Today, the Asia Pre-Assembly Consultation of the Lutheran World Federation started in  Bangkok, Thailand. Close to 100 delegates from many Asian countries and churches discuss current issues. The main theme is the same like the LWF assembly in 2010 “Give us today our daily bread”.

Here is the youth response to the keynote address on behalf of the young delegates presented by Kazuhiro SEKINO (Japan Lutheran Church)

As a youth from Asia, we want to react in a short period of time. You shared the story “When in Palestine you find a piece of dry bread on the street, you pick it up, kiss it and give thanks to God.

I think that is the common understanding among Asian nations. We never waste food.

There is a saying in my country Japan: If you waste even one grain of rice, your eye will be squashed. Obviously, that never actually happens. But it shows how Asian people have a history of poverty and hunger.

And now I would like to react to three point you made from a youth perspective.

Firstly, I would like to emphasize: Bread does not just mean bread; it means also spiritual bread. Today, many young people are crying of hunger and also of spiritual hunger.

In order to obtain bread, we need a job. However, many young people cannot get a job; the unemployment is too high. This is also spiritual hunger of young people and it happens among other countries in India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan. This even applies to young people who have a good education: Sometimes they have to choose a job that is lower than what they are trained for and sometimes they don’t get job at all.

For this reason, we recommend to the Asian churches to give spiritual guidance to young people:

What does a job mean? What does work mean? How can we get both our daily material bread but also our spiritual bread?

Most Asian countries do not have a majority of Christians. Many young people lack spiritual guidance. We believe, spiritual leadership has to be the churches’ most important role. If young people cannot experience the love of Jesus, many young people get depressed, they start drinking, commit suicide. Also, the divorce rate is rising.

Second, I was moved when the bishop talked about the character of the petition: “Give us today our daily bread” is not an individual prayer. It is not “Give me today my daily bread”. It is “us”, “Give us today our daily bread!” Therefore, our daily bread must be shared with everybody. It has to be shared in a communion.

Often we consider how we can support the poor countries. How can we lend a hand and give bread to a developing country. But the bread of God is not like that. Jesus gave bread to the hungry people first! Jesus ate together with the sinner.

Everybody has the right to be given bread by Jesus Christ.

Thirdly, if 16,000 children die of hunger every day, Jesus must feel hunger! And we must be hungry, as well.

I was shocked hearing the story from Gaza after the Israeli attack of children eating from the garbage bin. If Jesus is watching, he will cry. It is the pain of the young, of the next generation.

This morning, I could not eat breakfast, and neither did I eat lunch. That does not mean that I slept in this morning. It also does not mean that I wouldn’t like Thai food – quite to the contrary: I love Thai food.

No, I had the impression this morning that I should feel hunger today: Physically and spiritually. Many other young people did not eat either. We need to feel the hunger when we reflect on the prayer “Give us today our daily bread”.

We are to have compassion and take action. Even is this act of compassion is very small. But without it – our communion would be meaningless.

Without hunger, how can we say “Give us today our daily bread”?

Bishop Younan’s report is true. As long as hungry people exist, we cannot go to heaven but we stay in hell.

Therefore, as youth in the Asian Lutheran communion, we recommend to all churches:

Give spiritual guidance to young people

Be compassionate to the hungry

and let’s pray together “Give us today our daily bread.”

Quando sento parlare del FIAT G.55 Centauro mi si illuminano gli occhi. Amo questo caccia, e ancora di piu’ amo discuterne con appassionati stranieri di aviazione, come Dan Zoernig, l’autore di questa art:

click to enlarge – (http://www.danzoernig.com)

Quelli della Seconda Guerra Mondiale furono senz’altro tempi bui, tuttavia all’epoca riuscivamo a produrre *anche* gioiellini come i caccia della serie 5. Dagli anni cinquanta  in poi gli unici aerei da combattimento che abbiamo concepito sono stati degli onesti CBR come il G.91 e l’AMX (quest’ultimo in collaborazione con il Brasile). Forse sarebbe stato meglio seguire la strada del LWF, invece d’incaponirci con i caccia-bombardieri-ricognitori…

In the past, even shortly after the Reformation was kick-started by Luther, the Reformation period wasn’t all that rosy.  Followers of Luther’s doctrinal beliefs began to persecute the Anabaptists because they had other ideas of how far the Reformation should go.  This persecution in Lutheran lands lasted for many decades, if not centuries.  The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has made a courageous moved that requires some humility.  The LWF has offered an official apology of the wrongs on behalf of Lutherans around the world.  Here’s the LWI Council Press Release:

GENEVA, 26 October 2009 (LWI) – The Council of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has approved a statement that prepares for a significant action of reconciliation with churches of the Anabaptist family.

With this endorsement, the statement “Action on the Legacy of Lutheran Persecution of ‘Anabaptists’” is recommended for adoption at the July 2010 LWF Eleventh Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany. The statement expresses “deep regret and sorrow” for the legacy of violent persecution of Anabaptists, and especially for the ways in which Lutheran reformers supported this persecution with theological arguments. It asks forgiveness, “from God and from our Mennonite sisters and brothers,” for these past wrongs and also for the ways in which later Lutherans have forgotten or ignored this persecution and have continued to describe Anabaptists in misleading and damaging ways.  Read on…

While reading church history, I remember feeling how Anabaptists must have felt during the time of the Reformation. It was not necessarily a time of wonderful change but also a time of hurt and pain felt by many Anabaptists.  An apology is a bold move.  Way to go!

This year’s meeting of the LWF council ended on Tuesday. Here are a few important decisions from the perspective of young people. (For a full overview please click here):

New General Secretary

Rev Martin Junge has been elected as General Secretary of the LWF. He is going to assume his responsibilities in the later half of 2010.  Martin is currently area secretary for Latin America and the Carri bean. He was himself youth delegate to the LWF Assembly in Curitiba 1990.

Mennonites

The Council recommends the LWF assembly next year to ask the Mennonites for forgiveness for the atrocities Lutherans called for and committed during the Reformation era. This is a very important process that moves ecumenism forward.

Renewal of the LWF

The council made clear that strong youth contributions belong to a renewed LWF.  It resolved that two members-at-large will be part of the LWF Executive Committee. These probably will be young people. Currently, there is no young person in the LWF Executive committee. Furthermore, the council called for a clear and comprehensive gender and youth policy.

Active against climate change

The LWF council passed a resolution with clear demands for the Copenhagen Summit in December. In addition, the participants of  the council came together in demanding to get down to 350 parts per million Carbondioxide in the atmosphere.

(c) LWF/Groetsch

Per qualche oscura ragione non sono mai stato un grande fan del “bug“. Alla fine pero’ bisogna riconoscere che questo caccia polivalente si e’ rivelato un vero asso pigliatutto, e dopo oltre tre decenni si e’ fatto beffa dei detrattori mandando a casa tutti gli aerei d’attacco e difesa d’aerea della US Naval Aviation. Tomcat incluso. E poi voglio dire… un caccia imbarcato che riesce a far breccia nel mercato Elvetico non e’ cosa di tutti i giorni

Questa tabellina mostra la genesi dell’Hornet, dai primi schizzi del Northrop N-300 fino al caccia leggero YF-17 Cobra.

click to enlarge

This is a post by LWF intern Tsion Alemayehu:

Putting together a blog is not easy – I realized that when I worked at the new Blog of the Lutheran World Federation/ Women in Church and Society (WICAS). I am an intern in LWF/WICAS desk and I have been working here for eight months now. Tsion Alemayehu is my name and I come from Ethiopia. I studied law for my first degree and right after my graduation I got the chance to work as an intern in LWF/ Geneva and I immediately moved out from Ethiopia.

I know how to use the internet or some programs on a computer, but Blogging is the first time for me. I found it interesting and fun.

The blog that I am working on  is designed to encourage women to post their experience, faith, stories , food justice and a lot more in relation to the Assembly theme of LWF which is “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”. You can find the blog following here.

As a young woman, and also a person who comes from a developing country, I know what food really means for hungry people. The right to food was first recognized in 1948 in the universal declaration of human rights. It stated: “all people are entitled to adequate food that is sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable.”  A government has the obligation to fulfill the need of his people for appropriate and quality food. But this is not what is happening around the world.

Control of food production, distribution and consumption contributes to men’s and women’s power and social positions, and Women are not given equal access to resources like men are. Especially these days where the financial crisis is affecting the world economy, women and children particularly girls are the hardest hit.

Churches also have to take measures to bring food justice and people’s  access to the use of resources equally.

The Assembly theme will motivate and invite women and men to discuses and write what they experience on food justice and access to adequate food that is sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally acceptable.

I invite young men and women to comment and contribute your life experience, your understanding on the fourth petition of Lord’s Prayer, stories that you think is related with the Assembly theme and also other things like quotes, examples, poems and so on.

The BBC is currently conducting a global challenge. They produced short introduction videos about projects around the world. We are all invited to vote for one of them to win the challenge.

In fact, this year there is one of the project where LWF is a partner. It is the “Barefoot college” in India. It trains women from around the world in solar energy engneering. This way, it has a double effect:

• Renewable energy is promoted which brings people energy while also fighting climate change.
• Women are empowered and their gifts get recognition in their communities.

If you like the idea, vote for it here.

There are just 76 days left, it says on the website tcktcktck.org. Then the world leaders should have made a deal on climate change. A binding agreement that would limit the emission of carbondioxide and several other issues. 76 days.

I am really not a climate change expert. But it is an issue that defines our time and here are my reasons why:

• If climate change is human-made (and most evidence points to exactly that), we have the potential to destroy the planet as we know it – or to do better. It is the choice of humanity.
• It is also very much a justice issue. The countries and people who are responsible for climate change (mainly those in the North) are going to feel the effects the last. However, those in the south who have not contributed at all to major climate gas consumption – they suffer the most; today already with an increasing number of droughts.
• Climate change is the direct effect of a devastating development model: To want more and more all the time.
• At the core, climate change is a spiritual issue. How are we dealing with what the creator gave to us?

Most people agree on these points and 76 days major politicians will have a word on it. But what is my role in all of that. I’ll offer a few ideas:

• Check your climate foot print. Especially for people in the North it is very illuminating to learn how much everybody contributes to climate change. You can do that here.
• Raise your voice. At the very least join a major global campaign like tcktcktck.org. It is a platform bringing together many organizations like the World Council of Churches in order to unite people in demanding real change.
• Bring people together. Last year, we had a seminar in Tanzania on climate change. The result was a toolkit that youth groups, sunday school teams and other church groups can use to discuss climate change. (Unfortunately, we have run out of print copies. But you can use the pdf here.)

How do you and your youth group respond to climate change? Tell your story in the comments section to inspire others. 76 days…

The Lutheran World Federation wants to introduce a new website. The beta-version is now ready for testing! You would help very much if you could go to here in order to test.

Please give then feedback by clicking on the red space in the upper left corner. You would help the colleagues very much if you respond to a few questions…

The Lutheran World Federation’s Department for Mission and Development Youth desk is having a consultation on youth participation in decision making at the John Knox center in Geneva, Switzerland. Young people from LWF member churches in Brazil, Nigeria, Canada, Estonia, Singapore and Sweden have come together to explore how Churches in the Lutheran Communion could better integrate the youth in decision making.

And so here we are, youths from all the ends of the earth, coming together to discuss and discover the theological, practical and renovating aspects of youth participation in decision making. What exactly is youth participation in decision making? What does this mean for me as a young person in the Church? In which way is it meaningful for my congregation? my Synod? my Church? The worldwide Lutheran communion? … one may ask oneself.

Youth participation in decision making is in fact the different ways of involving and allowing youth to have their say about Church issues and speak out about youth issues.

Participating in decision making may be as simple and informal as wearing a t-shirt saying « prevent HIV and AIDS» . But it can also involve writing a structured report to convince decision makers to build a youth center.

The consultation on youth participation in decision making provides a space to discuss our experiences in our different, yet similar Churches. Different visions and understanding of youth participation in decision making are shared, how it has been and could be even more meaningful to us as youth.

Yesterday, I sat down with Mindy Yeo, the youth coordinator of the Jurong Christian Church in Singapore, and she shared with me how youth activities are meaningful for her congregation but somehow detached from other congregations. Youth presence is not always very evident at the national level. Mindy explained that chances to meet and discuss needs or share information are rare but needed for youths to speak out in one voice. « It would be very nice if youth leaders from different congregations mobilized together to see how youth can take part and be empowered to speak up on different issues » Mindy affirmed.

Youths are one of the many members of the body of Christ. As all members, they play an essential role in maintaining, voicing and developing the mission of the Church.

Written by  Tsiry Endor RAKOTO from Madagascar, youth intern at the LWF Office for Communication Services.

Archives can be fascinating. Recently, I have been reading some reports about the Youth Convention of the Lutheran World Federation 1952 in Hanover, Germany. A major feature of the meeting were reports from all participants from different countries. They all speak about how young people participate in the life of their churches.

Also today, young people are very active participants in their churches around the world. They are highly involved in diakonia and education, in preaching the good news of Jesus Christ both in word and deed. However, there is one contribution of young people that is quite often under-developed: Young people can help their churches to make better decisions.

While young people are highly involved in so many aspects of the life of the church, quite often they are under-represented in decision-making. This is a problem for at least two reasons:

- Theologically: Jesus Christ is the head of the church. But in Lutheran understanding, discerning his leadership is not just the privelge of a few but of the entire assembly around word and sacrament; it is duty and privilege of all the baptized. And that includes in most Lutheran churches definitely the young people.

- Practically: The world is getting evermore complex and churches need a reality check. Who could do that better than young people who are the focal point of change in most societies. Young people have the antennas to detect the change that is at hand.

Young people in decision making is a strategic priority for the Youth Desk of the Lutheran World Federation. From 27 August – 1 September a small group of young people is meeting in Geneva in order to propose to the member churches in the Lutheran World Federation how to move forward with youth participation in decision making.

The objectives of the process (that does not end on 1 September) are:

• Identifying and developing creative approaches and best practices to youth participation.
• Discussing theological approaches to understanding youth participation
• Testing and further developing new ways of youth participation in pilot churches in every region
• Publicizing the findings and encourage other churches to implement the findings in their context.

The participants have already started their work and shared a short report of the situation of their churches in regard to youth participation with each other.

You can read it here (as pdf):

• Brazil
• Canada
• Estonia
• Nigeria
• Singapore
• Sweden

We are trying to keep you updated on the process throughout. So, at the end of next week, you will be able to read much more on the process. In the meantime, we are always happy to hear from you: Your experiences and your ideas.

What is “mission” today?
For some, it is quite a loaded word: Missionaries going to other parts of the world in order to propagate Western ideas.
For others “mission” describes the natural way of every Christian to speak happily about her or his faith.
Still for others, mission is not a human activity but God is the one who in a mission becomes flesh and reconciles the world with Godself. We can only participate in this mission (cf. the LWF understanding of mission).

Whatever you think about mission: You can join an exciting global conversation.
Christians from all parts of the world and from most Christian traditions are coming together in Global process discussing “Witnessing Christ today”. It is an anniversary process remembering an very important Mission Conference in 1910 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Young people can join this process in several ways:

• Online Consultation: Discussing with other around the world about your understanding of mission.
• Writing Contest: People who have to contribute something can write an article and be invited to the main conference in June 2010 in Edinburgh
• Multimedia Contest: Whoever wants to present their mission project can make a short film or another installation and send it in.

There is more to come about Edinburgh 2010. I’ll keep you posted!

Participants of the European LWF Global Training for Young Leaders

A contribution by Daan Leker and Moritz Gräper:

„Seigneur, nous arrivons…“

Today was already departure-day. Nine young adults from all over Europe (Sweden, France, Slovakia, Chech Republic, Finnland, Poland, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Germany) had been together for one week. No one knew what to expect!

During the week we shared thoughts, ideas, passions and problems. We supported each other in developing projects for our local contexts, wich was the goal oft he LWF young Leadership Course. And got to know each others cultures.  One thing is for sure: Time just flew by.

The LWF program was divided into different phases. After we had gotten to know each other better, we started by analyzing our views on our home context, to sharpen our goals and talk about things that need change.

In between working on our projects we also had bible studies wich where presented to us in interactive ways. We discovered about the gender differences between our cultures and learned how to speak as apostles. Which was really interesting. During the week it was really good to see that everyone one was entitled to their own opinions and was able to speak freely! We also had worship every day, which we all prepared. We learned songs in French, German, Swedish, Russian and all the other languages. This was a bit difficult sometimes. And we played games in the morning to wake up, most of which included paper towels.

We were exposed to Russian diakonal work in a soup kitchen to get a feeling of social issues in Moscow. We helped passing out soup, salad and tea to 60 to 80 year olds. These people came tot he soup kitchen almost every other day and from all over Moscow. It was impressive to see and it really made an impact on all of us to see that these people, who al ready have a whole life behind them, didnt have enough money to eat. It was a an impressive day.

The kitchen was run by an Etheopian man who had been in Russia since the eighties. Younger volunteers from Cameroon and also Nigeria helped out. After this deep real-life experience we got into, we started the next day to go into ourselves in order to discover our passion and formulate a vision. It was so precious hearing what’s really going on inside of every one!

The most challenging part was probably to move from the big ideas of our vision to a certain project that would make sense in our own communities, being realistic about sources, budget and people. Many of us experienced quiet a crisis. Goals that where to big, SMART goals that we didn’t fully understand. Preparing the presentations which we had to do on the last day, without computer! An example of some oft he projects we will be working on fort he next ten months are:

-        Setting up classes for young people in wich they’ll learn to discover themselves and try to give them direction in their lives.

-        Setting up an international program in a congregation.

-        Setting up youth services within in a congregation.

-        Setting up youth meetings and give English lessons to young people.

For us it was very helpful to hear one an others opinions. We usually got up between 7:30 and 8 am and went to bed at around 1 or 2 am! There was simply so much interesting things to talk about, lots of work, tommy emmanuel videos on youtube.com, table tennis matches (Joanna beat us all), playing volleyball with some Russians, having coffee, and so on.

Thank you to everyone who participated (Yana, Sanna, Johanna, Daan, Nastia, Katariina, Milan, Martin), thank you Roger, thank you Yana and Dmitry! You all made this trip so precious!

Moritz & Daan

Here is the second contribution (here is the first one) of Rebekka Højmark Jensen who currently attends the meeting of Aids 2031:

“The AIDS2031 Youth Summit is rolling on its second day. I am on the working group discussing how we can create safe spaces for youth HIV positive people. Spaces to talk, grieve, cry, scream, or simply just to be. One of the main solutions, as we see it, is to address schools, government and religious communities to secure that there will be safe spaces in the local environment. I find it devastating how many people have been excluded from there religious community because their status as HIV positives was revealed. Most of all this keeps people, who are actually religious, away from practicing their religion, from celebrating their life as given by God and from listening to the Gospel that tells us that God walks with us on our journey in life. This also creates a great ditch between the churhces and the HIV/AIDS organisations. The dialogue is extreemly challenged because the confidence between people living with HIV and the churches has been broken. I hope that in 2031, the inclusion of people living with whatever type of illness will be normal in religious communities all over the world. The ways to get there are many. First of all, I think we should see the other person as a person before anything else.

This Youth Summit is also a step on the way. It takes many aspects into account and will result in some very concrete plans for how to approach the issues of stigma and discrimination towards young positive people from now on and untill 2031.”

Aids 2031 is a global coalition that wants to make sure that there a real changes in the global fight against the virus. Currently, a small conference of young leaders is taking place in Oslo, Norway.

The website says: “aids2031, in collaboration with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNAIDS Goodwill Ambassador HRH Crown Princess Mette-Marit, will hold a 2nd Young Leaders Summit in Oslo 23-25 June, 2009 to unite young leaders in the ongoing fight against AIDS related stigma and discrimination.”

On behalf of the Lutheran World Federation Rebekka Højmark Jensen, a young Lutheran theologian from Denmark is taking part in the conference. She writes:

“2031 is the year when HIV and AIDS has been with us for 50 years. The AIDS2031 is about what we have to do now to change the face of the pandemic in 2031. I came to the Youth Summit arranged by the consortium behind AIDS2031 with open ears to hear what the challenges are among the young people living with HIV today. The meeting started this morning, and already I am full of impressions. One person at my own age telling about being the only person in her family who is not positive which is why she can travel to Norway for this conference. Another girl, ten years younger than me, who was born with HIV and has had to live with heavy discrimination and stigmatisation since childhood. Others who spent a fortune on AIDS work because funding is not available for youth work.

Tomorrow we will discuss some solutions to carry forward. It will be demanding and productive because everyone is here to gain and give.”

Here is a report on the leadership conference of the LWF member churches in Latin America and the Carrabean that took place at the beginning of May. Hellen Rios Carrillo has written it. She is one of the young delegates to the LWF General Assembly in 2010:

Al llegar e incluso antes de venir al evento de COP/COL me sentía con mucho entusiasmo porque venían mas jóvenes a ser parte del grupo; pero nerviosa porque era mi primera participación en un evento así.

Entusiasmada porque pude vivir de cerca la experiencia del  Entrenamiento Global de jóvenes lideres de la región de la América que tuvo sede en Nicaragua y sentir como la FLM  se esta preocupando por formar e incluir a los/as  jóvenes en las actividades de toma de decisión, y poder compartir las experiencias, de representar a la comunidad joven de nuestras iglesias.

Ahora que me encuentro en el Perú estoy mucho mas entusiasmada porque parte de las delegadas de Latinoamérica  en la COP/COL somos mujeres y JÓVENES que iremos a representar a América Latina en la próxima Asamblea de la FLM. Esto ha sido algo que me ha llenado de alegría y compartida por el resto de chicas, que en una  de las conversaciones bromeábamos con una frase: “Mujeres al poder”, porque en verdad nos encanta  este paso de equilibrar mas la asistencia e incluir mas a los jóvenes y mujeres y valorar así, de forma positiva nuestra participación y aportes. Los/as jóvenes empezamos a sentirnos sujetos dentro de la FLM.

Quizá para algunas de nosotras algunos de los temas y las discusiones tratadas resultaron un poco complejas (porque incluso para algunos adultos lo son) y optamos por escuchar atentamente a aquellos(as) hermanos(as) que tenían mas experiencia, pero creo que eso es parte de nuestro  proceso de aprendizaje, parte de ir reconociendo el trabajo que se hace desde arriba y darnos una idea del gran esfuerzo que se hace en conjunto de compartir y ser parte importante de los desafíos y logros de todas nuestras iglesias hermanas.

El 18 de mayo los jóvenes tendremos una consulta en línea, y el tema principal es la Renovación de la FLM, gracias a que tratamos el tema aquí pude comprender mejor y tener mas herramientas para aportar a la consulta. Tendremos la oportunidad de proponer, como dice la consulta, desde nuestra perspectiva de jóvenes.

Visitamos una comunidad en la región de Lurin y pudimos observar el trabajo que ahí se realiza, esto me acerco mucho a la realidad de las comunidades de mi país, ya que la cotidianidad a veces no nos permite valorar en toda su dimensión el esfuerzo que nuestros pueblos  hacen por subsistir y salir adelante, esta visita me permitió apreciar en la lejanía el trabajo de las comunidades donde mi iglesia tiene incidencia viendo logros similares en otro país. Fue interesante el sentimiento de “visitante” y no parte de la comunidad.

Agradezco esta oportunidad de poder participar y poder aportar desde nuestra percepción de jóvenes nuestras experiencias. Resulta valiosísimo para nosotras ya que nos hacen parte activa en la comunión de Iglesias Luteranas; pero sobre todo porque se nos considera capaces de aportar y de aprender.