CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
Austria: the “religions village” The Austrian Scouts youth organization this year celebrates its 100th anniversary. For the occasion some 7,000 Scouts aged 10-20 from 25 European, Asian, African and American Countries will gather in Laxenburg on August 2 to 12. This year, for the first time the event will host a “Religions Village”. Six Austrian Churches and faith communities – Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists – will present their life of faith to the young, along with the religious practices, major holidays, rites and faith tenets. The purpose of the “Village” is to enable the youth to acknowledge the multi-religious contribution. In separate areas each religion or religious confession will convey relative “information” with audiovisuals and music; proposing workshops, moments of prayer and related initiatives for the young scouts. Information centres for religious or confessional organizations and for social initiatives are also on the program. On August 5 a “Religious musical evening” will take place with Christian chants, gospels, Sufi and Klesmer music. A panel lecture dedicated to “The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion” with the director of Caritas Vienna Michael Landau, and with Michael Chalupka from the Protestant charity Diakonie, is also on the agenda. Lecturers will be delivered also by Orthodox and Muslim speakers. Austria’s Federal President, personalities and “ex-Scouts” will visit the camp on August 10.France: the Orthodox youth festival “Mask-off: man, who are you?” This is the theme chosen for this year’s “Orthodox Youth Festival” due to be held September 17-19 in Essonne, France, at the “Notre Dame de l’Ouye” abbey featuring walks, round tables and workshops. Like every year the Festival will bring together the members of different Orthodox youth movements in France and abroad. Syndesmos and Orthodox Christian Youth UK are among the most renowned. This year – states the presentation of the event – the Festival has chosen to reappraise Socrates’ famous saying ‘To know yourself’ “with Orthodox eyes, without taboos, exhaustively and in humbleness”. In brief, the youth will be encouraged to undertake a journey of reflection whose destination is the discovery of their “Divine filiation”, enabling them to be “coherent and authentic” and understand that “faith can help overcome our weaknesses”. Bulgaria: the visit of Patriarch BartholomewDuring a visit to the Church of Bulgaria ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew met in Sofia on July 19 Bulgarian president Georgi Parvanov who expressed his full support for the reopening of the Theological School of Halki and thanked the ecumenical patriarchate for its commitment for the unity of the Bulgarian Church and for having contributed to the liberation of Bulgarian prisoners in Libya. Patriarch Bartholomew congratulated his guest for the adhesion of the Country, with an Orthodox majority population, to the European Union and for the harmonious Church-State cooperation in Bulgaria. The two personalities highlighted the rebirth of Orthodoxy in Bulgaria in post-communist era, marked by the construction of numerous churches and ecclesial institutions and by the believers’ strong participation to the life of the Church. In the Bulgarian capital the previous day the Ecumenical Patriarch met with Patriarch Maxim, in the Patriarchal S. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral to the presence of the members of the hierarchy and of the Emigration Minister. Patriarch Maxim congratulated Patriarch Bartholomew for the Honoris Causa Degree presented by the Medicine University in Philippoupolis and for his commitment for Orthodox Church unity. Patriarch Bartholomew said the tribute received in Philippoupolis and Sofia are “signs of love, respect and gratitude towards the Ecumenical Patriarchate on behalf of the Bulgarian population”.Italy: looking forward to an “ecumenical future” The 47th session of SAE (Ecumenical Activity Secretariat) took place in Chianciano Terme, central Italy. This year’s theme is “Dreaming communion, building dialogue. One hundred years of ecumenical hope”. “We believe that the centenary of the Edinburgh conference couldn’t pass unnoticed – said SAE president Meo Gnocchi -. And not for celebrative purposes, but in order to reflect upon the fundamental inspiration underlying this movement, to recover attention to our present times, to envisage the future on the basis of this recollection”. Valdese theologian Gioachino Pistone added: “It is important to acknowledge that we aren’t building from nothing but that we are following a path and we repose on solid foundations. This is an occasion that cannot be missed. We are not building a hut on the beach but a skyscraper of which we have already reached the seventh and eighth floors.
