From the 23rd to the 24th June 2012, marked the summit of the European Interfaith Youth Network summit in Lillehammer, Norway where I was present representing JECI-MIEC.
The opening session was moderated by Julia Maria Koszewska were we had the opening remarks and an informational video about the network followed by an Introduction by the participants and presentations of the organizations and their work.
The EIYN activity report, since the last Summit in Warsaw 2011 was presented to the members present and discussed into detail. After was the launching the EIYN website by Daniela Malec, EIYN Program and Development Consultant.
Stein Villumstad, General Secretary of European Council of Religious Leaders (ECRL) presented and gave an overview of the theme “Toward action for Europe as a peace project” which was a very deep and thoughtful session. The campaigns of Religions for Peace were also put on the table. Such campaigns are the “Water campaign” and “Restoring Dignity”.
After Lunch we had the workshop on “The Dignity of Women – Scriptural Reflections” and the planning EIYN’s involvements in the RfP campaigns followed by a discussion and formulation of strategy.
The second session was titled “From building structure to action” which included the Warsaw declaration follow up with the main 4 themes Education, Economy, Media, Ecology. I participated in the Media working group where the role of media with regards to the Interfaith dialogue was discussed and how the main stakeholders can be better informed while on the other hand, the people be educated in perceiving the media message.
The summit was concluded with the discussion about the EIYN at Religions for Peace World Assembly in Qatar and the planning EIYN action strategy – discussion and work in groups.
The assembly of member organizations at the summit of EIYN, took many important decisions – all representatives of member organizations wanted to strengthen mutual cooperation and networking between the members of the network and took some decisions on how to do it.