{"id":330710,"date":"2017-12-27T16:29:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T15:29:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdev.flars.net\/a-culture-of-togetherness-becomes-clear\/"},"modified":"2017-12-27T16:29:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T15:29:01","slug":"a-culture-of-togetherness-becomes-clear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/a-culture-of-togetherness-becomes-clear\/","title":{"rendered":"A Culture of Togetherness becomes clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday, December 9th, YMCA-Building in Wuerzburg: about 100 people from nearly 50 initiatives, communities and movements – which are active in Germany and connected in the network Together for Europe – <\/em>come together for their annual national meeting. \u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“Together \u2013 how otherwise?\u201d This is the headline that summarizes for me for what we experienced on this day in W\u00fcrzburg. Such a long way travelled together that has brought out what unites us and how much power reconciled togetherness has! \u201cIndeed a \u201eCulture of Togetherness\u201c becomes clear, and I wish with all of my heart that it may gain ground in our communities, in our country and in the whole of Europe\u201d. That was how, Sr. Nicole Grochowina from Christusbruderschaft Selbitz summarized her impression of the day. And she continued: \u201cTherefore I am fully in favor of continuing to visit each other and go beyond our borders; we should find new friends in east and west and go on to shape togetherness throughout Europe \u2013 and be enriched by this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Theme of the Day<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Besides a review of experiences in Together for Europe<\/em> 18 years after it began, this year the question about the future way forward for the ecumenical network was the focus of our shared thinking.<\/p>\n

\u201eUnity among the people of God is a challenge for the future of Together for Europe<\/em>, especially on how east and west Europe can come together more\u201d, Gerhard Pross reported from the recent meeting of the European group of \u201cFriends\u201d of Together for Europe<\/em> in Vienna<\/u>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Experience of Togetherness<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Many of the participants spontaneously reported about their positive experiences during the commemorations of the 500th<\/sup> anniversary of the reformation. There were also good experiences with \u201cPrayer for Europe\u201d on the occasion of 60th<\/sup> anniversary of the Treaties of Rome and after the Reconciliation Service between the Protestant and Catholic Church in Hildesheim. Roswitha Fuerg, from the Focolare-Movement in Solingen was \u201eimpressed by the openness and depth in Together for Europe<\/em> that has grown over the years\u201d. \u00a0The spontaneous reports of the participants showed how God leads people of different denominations and communities to get involved in this work for unity in many places\u201c.<\/p>\n

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<\/h6>\n
Fruits of Together for Europe after 18 years<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Using the image of a growing tree, Sr. M. Vernita Weiss from the Sch\u00f6nstatt Movement made us envisage the fruits of Together for Europe<\/em> after 18 years. She mentioned the deep roots from which a fruitful tree for the unity of Europe has grown and is growing.<\/p>\n

Europe in the midst of challenges \u2013 A Culture of Togetherness<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Regarding a Europe facing a lot of challenges from the political point of view, Gerhard Pross considered the task of Together for Europe<\/em> first of all as living togetherness and mainly involving oneself in prayer for Europe.\u00a0 But a discernment of spirits is also required. \u201eAt a time, when the old negative spirits that led Europe repeatedly into disasters are coming up again, we say our No to nationalism and state more clearly our Yes to the Gospel, to reconciliation and to love (\u2026). We say Yes to a culture of relationships and covenants \u2013 No to simplistic and ‘one size fits all’ solutions. (see also the address by Gerhard Pross in Rom, 24.3.2017<\/u>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Steps towards the Future<\/strong><\/h6>\n

Regarding the next steps, the participants shared the suggestions which had been developed during the annual meeting of the \u201cFriends\u201d of Together for Europe<\/em> in Vienna.<\/u><\/a>\u00a0Especially highlighted were for example, encounters and mutual opportunities to meet and get to know each other with partners in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the idea to plan May 9th<\/sup> (already considered Europe Day) in 2018 and 2019 as a \u201cTogether for Europe Day\u201d in the cities and regions.<\/p>\n

\u201eWe felt a deep atmosphere of mutual appreciation and respect, but also of truth\u201c, said Elisabeth and Hans-Georg Hagmann from Sch\u00f6nstatt movement describing their impressions. Johannes Golling, Leader of Julius-Schniewind-Haus e.V. (house of spirituality), summed up his experience of the day: \u201eMeeting and visiting each other, making friends, listening to each other and being open to what is holy for the other person \u2013 that developed a dynamic exchange in the past which was illustrated today by plenty of examples\u201d.<\/p>\n

See also the detailed report on the German homepage>\u00a0 <\/u><\/a><\/p>\n

Text and photo: Heinrich Brehm <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, December 9th, YMCA-Building in Wuerzburg: about 100 people from nearly 50 initiatives, communities and movements – which are active in Germany and connected in the network Together for Europe – come together for their annual national meeting. \u00a0 “Together \u2013 how otherwise?\u201d This is the headline that summarizes for me for what we experienced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":289278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Building Unity: Together for Europe's Journey","_seopress_titles_desc":"Join the movement fostering unity in Europe! Discover insights from the Together for Europe network meeting on December 9th in W\u00fcrzburg.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-330710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}