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...........IN THE BEGINNING...........
ENYA TEAM
Every history is a personal history, whether we admit it or not, whether we are conscious of it or not, every history cannot be but, a subjective narration of events, feelings, memories, experiences... all of which shape our present and future. We therefore cannot talk about this years work without talking about last years work. Each seminar builds on the previous ones. My first ‘ENYA’ seminar in 1995, broke at least two records in my life. It was the only trip up to now, which I prepared for just within 24 hours, my travel agent had to open his office on a Saturday evening for my sake to sell me the tickets - and the second record is related to the fact, that at the seminar I established some of the deepest relationships in my life. There are some experiences in life, that one cannot find words to describe easily, even if one is a linguist, which I happen to be! The first seminar was certainly one of those experiences. My feelings are too profound to capture in this kind of forward. I can, however tell you a little about the so called hard facts. Towards the end of this seminar, after having spent a good time in communion with each other -- and now I especially remember a prayer meeting with candles that we held in the public garden in the middle of night in the middle of Prague. We, some of us, at least, felt that now we could not just go back on our own way as before. We could not ignore the strong bond of friendship established between us. And we came up with at least two solutions. While at lunch, three of us from Malta, Czech Republic and Finland (later joined by Ireland bringing together North, South, East and West), decided to set up our own ecumenical correspondence group. Each of us agreed to find a circle of friends back at home and each group would write to each others’ groups regularly every two months on the same date. The intention of the meeting and the subsequent letters was to get to know each other better, and to reflect upon and discuss Christian and ecumenical issues. And for almost two years our correspondence was a success.Also at this seminar, the Ecumenical Network for Youth Action was established ("Youth in a Uniting --- Divided Europe"); September 1995). The organising Committee was chosen and the Coordinators. I believe that ENYA has a very good programme of events that could good a long way in helping young people, and not so young people; educationally culturally and spiritually. It certainly has been my experience as a participant in two of the training seminars in 1995 and 1996 and as an organiser of the seminar in Malta in March 1997 on Christian Education. I am sure that all the many participants of the events run by ENYA would also agreed with me. Towards to future, I wish us all a very productive future. If I have started this forward on a very personal and emotional note, it is because I believe that this is what unity and ENYA is all about. It is about us, as emotional beings who continually learn to appreciate each other better, and who also want to be together. May God be with us.”
Antoinette Camilleri (Malta) exerpt from the 1997 ENYA Annual Report.
ECUMENICAL NETWORK
FOR YOUTH ACTION
U NAS 9
CZ - 147 00 PRAGUE 4
CZECH REPUBLIC
TEL / FAX: 420 241483743
E-MAIL: cejenya@vol.cz
ENDORSERS:
Dr. Konrad Raiser (DE)
Carol Abel (WAL)
Midge Beguin Austin (US/CH)
Metropolitan Krystof (CZ)
Rev. Celia Matthews (SCOT)
Lord Eames (GB)
Rev. Dr. Johnston McMaster (N.IRL)
Dr. Reinhild Traitler-Espiritu (AT/CH)
Ruth Clark (GB),
Dr. Svetlana Aslanyan (AM)
CO-COORDINATORS:
Jana Krajcirkova (CZ)
Eva Mikulecka (CZ)
Cath Moss (CA/N.IRL)
CO-CHAIRPERSONS:
Giorgi Agladze (GE)
Shejla Finani (MK)
CO-TREASURERS:
Ira Kuzymchak (UA)
Jana Klepkova (CZ)
COORDINATING TEAM:
Vardine Grigoryan (AM)
Hristina Hristova (BG)
Lyubov Georgieva (BG)
Elena Zenkevitch (BY)
Marianne Robinson (CA)
Zuzanna Plevova (CZ)
Vija Vanaga (LV)
Helen Gugushvili (GE)
Eka Tsereteli (GE)
Adem Ademi (MK)
Shejla Fidani (MK)
Angie Farrugia (MT)
Giovanni Buttigieg (MT)
Milica Petrovic (SR)
Sonya Kecmanovic (SR)
Djerdji Erdes (SR)
Andrea Siposova (SK)
Natalia Stupnytska-Gorbal (UA)
STAFF TEAM:
Erika Binderová (CZ)
Markéta Poulíãková (CZ)
Zuzanna Plevová (CZ)
Gabriela Federlova (CZ)
and Co-coordinators
COUNTRY CODE GUIDE
A very wise man - the late Joseph Campbell - once said that the greatest challenge to this generation is to think globally. Not like CNN. It’s not an easy thing sometimes, you can experience an identity crisis, or you don’t know where you roots are. It’s not easy as well, because thinking globally means acting globally. Let me quote from the aims of ENYA in its constitution: “The network promotes a common identity and encourages the building of koinonia, by working for the unity of the Church and humanity.” That is the first step in thinking globally, transgressing the boundaries of one’s locality, region or nation. Why do I say all this? Because we are living in times of tremendous changes, and we don’t know where they are going to take us; we are on the threshold of a new era, and the only way we can be sure to prepare ourselves is by thinking globally. In our programmes we have dealt with some really tough problems and issues from national identity and nationalism, the conflicts in Northern Ireland, reconciliation processes, the questions and our concern for refugees, Christian Education in the schools and parishes, the ideal of a democratic and civil society, harmonising in an inharmonic Europe, women’s issues, trafficking of women, children and youth, to mention a few. And as we were confronted by each of these and other realities, we came to realise how inter-related we are, and how interconnected these issues are. The questions of nationality and nationalism, boundaries and territories, cultures and languages, are questions intricately linked to our being human; who am I? What do I stand for? Where do I come from? Transgressing the boundaries means searching for what is human in each of us. Only then can we carry with pride the cultural and national heritage we have received; when we perceive our humanity.
Through ENYA, we as youth and those not so young, have had the opportunity to articulate our views on many pressing subjects and topics, as well as had the opportunity to work in internships or scholarships related to these issues. We have an obligation to envision a future in which there is a just and sustainable partnership with ourselves and with mother earth. What will our role be in the ‘new’ and somewhat frightening Europe? Where do we find unity? How do we contend with this new and overpowering religion called the market economy? What is our solidarity with those in the poorer countries who are getting each day more poorer, as a few of us become much richer? How do we - not just as Europeans, but as Christians address social issues. And perhaps more pressing still, how do we address spiritual issues? How do we integrate our past - both humanist and bloody into our common future?
We have a real opportunity for a peaceful and just Europe that would prove all warmongering wrong. But as long as economic interests power the motor for European integration, unity will not exist. As long as there are privileged and underprivileged regions and people, there will be no unity. We have to strive within the European Union countries, as well as within the OECD countries for a democracy for all people, that includes rights for minorities and those from other continents living in Europe. Our commitments, lifestyles, values and our future should not be left to politicians, transnational corporations or the media. It is extremely important that the people’s organisations play an active part in the construction of Europe, and that they aim to construct a common vision amongst themselves. People’s organisations can do great deal on a local, grass roots level, but they will have to join and share resources with other organisations, otherwise they will have no weight in decision making. It is a question of power, and we must start to acknowledge, although our Eastern and Central European partners may see it differently, that power and our subjugation to it - has long been transferred from the political arena to the economic arena. We must strive for a Europe that doesn’t become an instrument of power. A united Europe can be an example - it should not be a threat. But as a Filipino, I see the developments in Europe (and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere) more as a threat than anything else.
You may think that these things, this geopolitical thinking doesn’t concern us, but it does. We as a Christian grass roots movement, and as a people’s organisation have something that formally institutionalised bodies don’t have; we have the possibility to be a source of hope and innovative change in the changing world. Looking at history, it is virtually impossible that institutions, political, economic or religious, change themselves for altruistic reasons. It is often small groups of people who gave the impetus for change through their vision, ideas and action. For as the Brazilian liberation theologian Frei Betto says, “the opposite of our hate is not our love, it is our belief.” Belief has the power to change and work for alternatives. This is why we should show our solidarity with all those who believe in a more just and equitable world, with possibilities for everyone. Thinking globally includes new ways of communication and a new understanding of the problematics of our time: what concerns you, concerns me too, because we live in the same house, just in different rooms. My suffering is your suffering.
Only when we understand what it means to have to flee death and persecution, to leave behind, everything we love and cherish, will we know what it is to be a refugee. Only when we realise the systematic injustices in Europe, in the other continents and in our own countries, will we know the significance and responsibilities we have in being nationals of those countries. Only when we become conscious of the fact that we are abusing and killing mother earth will we know our own true worth as human beings.
In our work over the past years, we hope that we have been able to invite young and older, children and youth, women and men, clergy and lay, to gain new insights into what it means to be a human being; as a species that needs to radically redefine its role in the world and its relationship with itself and the environment. I hope others have gained new insights into what it has meant to be a European, or African or Asian; but especially for those of us from Western Europe. We are not only the cradle of democracy, but we also carry the burden of 500 years of subjugation, ethnocide, genocide, terror, mass warfare, environmental destruction and hypocrisy. Looking towards the future and coming up to the 21st century, I hope that those of us involved in ENYA and within the whole of the ecumenical movement, will continue to gain new insights into what it means to be Christian, but we need to remember that the Church has rarely been on the side of the oppressed and has yet to redeem itself from committing or justifying terrible crimes; hate, murder and oppression of the most innocent, except during those short periods when it was not in a position of power. I want finish this reflection to our first Annual report, with a verse from the Bible, Mark 10:42-45. “So Jesus called unto them and said: ‘You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognise as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you; but whoever so wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be the first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of the Lord came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Sascha Traitler-Espirita (an Austrian/Filipino living in Switzerland) exerpt from the 1997 ENYA Annual Report.
Page Updated on:
Friday, August 15, 2008