The last weekend of July was full of celebrations for the Ökumenische Initiative Eine Welt, Germany. We had many reasons for it: the sun was shining for us while we could finally meet in person again during our annual conference. And then it was also Earth Charter day and the city of Warburg had its 10th anniversary of signing the Earth Charter. More than enough opportunities to organize some unique days.
Annual Conference – Encounters with Future
After almost two years that we could not have our annual conference, we met again in Germete, a beautiful village in the middle of Germany. We knew that after such a long time we would need a different sort of conference and therefore opened up the room for reflecting on the development of our organizations. We ended up discussing topics like ‘The meaning of spirituality and ethics for the great transformation’, ‘Environment and climate – why do we want to save our planet?’ or ‘Our collaborations with other organizations and initiatives. It was an emotional time, full of laughter and fruitful conversations.
Earth Charter Festival Warburg
During the pandemic, our organization initiated a monthly online meeting for people around Warburg to organize some activities in the region. What this group of volunteers did was incredible! Not only did they invite the former environmental minister Klaus Töpfer for a podium discussion, they also had a movie night, theatre, concerts, and drawing for kids. Besides all of that, our ambassadors went to the schools and gave Earth Charter workshops to the children there, making lemonade out of local herbs or learning the different calls of birds.
More Exciting Activities lie Ahead!
Now we are getting ready for the upcoming months! In July, August and September, we will train new Earth Charter ambassadors, facilitate some workshops for children, and then of course we will start the application process to send our volunteers out to discover Europe as part of the NEEDS projects. We are excited to soon meet all European partners and go on this journey together!