by Beatriz Lauenroth | May 11, 2023 | News
Together for Europe at the ecumenical Festival for young people in Timisoara, Romania, 1 – 7 May 2023
“Tonight, a dream of mine has come true. You brought with you the message of peace to Timisoara.” This is what the Roman Catholic Bishop of Timisoara, József-Csaba Pál, movingly stated to the 300 young people gathered in the Banatul Philharmonic after the concert of the Gen Verde International Ensemble on the final evening of the Ecumenical Youth Festival. Romania, a land so battered by dictatorship and communism in the past, welcomes the message of Christian love in Timisoara with an open heart as a response to today’s challenges.
‘Walking all together in the light of Christ’
Young people aged 14 to 25 had come from all over Romania and, among others, from Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Poland to celebrate in Timisoara, one of the cultural capitals of Europe in 2023. For the week from 1 to 7 May 2023, the young people had chosen the title ‘Walking all together in the light of Christ’. One of the highlights of the festival was the ecumenical procession with candles – also attended by the citizens of Timisoara – to four churches of various denominations (Greek-Catholic, Reformed, Orthodox and Roman-Catholic) in the centre of Timisoara. A Ukrainian Orthodox girl affirmed: “I never experienced such a wide dimension of Church”.
Workshop ‘Seek God in the City’
Be the change… be the change you want to see around you. This was the invitation to the young people that linked all the cultural and musical exchanges, short lectures and discussions. As part of the official festival programme – in agreement with the local young people – Together for Europe (TfE) offered the workshop ‘Seek God in the City’, that is, how to change the secular city into a ‘city of God’. The speakers, Hans-Martin Samietz (Schönstatt Movement) and Herbert Lauenroth (Focolare Movement) from the TfE Steering Committee proposed various approaches as to how the Word of God can inspire change and penetrate people’s lives on a spiritual, social, cultural, intellectual and political level. The 100 young people present at the workshop exchanged their ideas on how to build the ideal city, e.g. by listening more to each other, praying together and a communication that points to the positive and therefore – why not? – with ideas for making a film showing the city ‘of my dreams’. A common element in all participants was the yearning for peace that begins in the heart of each one.
Download the programme>>
Meeting ‘Friends of TfE‘ in Timisoara
Now Together for Europe is preparing for the ‘Friends’ meeting scheduled for 16 to 18 November 2023 in Timisoara. The city is optimal for the ideals of TfE because of its ecumenical and cultural openness. This was experienced during the Ecumenical Youth Festival in May 2023.
Beatriz Lauenroth
For further information and photos: https://www.facebook.com
by Sr. Nicole Grochowina | May 7, 2023 | 2023 Europe Day, News
Warm invitation! For Europe’s Day
May 10th, 19:00 CET, by Zoom:
one hour of meeting and prayer – and it’s all in English.
Communities and Movements in Timisoara have invited Together for Europe to the November meeting of its friends. Moreover, Timisoara is the European cultural capital of Europe in 2023.
And: Timisoara has a long history of unity and reconciliation with all the accompanying happiness, but also with the corresponding challenges.
Young people from Timisoara, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal pray with us: one hour – one encounter. Be part of it!
Called to unity – living in diversity
Time: May 10, 2023 07:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, Vienna
https://fau.zoom.us/j/61128116535?pwd=V2d2VmdHNndhdFM0eXFYNUo1bHRwQT09
Meeting-ID: 611 2811 6535
Kenncode: 001766
Download the Flyer>>
Sr. Nicole Grochowina
by TogetherforEurope | Mar 30, 2023 | News
Creating spaces for relationships and dialogue in Europe: to bear witness to reciprocity between nations and to the dynamism of love, rooted in the Gospel. We plan our journey toward “Called to unity”, our November 2023 appointment in Timisoara (Romania).
Europe seen and ‘lived’ today from the perspective of Christian communities; the challenge of the many polarisations, the scourge of war at the heart of the continent. Many topics were discussed at the two-day meeting of the Steering Committee of Together for Europe (TfE) which was held in Munich from 22 to 24 March.
Faced with Europe’s enormous and manifold cultural, social and political challenges, the Christian communities of TfE start afresh from the principles of reciprocity and dialogue, as Herbert Lauenroth of the Steering Committee emphasised when he outlined what path to tread in this ‘post-secular’ era: “(…) we must enter the frontier spaces, together; witnessing Christ in our midst, in the midst of the world”. He went on to describe the need in Europe for places where conflict is welcomed as a constructive and even a unifying part, where the encounter between people and with God takes place; where that reciprocity that does not abolish differences, but redeems them, can be found.
“Called to unity”: toward Timisoara 2023
This year Timisoara (Romania) is the European Capital of Culture, and the Roman Catholic bishop there, Bishop Josef-Csaba Pal, invited TfE to bring its testimony as bridge-builders between Christians of different Churches.
Work will now begin on the programme for the event. Margaret Karram, President of the Focolare Movement, proposed to make visible the ‘fragments of fraternity’ that are already in place in the city and make them come alive for the participants. A meeting, therefore, that highlights what the various groups, parishes and associations do for the city and for those who suffer most. “Today’s imperative is dialogue, encounter, ‘togetherness'”, concluded Margaret Karram. And Jésus Morán, Co-President of the Focolare Movement, stated: “In this way, the TfE event in Timisoara will sow seeds of hope, of brotherhood that is not only European but universal”.
Our next appointments
1 – 7 May 2023, Timisoara (Romania) – “Walking together in the light of Christ”, an ecumenical festival for young people (16 – 30 years old). Registrations are still open.
Info and booking: >>
To participate StartNow, the concert and workshop with the musical band Gen Verde: >>
16 – 18 November 2023, Timisoara (Romania) – “Called to unity -Together in Timisoara”, the annual appointment of the “Friends of Together for Europe”.
Stefania Tanesini and Beatriz Lauenroth
Photo: Stefania Tanesini, Cornelia K. Brand, Diego Goller
by TogetherforEurope | Mar 30, 2023 | 2023 Europe Day, News
Preparing for 9th May, Europe Day with the “Our Father”
The itinerary is 9 days of prayer (a novena) to implore the Holy Spirit on our Continent.
Why a Novena? In the last four years we embarked on a six-week prayer journey to prepare for Europe Day on May 9th. However, for 2023, we had the idea of praying for nine days.
The oldest novena in Christianity is the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost, when the apostles, together with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, received the Holy Spirit.
This year we would like to invite you to pray the novena together throughout Europe, for our Continent and for all the intentions of our network!
The novena was prepared together by Sr. Lioba Ruprecht (Schoenstatt) and Thomas Roemer (YMCA Munich).
Every day we will pray in particular for some European nations.
Beatriz Lauenroth
Download here the novena in English>>
Download here the novena in Ukrainian>>
Download here the novena in czech>>
by Diego Goller | Mar 18, 2023 | News
Gathering of the People of God. It is cold in Rome on the morning of 15 March…
… but the sky is clear and the sun provides some warmth. It is very early: we walk toward the Vatican. We are a group of about 60 persons from various Churches, representatives of Episcopal Conferences, Congregations, Movements and Communities, young and not so young, laypersons, priests, consecrated religious, all of us following Brother Alois and some brothers from the Ecumenical Community of Taizé, with the presence of Sr. Nathalie Becquart, Under-Secretary of the Synod of Bishops. This is the third time this group has come together and for three days we have worked together, in plenaries and in 10 commissions, to prepare Together2023.
An original initiative
This is an original initiative, the only one of its kind so far, promoted by Taizé: to prayerfully support the Synod of the Roman Catholic Church on Synodality, whose first session is scheduled for 4-29 October 2023. All Christians, from every Church and Community are invited to this event, especially young people.
The event consists of a day – 30 September 2023 – filled with a wide variety of initiatives; the culmination will be an evening Prayer Vigil in St. Peter’s Square. Pope Francis and Church leaders are expected to attend. It is intended to be a plea from all God’s people for graces for the participants of the Synod, who will be dealing with the central theme of Synodality.
Pope Francis meets us
We quickly enter the Vatican via side entrances and soon find ourselves in a small room prepared especially for us. The Bishop of Rome was not long in coming; he was visibly pleased to meet our group and, in the absence of a text, improvised a few thoughts interwoven with personal memories. His esteem for Brother Alois and his courage is evident; his faith in walking together, which makes unity greater than differences, is great. It is about loving one another, working together as Christians, asking for the presence of the Holy Spirit: it is He who creates unity and harmony.
We leave this meeting with joy in our hearts and a commitment to walk together with many other Christians – in Rome on 30 September and everywhere else.
Info at: www.together2023.net
Diego Goller
Photo: Alice Montrucchio; large photo, from left: Diego Goller, Frère Alois Löser, Sr Nathalie Becquart, Giuseppe Del Coiro
by Beatriz Lauenroth | Mar 8, 2023 | News
Through Project DialogUE, Together for Europe held an international meeting online
On 3 March 2023, Together for Europe held an international meeting online. 240 participants from Western and Eastern European countries showed a great interest in the topic Dialogue. Five introductory themes were presented, and these were punctuated by several lived-out experiences.
Lutheran Bishop Christian Krause, former President of the Lutheran World Federation, shared his long experience and broad view of Church relations. Gerhard Pross, Esslingen YMCA and current moderator, explained the genesis and founding ideas of Together for Europe. Pross spoke about our ecumenical network from the perspective of dialogue between persons and communities. Sr. Nicole Grochowina, Christusbruderschaft Selbitz, in her contribution expounded that Dialog braucht Geschwisterlichkeit [Dialogue needs fraternity], that is, fraternity is a prerequisite for dialogue and unity. Walter Kriechbaum, evangelical pastor of the Munich YMCA, gave a testimony of his rich experience in the dialogue between West and East and – last but not least – Lucia Fronza, Focolare Movement, former member of the Italian Parliament, gave some insights into the political perspective of Together for Europe.
The questions from the audience to the speakers were complex and “each one would first of all require a personal encounter with mutual listening”, as Kriechbaum put it. To the question of how to make the experience of Together for Europe more visible in Europe and also transmitted to young people, Sr. Nicole responded as follows in chat: “We cannot make the experience of unity visible to young people. What really matters is that young people themselves have access to such experiences. So, we ought to offer them opportunities for these, wherever and whenever we can.”
At the request of the webinar participants, in the coming months we will publish the five reflections on our website. In this way, the dialogue with the speakers can continue.
Beatriz Lauenroth
