{"id":354148,"date":"2026-11-05T16:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/?p=354148"},"modified":"2026-11-05T16:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:48:16","slug":"oaks-of-righteousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/oaks-of-righteousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Oaks of Righteousness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Christian legal professionals together<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">W\u00fcrzburg, 5 December 2015: Martin Franke and Martin Ondrejka <em>(Christ und Jurist Germany<\/em>), and Felix B\u00f6llmann <em>(Alliance Defending Freedom International)<\/em> took part in the national meeting of <em>Together for Europe<\/em>-Germany. On that occasion, *Christ und Jurist* expressed its desire to walk alongside other Christian organisations on the continent, recognising that communion between different charisms and vocations offers a fruitful way of bearing witness to the Gospel in the professional world.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since then, this initiative has developed and taken root, fostering relationships, collaborations and new initiatives. One of the most significant outcomes of this journey is this event, which brought together 170 legal professionals from various European countries and was organised by The Lawyers\u2019 Christian Fellowship UK, Christ und Jurist Germany and Christ und Jurist Austria, with the support of Alliance Defending Freedom International.<\/p>\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>At the service of the common good<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thanks to the <strong><em>Together for Europe<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0network, a meeting took place between the Focolare Movement\u2019s \u2018<em>Communion and Law\u2019<\/em> group and \u2018<em>Christ und Jurist Germany\u2019<\/em>, a meeting which gave rise to bonds of friendship and collaboration. The conference in Horn, in fact, proved to be a concrete expression of communion, dialogue and shared witness amongst Christians working in the legal profession.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an age marked by divisions, wars and individualism, the experience of communion amongst professionals rooted in Christ has emerged as a genuine missionary calling: to serve the common good through the law and to contribute to the growth of a Europe faithful to its Christian roots, as Jeff Fountain (<strong><em>Schuman Centre for European Studies<\/em><\/strong>, Netherlands) emphasised. It is from these roots, in fact, that the fundamental principles of the protection of human dignity, religious freedom and respect for differences have sprung.<\/p>\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Friendship and prayer<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those days of intense work were also days of friendship, serenity and mutual support; days of shared prayer amongst legal professionals from different Christian Churches who, through the richness of their varied forms of invocation and praise, brought to life the image of \u2018many flowers in God\u2019s garden\u2019. These were days in which time seemed to slow down, making way for listening, for sharing our struggles and for mutual encouragement. This experience has enriched not only the legal profession, but above all the people involved. Our thinking is renewed when it is shaped by the Word of God put into practice, for men and women transformed by the Gospel can become a genuine force for renewal throughout society.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Elisabetta Scomazzon<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lawyers rooted in Christ, planted across Europe \u2013 this was the title of an international conference, \u2018Oaks of Righteousness. Lawyers Rooted in Christ, Planted Across Europe\u2019, held from 24 to 27 September 2026 in Horn, near Vienna, Austria <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":354157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2435,3136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiences-reflections-and-interviews","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354148","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\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354148"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354154,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354148\/revisions\/354154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.together4europe.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}