Dear Members, Friends and Supporters,
After a long hiatus the next edition of the European Forum Rainbow Report is here!
In this one, we announce the motto for our upcoming conference in the Netherlands, and also look at what our various working groups were up to during the last few months, and take a look at some publications (text and audio) from people connected with the European Forum.
We wish you a blessed Christmas time and we hope to meet you/connect with you in the New Year at our Conference or elsewhere.
Thank you for your support. As always, you can like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram for more regular updates.
Blessings,
The European Forum team
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In Christ there is no East nor West - Motto of our upcoming Forum
Our next annual conference will take place on 10–14 May 2023 in Venlo, The Netherlands. Our location will be Kasteel De Berkt.
This 42nd annual conference will be the first at which Eastern European and Central Asia groups will come together with the main European Forum conference with the theme – ‘In Christ there is no East nor West’ – an opportunity to bring LGBT Christians from across Europe to build new bridges and create a space for the transformation of conflict.
Registration for the conference will open very soon, watch out for more information and the registration link on our website and social media accounts!
We will try to make the whole conference bilingual (English and Russian) and as part of this effort we also translated this announcement to Russian.
Следующая конференция ЛГБТ-христиан пройдет с 10 по 14 мая 2023 года в Венло, Нидерланды.
42-я ежегодная конференция станет первой конференцией, на которой группы из Восточной Европы и Центральной Азии объединятся с конференцией Европейского Форума. Тема конференции — «Во Христе нет ни Востока, ни Запада», и это возможность собрать ЛГБТ-христиан со всей Европы, построить новые мосты сотрудничества и создать пространство для трансформации конфликта.
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Rainbow Pilgrims of Faith at the World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) held their meeting in Karlsruhe, Germany in September 2022. The WCC working group of the European Forum has been preparing for this event for years with partners for all around the world as part of the Rainbow Pilgrims of Faith project and they were very active at the events surrounding WCC.
which tells 28 personal stories from queer persons of faith from all around the world! It is available in 10 languages including French, German, Russian and Spanish.
You can also read a report about our participation in Karlsruhe on our website, written by our former co-president and now LGBTI minister of the Protestant Church of Amsterdam, Wielie Elhorst.
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Priceless Podcast Series
We already featured the Priceless Podcast in our previous newsletter, produced by Mihael from Croatia in partnership with the European Forum. Since then, Mihael has been working tirelessly to deliver more stories of LGBT+ people of faith from Europe and also to talk about a wide range of topics concerning our community, among them bisexuality, polyamory, disability and queerness, being an out gay pastor, just to name a few. But if you are more the audiovisual type, you can also learn about our work at the WCC (mentioned above) from the latest episode.
The podcast now has more than 40 episodes, all of them engaging and informative, typically between 30-60 min long, but there is also a shortened version for many of them if you have less time. You can find it on most podcast platforms (search for 'The Priceless Podcast') or view the video version from our youtube playlists (full episodes or short versions).
Please listen in, it is worth your time!
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One of the latest episodes of The Priceless Podcast is about the European Forum itself! Get to know us a bit better by watching this 15-min video!
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Our Roman Catholic Church Working Group and the Synodal Path
The first stage of the current synod of the Roman Catholic Church – www.synod.va – finished by submission of statements of participants from all around the world. The RCC Working group of the European Forum has also submitted a statement to the Vatican addressing various experiences among the European participants and raising proposals for action to the future synodal consultations.
Representatives of the RCC WG continue to work for inclusion of LGBT+ Catholics in the synodal process which has been recently extended by the pope by a year, till 2024. If you want to get involved or share your synodal experience, do get in touch with the secretary of the group, Miroslav Maťavka of Slovakia.
You can find the full RCC WG Synodal statement 2022 here.
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