Colloquium2014 – Participants Call - JECI

Brussels, 26th August 2014
CALL FOR
PARTICIPANTS
FOR THE JECI-MIEC COLLOQUIUM
“YOUNG CHRISTIANS AND SEXUALITY
IN THE 21st CENTURY’S EUROPE”
–
“THE CHOICE OF OUR LIFESTYLE”
5th – 12th OCTOBER 2014
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]
To: All Organizations and Federations of the European Coordination JECI-MIEC
We have the great pleasure to invite your organization to nominate candidates for the JECI-MIEC
Colloquium “Young Christians and Sexuality in the 21st Century’s Europe” – “The Choice of
our lifestyle”, which is taking place in the Educational Centre for Blind in Laski, Warsaw
from 5th – 12th October 2014 (including arrival and departure day).
The Colloquium is designed for members of the organizations. This means that participants in
the meeting should be actively involved in projects at national / local level or to be members of the
national / local board of the organization. Participants should have a good knowledge about their
National Organization, be motivated towards the given subject and be willing / able to function as
multipliers back in their organizations.
Moreover, participants have to
be young people (students), active members of their National Organizations;
be 15-30 years old;
be able to work and communicate in English;
be motivated to participate actively in the Colloquium;
be willing to transmit their experience and the outcomes of the Colloquium to their National
Organizations;
be able to participate for the whole duration of the activity.
In order to apply for this activity, you have to fill-in the application form (you can find it together
with this document or download from our website at www.jeci-miec.eu) and sent it by email
([email protected]) from the national office of your organization (official email address). The
deadline for receiving the applications is the 5th September 2014. After receiving the
applications we will inform your movement of the participants confirmed and we will send them the
“Participants’ Info-Pack”.
A Colloquium
• Gathers 40 young people engaged on local, regional or national level in different European
youth organizations (among them around 30 from JECI-MIEC) to share their experiences and
reflections around a subject of common concern. It is held every three years.
• Promotes exchange on the work and engagement of the participants and their organizations
and to deepen their knowledge about each other.
• Analyses different aspects of a social, political or cultural theme coming from a diversity of
viewpoints and backgrounds in a European perspective.
• Initiates common formation processes around a subject in an inter-organizational, interconfessional and inter-cultural context.
• Develops common reflections about the possibilities and motivations of young people to
engage in Society and the common challenges arising from the theme for them and their
organizations.
• Defines possible lines of action for the concrete reality on all levels (local-national-European),
by encouraging collaboration as an important dimension of changes.
The Colloquium addresses both secondary and university student leaders from different European
countries.
This Colloquium is financed by the European Youth Foundation (EYF) regularly alternating with other
typical activities of the European Coordination JECI-MIEC.
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]
What is our Colloquium about?
Understanding of sexuality in 21st century’s Europe is diverse – as the debates and controversies
are. Although Europe’s history and culture has been profoundly shaped by Christian values, European
secular societies are nowadays facing the “challenge”, that to the tradition of living in a two-sexeslifestyle there are many more options, which might even will have their role to play as it regards the
demographic development of future Europe. Especially as secular positions towards sexuality meet
faith-based (and particularly Christian) convictions and beliefs, debates and discussions tend to
become inevitable: Some topics such as sexual orientation, marriage and divorce concern particular
lifestyles, while others such as contraception and abortion even have controversial ethical
implications. Most recently topics such as pedophilia and sexual abuse within Church have been
subjected to strong criticism globally. What does this have to do with young people in Europe?
The European Coordination JECI-MIEC is a platform of secondary and university students in
Europe who share their common identity as Catholic believers. Taking into account contemporary
developments, it is clear that apart from morals and values concerning sexuality also Christianity in
itself has further developed. Different world-views and debates on what is, can or should be allowed
in one’s sexual life do not only come up between Church and secular society, but exist also within the
community of Christian and especially Catholic believers in Europe and beyond. To give an example:
“What is in the eyes of a Catholic student better? A committed homosexual partnership or a ‘proper’
marriage where there is disrespect and violence?” As recognizable from this question, decisions on
(especially one’s own) sexuality need to be taken individually, consciously, respectful and responsibly
– even if there for sure exist collective catalogues of values from several secular and religious
instances.
Our colloquium therefore aims at raising awareness about the diversity existing among secular
societies and Christians in Europe as it regards the topic sexuality and the reality of young people
(SEE), to enable the participants of this colloquium to take their decisions on their sexuality more
consciously and without prejudices or discrimination (JUDGE) and to make society aware of the
results of these reflections (ACT).
Out of the variety of topics and issues existing, JECI-MIEC decided upon the following fields of
interests to be addressed during the colloquium:
1) sexual orientation: particularly topics such as heterosexuality, homosexuality, transgender
and queer-theory;
2) sexuality and responsibilities: particularly pregnancy, abortion, contraception;
3) decisions and life-styles such as traditional family models and alternative concepts existing;
4) sexual disorders such as pedophilia;
5) sexual abuse within Church as a current global debate relevant to both believers and nonbelievers.
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]
What do we want to achieve with our Colloquium?
The aim of this colloquium can be understood as a contribution to better understanding sexuality
as a central dimension of human life and society from a two-fold perspective (both from a secular
and religious point of view) and with both a decision and action guiding impact as it regards young
individuals and society in Europe.
This aim has its starting point from the following needs of young Europeans:
• the need to live a responsible life in accordance with one’s own conscious decisions about
sexuality and respectful towards the conscious decisions of other people (especially those we
share an everyday-life with);
• the need to overcome ignorance, prejudices, discrimination and hate speech related to one’s
sexuality, sexual orientation or choice of lifestyle;
• the need of open, respectful and constructive dialogue between defenders of conflicting
positions and about inevitable issues related to sexuality.
Furthermore these needs correspond to the following needs within society:
• the need of society to be informed and made aware of what young people in Europe think
about sexuality and about controversial issues related to this topic;
• the need of young people serving as good examples for the next generation of youth building
our societies.
The aim of the colloquium can therefore be differentiated into the following objectives:
• to analyse the current realities concerning the topic and to give the participants an overview
of the Catholic Church’s teaching on human sexuality as well as about alternative lifestyles
existing in order to make them understand what can be meant by expressing one’s own
sexuality;
• to overcome prejudices towards each other’s convictions and to decrease existing
discriminatory behaviour through the encounter with different understandings enabling the
participants to take an individual, conscious decision about their own lifestyle which is also
compatible with their own spirituality;
• to design and implement individual or joint actions to multiply and tie back to society what
has been learned throughout the colloquium both at the activity itself and in the local
realities after the activity.
How did the idea for our Colloquium come about?
For sure, sexuality is an important part of human life and especially concerns nowadays’ young
people – especially in Europe. For our coordination, the need to speak about the sensitive topic of
sexuality expressed itself throughout several of our activities in the past, where there came up
serious controversies and conflicting opinions between participants. A climax was reached in 2010 at
the EYF supported summer week “Learning to live in MY/YOURrope”: The discussions revealed to us
as coordination once more the existing diversity of what is understood by Catholicism as it regards
the particular topic of sexuality and that the existing opinions on it cannot be simply generalized by
labeling positions into “west/liberal” or “east/conservative”. As we realized, the issues at stake are far
more complex: Our members, while not all agreeing with every part of the official Catholic Church’s
teaching on sexuality are yet reluctant to dismiss everything taught on that topic by the Church.
Especially contemporary controversies (e.g. cases of sexual abuse) and criticism (as it regards
contraception, role of women, homosexuality, divorces etc.) the Catholic Church is facing make our
membership deeply concerned and profoundly contributed to the willingness to address the topic
within a European activity. In September 2012 the participants of our EYF supported study session
“The students’ role in a European society – ‘Identifying who we are’” brought up the topic again to
be included in our coordination’s orientation guidelines 2012-2016. As it was a decision of the
following European Committee 2012, the delegates had the courage to bring the topic finally up in an
activity. Though Christian faith can be considered as an element that ties Europe together historically
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]
and culturally, we believe that at European level an irreplaceable diversity of opinions towards the
topic “sexuality” is faced, which does not necessarily exist at the national or local level of our
coordination: What is as a position maybe taken for granted at a national level is questioned when
put into a European context. Without the European diversity at an international gathering the need
to discuss would not necessarily come up at all. In order to have the diversity graspable for the
participants, we chose the local reality of Ukraine where the colloquium was originally going to take
place, since the topic “sexuality” proved itself most recently as an indeed controversial one through
the attempt to organize the so called “Kyiv Pride” in 2012, which was cancelled by the activists
themselves after having faced certain restrictions.
CONDITIONS OF THE COLLOQUIUM
Travel Expenses:
According to our Reimbursement System, the travel expenses of the participants will be 90%1
reimbursed, according to the following criteria:
Participants must necessarily attend more than 80% of the activity;
Originals or copies of ALL travel tickets indicating the price, as well as (when available) a
copy of its invoice/receipt, must be provided;
The following travel costs of the participant from his/her permanent residence to the activity
venue are considered: Plane tickets for APEX-price – for distance above 750 km; Train tickets
(2nd class) – for distance less than 750 km;
Local public transport (tram, bus, metro, train…) – (!!!NOT Taxi!!!).
Notes:
-
When travelling by train, participants must get two-way tickets and make use of all kind of
reductions (student, <26 card…);
When travelling by plane, participants must hand in their boarding passes as a proof of
travel;
Participants whose travel costs exceed 500 EUR need to inform the European Coordination
JECI-MIEC before booking;
Participants should not write on the original receipts! Explanations should be made on an
additional paper.
1
Depending on the number of participants, it might result in raising the participants' contribution to their
travel costs to 20%.
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]
Participation-Fee:
Participants will have to pay a participation-fee (please, consult the list below), which will be
deducted from the travel reimbursements.
Such list was defined in a solidarity basis and updated in 2013, according to the Gross Domestic
Product per capita, Purchasing Power Parity and Human Development Index of the country.
Participation fees for JECI-MIEC organizations (in Euro):
Albania
70
Italy
Austria
260
Lithuania
Azerbaijan
70
Luxembourg
Belarus
70
Macedonia, FYR
Belgium
260
Malta
Bosnia and Herzegovina 70
Moldova
Croatia
120
Poland 2
Cyprus
170
Portugal
Czech Republic
170
Romania
Denmark
260
Slovakia
France
260
Slovenia
Germany
260
Spain
Greece
170
Switzerland
Hungary
120
Ukraine
Ireland
260
United Kingdom
260
120
260
70
170
70
120
170
70
170
170
260
260
70
260
If your country is not in the list, please write the European Coordination at [email protected] to ask
the participation fee.
The payment or reimbursement (depending on the difference between travel expenses and
inscription fee) will be done during the activity, being the operations in Euro. In case your
inscription fee is higher than the travel expenses, please make sure the participants will have enough
cash for the payment.
We remind that this system strongly takes in consideration that participants are attending the
meeting as members of a national organization. Therefore, we raise awareness for the fact that the
role of the organizations in supporting / encouraging participation in the meeting must be reinforced.
Before purchasing your ticket, ensure that your candidature was accepted by the
organizers.
Note: In any case financial matters should not be a reason for non-participation. Please
let us know if any problem and we will find common solution.
Further Information:
For any further information, please contact the European Coordinator via e-mail: [email protected]
or by phone (mobile): +4915782671939
2
Participants from the Polish member organization are exempted from the participation fee as they are the
hosting organization.
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]
WE HOPE TO HAVE A LOT OF PARTICIPANTS – ESPECIALLY FROM ORGANIZATIONS
THAT ARE NOT SO OFTEN PRESENT IN THE ACTIVITIES.
With best regards,
Maximilian Niessen
Laura-Ioana Sopon
Eirini Freri
Anna Holodnytska
Maximilian Niessen
Rev. Dr. Markus Wasserfuhr
Romana Mysula
Eirini Freri
Preparatory Team
JECI-MIEC European Team
Coordination Européenne JECI-MIEC European Coordination
www.jeci-miec.eu [email protected]