end of 2025 and for 2026, read more below.

Thank you for following along and supporting the work we do together as the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe. We wish you a great summer.

Yours in Christ,
Aino, Harald, Saara, Pavel, Alan Shiyar and Steven, EYCE General Secretary

Devotional Greeting from EYCE Chair

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;

    where morning dawns, where evening fades,

    you call forth songs of joy.

You care for the land and water it;

    you enrich it abundantly.

The streams of God are filled with water

    to provide the people with grain,

    for so you have ordained it.

You drench its furrows and level its ridges;

    you soften it with showers and bless its crops.

You crown the year with your bounty,

    and your carts overflow with abundance.

The grasslands of the wilderness overflow;

    the hills are clothed with gladness.

The meadows are covered with flocks

    and the valleys are mantled with grain;

    they shout for joy and sing. (From Psalm 65)

One of my favourite Finnish hymns is inspired by this psalm. It rejoices in the beauty and goodness of the creation of God. It rejoices in spring and summer, in which we can year by year stand in awe of the wonders of creation once more. After the despair of the dark winter, something new, yet so very old, comes to life. The trees blossom in flowers and green leaves and the Sun on your cheeks feels warm once more. In summer, you can’t help but feel like being touched by God. And this calls forth songs of joy!

However today, the world feels like it’s diving more and more into deep winter. Human made starvation, violence and death are what we see and hear in the news, if we don’t feel it ourselves. At the same time, the creation in front of which we stand in awe, suffers from all this fear and hatred that dwells in the human kind.

For now, this leaves us to pray for a change in the human actions. Prayer, however, is not just speech but something that leads us into taking action. Prayer always creates a change. If the change doesn’t happen directly in the world, it moves something in us. And this change moves us all towards God’s spring and summer.

The writers of psalms knew the turmoils of human life. Nevertheless, through the psalms we can hear the call to remember the promise of God’s summer. All the people in the world that God so loves are once called to shout for joy and sing. Just as in the beginning of the hymn 572

“the hills are clothed with gladness.

    The meadows are covered with flocks

    and the valleys are mantled with grain;

    they shout for joy and sing.” 

Rev. Aino Vihonen-Murtojärvi,
EYCE Chairperson

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Training on youth poverty and advocacy work in Romania

Under the title ‘Being broke isn’t woke’, we gathered at the beginning of June to discuss youth poverty within our organisations and churches as EYCE. We asked what impact poverty has on young people’s lives, and how it creates barriers to participation in society and the church. Christiane, a pastor serving in the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession, told us about a long-term project with children and teenagers living in poverty in a nearby village. In light of these discussions, we learned how to build networks, share insights, and bring others together around a common issue.

Following the training in Vulcan, Romania, we will launch a campaign on our social media channels in September, and we will hold a networking meeting with the Council of Europe in November. Keep following our work, and please help us to promote our campaign through your channels!

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Upcoming EYCE events

Online

⌨️ EYCE Community Hours on the second Monday of the month, all at 18 CET. Register through this link. Autumn dates:

• 8 September 2025
• 13 October 2025
• 10 November 2025
• 8 December 2025

In-person

☘️ Study Session Faith in Action 31 August – 6 September 2025 in Budapest, Hungary. Organised together with the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women Youth. Topic is addressing climate change and strengthening democracy. Applications have closed, but we are accepting applicants to waiting list. Please see this link for more information.

EYF-grant awarded for 2026

We are thrilled to announce that our work plan has been granted funding. The title of our work plan is ‘Empowering Young Christian Voices: Spaces, Participation and Advocacy‘. Throughout 2026, we will explore the role of young people in churches, congregations, and communities of faith. We have two international activities planned, as well as a series of webinars and smaller activities, to implement our learnings. Please reach out to us if you have any insights you would like to share.

We are also seeking financial support from churches to implement the activities, as we are required to secure contributions beyond the grant.

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Representations

From May 8-11, 2025 EYCE delegates Robert Hammerschmidt and Hannah Wehner took part in the General Assembly of the European Youth Forum in Brussels. According to them, some of the discussions they were able to have were relating eco-emotions in climate related discussions, solidarity for the young people in Turkey and also on Erasmus funding and increasing it.

EYCE is a part of the value-based cooperation group within YFJ and there is an opportunity to cooperate on issues that bring these different organisation together. The work with YFJ continues.

Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe is invited to World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa 18-24 June 2025. EYCE Executive Committee Vice-Chair Rev. Saara Alamäki from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland participates the meeting.

She serves the meeting as an advisor with the right to speak but not participate in the decision-making. She is also a part of the Communications Committee. There has been already great encounters with former EYCE actives and people that have followed us through the years and are happy the organisation is still thriving.

This central committee will initiate planning for the 12th Assembly in 2030 and receive reports from the WCC commissions and advisory groups elected in 2022. There is also discussion on public statements to be made.

Questions and office

If you have any questions or ideas, please contact us on social media. Our General Secretary Steven Edwards can be reached via general.secretary@eyce.org and Executive Committee members personal emails can be found on our website through this link.