Mozaik 33/2014 Invisible Slavery: Human Trafficking in Europe PART 1

Ecumenical Journal, 2014/Solidarity

Invisible Slavery: Human Trafficking in Europe

World Student Christian Federation Europe Region

Mozaik (established in 1992) is the ecumenical journal of the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF, 1895) Europe Region, published two to three times a year. It aims to reflect the wide variety of opinions and viewpoints present among the different Student Christian Movements (SCMs) in ecumenical dialogue. You can find us Online at wscf-europe.org.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Editor-in-Chief:

Pawel Pustelnik (Cardiff, United Kingdom)

Editor:

Miro Pastorek (Púchov, Slovakia)

Art Editor:

Mária Bradovková (Vranov nad Topľou, Slovakia)

Address:

WSCF Europe

Storkower Straße 158 #710 D-10407

Berlin, Germany

ISSN 1019–7389

Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

― Proverbs 31:8-9

Slavery and freedom cannot exist together.

― Ernestine Rose

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

― Galatians 3:28

By the Wolfgangsee.

In the last years, we have been approaching very diverse topics in Mozaik. The issue of human trafficking is probably one of the bitterest. With this Spring edition we are following up the conference Invisible Slavery: Human Trafficking in Europe that took part in Sankt Gilgen, Austria in October 2013. During six days in the Austrian countryside the participants tried to understand what human trafficking, prostitution and invisible slavery is. The deeper we were engaging in the discussions, the more the surreal nightmare of human trafficking was becoming unexplainable. We hope to invite you to a personal reflection about the themes we are looking at. What is your responsibility with regards to the victims of human trafficking? Do you think that prostitution is a regular job as any other?

Sankt Gilgen brought also plenty of new people to the European Regional Committee (ERC). The conference was followed by the European Regional Assembly. Its participants managed to envisage a path that WSCF-E should follow for the next two years. In this issue you can read a piece by Zuzka Babicova, the new Chairperson. Zuzka explains her vision and creates space for both seasoned SCMers and those who became interested in our work only recently. Very warm welcome to the new ERC members!

With this Mozaik my service as the Editor-in-Chief comes to an end. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who I encountered in my WSCF journey that was one of the most enriching, eye-opening and enjoyable in my life. My special thanks go to the people I worked very closely with: the Office Interns Jill Piebiak and Miro Pastorek and four Regional Secretaries: Jooa Vuorinen, David Masters, Katka Babicova and Hans Hommens. Infinite thanks to the European Regional Committees I was privileged to work with and to the WSCF Global Office. I wish all the Federation many great initiatives in the coming years!

The next journey of WSCF-E through my eyes

Sex: Gift or Sin?

Book Review: the Bible, love and homosexuality

- Pawel Pustelnik

3 | Resources Workshop: Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

– Mirjam Meindl, Clemens Brilla

Creative worship

What was being a PrepCom member like?

– James Jackson

Challenge yourself and run a conference!

– Agnieszka Amelia Lisiecka

My start in the ERC with travelling to South Korea, Seoul

– Annika Foltin

- Zuzka Babicova

- JoAnne Lam

Paulius Sakalauskas

The next journey of WSCF-E through my eyes

First, I would like to say a few words to you about my own personal journey with WSCF-E. It was first in Central European Subregion of WSCF-E and later in Europe region where my journey with WSCF-E began around six years ago. All these years have been very edifying thanks to people I was meeting and experiences that were leaving marks. During past two years I was involved in WSCF Europe as Theology and Higher Education and Culture Coordinator as well as ViceChair. With leaving of Sofie Bonde Eriksen, the former Chairperson who led WSCF-E very wisely over 20112013 and with whom I had a great pleasure to work with, I decided to apply for the position of Chairperson. In October 2013 I was elected thanks to ERA delegates who expressed their trust and hope for realization of ideas that I feel WSCF-E could go toward.

WSCF-E as an organisation working toward peace and justice in an international ecumenical environment can have a vast array of causes her leadership can speak for. We can choose different paths to materialize ideas we personally feel passionate about and which SCMs also care about in their own times. That is a beauty of WSCF-E that people with their passions for diverse causes can bring in always a new refreshing breeze.

During a session in St. Gilgen.

Zuzka Babicova

Mozaik 33 I Human Trafficking

GAYANE MURADYAN

The vision I see for WSCF-E is tied to times of Europe being in turmoil between peoples as well as in times when WSCF-E has to be more aware of her self-sustaining needs as an organisation serving SCMs with events. And this vision for both certain thematic direction and internal redevelopment is what I would like to focus on with the ERC, our staff and SCMs during the next years.

What I hope for WSCF-E is to be more engaged in inter-faith dialogue as well as in dialogue with people who are of no faith. We are living in times when walls

between peoples are becoming higher with our diversity becoming greater. Connecting with other people of other faith traditions as well as with people of no faith is an endeavour that WSCF-E can ''take a risk'' to undertake. WSCF-E has already started to be more engaged with other faith organisations through European Interfaith Youth Network (EIYN). In April 2014 it is going to be the second event organized together with other religious organisations which shall bring new experience for WSCF-E as well as our friends from other organisations. It is a really good opportunity for WSCF-E to be part of

The next journey of WSCF-E through my eyes. Zuzka Babicova

WSCF-E OFFICE

the EIYN as this network has gaining members from both religious as well as non-religious organisations who are willing to build bridges with one another. I hope that in the longer term, WSCF-E could develop also an initiative to reach out to non believers (agnostics, atheists and/or humanists) who would be interested in, to put it simply, building friendships. Our connections and friendships may go beyond Christian reference points, however, I believe, they can meet at common values and in our willingness and humility to search for them.

part of all our Christian traditions that we turn to as basis of our spiritualities. Though when WSCF-E meets our experience of prayer and turning to it can be very challenging. It is challenging because of the diversity of ways we have to communicate with God. Our prayers can take myriad forms. When we share prayers with our fellows and include them, it can bring an experience, we may not understand as prayers at all. We may not

And this endeavour is in integrity with our values. WSCF has a dialogical character, which is such an integral and implicit way of going forward for us. If we truly hope for peace and justice, then WSCF-E shall widen her horizons to what may be radically different at the first glance. I think we can move beyond our Christian space whilst still respecting our values. It is rather our mission that may change with needs of our times whilst staying true to our values. As Szabi Nagypal, a former WSCF Executive Committee member put it once when talking about dialogue in WSCF: ''Dialogue takes place also with our fellow pilgrims of other faiths. And ultimately, dialogue is our attitude toward all people of goodwill and openness to the transcendent''1. I hope that our dialogue can be still so fruitful within and beyond our Christianity as well so that we can be that Christian community that attempts to be open to all people.

The second thing I would like to focus on is prayer as such in the life of WSCF-E. Praying is an important

1 Szabolcz, N. “Has the Student Christian Movement a Future?” in Student World Issue 248, 2004.

I wish we all can grow in ourselves an openness to see and hear prayers in forms we have not experienced.

experience prayer as our own when praying happens in certain settings which is different from what we we may not understand as prayers at all. We may not

experience prayer as our own when praying happens in certain settings which is different from what we are used to. That is a difficult situation that a WSCF-E experience will keep putting us in. That is why praying is something which WSCF-E should be striving for to make it a truly welcoming experience for all Christians who gather to pray together. And to provide such a welcoming space we need to have a constant awareness of our internal prayer diversity. I wish we all can grow in ourselves an openness to see and hear prayers in forms we have not experienced. God can make himself revealed to us also at times in the very strange and unfamiliar ways. As our own prayers receive its important place in our spiritual lives, I hope we can approach prayers of our friends in the same way. I wish we can continue to be the community who is mindful of others with whom we pray, and at the same time to be a community of Christians which is open to see the known in an unknown.

The third thing I would like to dedicate more energy too is tied to a rather down to earth matter. WSCF-E is in times when we need to give time to a thoughtful reflection and analysis of WSCF-E finances. We need to do it if we wish that WSCF-E is still an organisation that enables young people from various countries in Europe to be an ecumenical international community that asks herself important questions of the times we live in. Organisational development in the area of raising financial resources should be our particular focus. Only recently WSCF-E has seen a continuous decrease in some regular secured funds. This means that WSCF-E will need to come up with a new way of how to compensate for some lost resources we used to have. Though this may appear as an area most organisations struggle with, for WSCF-E this will become a crucial thing if we are to continue to provide students enough support to be able to travel and gather together and have a chance to be that community many of us have already experienced. I think and believe that all ERC will need to be engaged

What I hope for WSCF-E is to be more engaged in inter-faith dialogue as well as in dialogue with people who are of no faith.

The next journey of WSCF-E through my eyes. Zuzka Babicova

WSCF-E OFFICE

in developing efforts to tackle our sustainability. It is my hope that we will be able to create a more consultative relation with our Senior Friends. Having such support and with more energy dedicated to fundraising I hope we can create more effective ways to realize what we can be for SCMs.

There are truly a lot of areas WSCF-E can engage in, ranging from thematic focus to our internal organisational development. Our next leadership may bring a new energy in other areas. That is a change that our SCMs will choose and the next ERC will bring their own passion that shall sustain next journey of WSCF-E. For the years to come, I hope to do my best to give my passion and energy to areas of inter-faith dialogue, prayer and WSCF-E's financial sustainability.

It has been a few months now working on these things together with really great ERC people. I also hope very much that I as part of the ERC and our staff will have a really very good time working together and supporting one another on this journey in WSCF-E in next years. �

Zuzka Babicova comes from Slovakia where she is living and working now. She did her BA in English and German and she also graduated from the University in Aberdeen in Literature a couple of years ago. She loves literature for studying our human conditions, cooking with friends and family and challenges to any ways of living and thinking. Living both abroad and now in her home country together with WSCF-E en voyage has been a well of great challenges, which she finds positive and she hopes to remain always open to them.

WSCF-E is in times when we need to give time to a thoughtful reflection and analysis of WSCF-E finances.

WSCF-E OFFICE

Sex: Gift or Sin?

JoAnne Lam

The sex trade has been proven to be more than just a phenomenon of distant places. It has been present throughout every time and place. Women, men, and children have become commodities to be traded for sexual pleasures, sexual releases, and the satisfaction of sexual fantasies. What is happening to humanity's needs that individuals have turned to purchasing sex? Are we so lacking in physical intimacy or that we are incapable of maintaining personal relations that one would need to purchase a brief illusion of tenderness and physical connection? What is happening to us when we no longer see the humanity in the "other" but a means to our ends?

The Church has had a fair amount of difficulties dealing with the topic of sexuality. No matter if it is speaking of pre-marital sexual relations, homosexuality, celibacy of priests and nuns, contraceptives, etc., the Church has remained conservative, rigid, unmoving, and elitist. This comment is unfair because it groups ALL expressions of Christianity within this stereotype of inflexibility with regards to human sexuality. However, despite the movement of some denominations, branches of classical and institutional forms of Christianity remain uneasy when dealing with sexual matters.

Human trafficking is a contemporary form of slavery and sex trafficking is a major part of coerced individuals trafficked across borders. In this article, I am not addressing those who have chosen to work in the sex industry. Rather, the pressing issue is the trafficking

The Church may not be comfortable with the topic of sexuality, but we have to move from that spot quickly before our Christian witness no longer is relevant in the world.

of vulnerable people from various countries and circumstances where the individuals have been coerced and promised legitimate work, but to find themselves heavily immersed in a sex trafficking ring. That said, if the Church is to address the issue of human trafficking, it is crucial that the Church becomes comfortable with discussing the nature of sexual relations and its place in society. Sexuality is a part of human nature and without considering this aspect of human needs neglects the necessity to approach humans holistically.

Sex: Gift or Sin? JoAnne Lam

What do the Church and Christians have to say about sex? Opinions spread across a spectrum from treating it as a sinful part of human nature to something as normal as breathing. If we treat sex as a gift from God that allows two individuals to express love and intimacy, sex is beautiful and a natural part of relationships. On the other hand, if sex is to be considered a dirty secret and sinful desires, anything associated with that also becomes unwanted and rejected by the Church.

Theologically, one can perform an exercise of logic to draw some interesting conclusions about what we may believe about sex as Christians. God has created all things and especially brought to life human beings as stewards of the earth. Upon being casted out from Eden, according to Genesis 2, Eve was condemned to painful childbirths, and that thus explains the reproduction process of human beings. However, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, there were mentions of "feet" and "lying together" which then resulted in children. It would almost parallel the childish belief that one would become pregnant through kissing another person. The over-simplifying of the sexual encounters has become a culture in churches where sex is unspoken topic while it is on everyone's minds. At the same time, Mosaic laws governed that those who had an "emission of semen" was required to bathe and remained "unclean" for the rest of the day until evening.

My curiosity wonders if it were the "unclean" state of the man that made the Christian Church assume it meant the individual was "sinful." The parallel between "sin" and "unclean" has been historically an issue in the Church because of such language that "Jesus has washed away my sins" or that one is to be made "pure as snow." Notwithstanding the unhelpful nature of the imagery of

cleanliness with "whiteness" of snow, there is a tradition of associating cleanliness and sinlessness. If one were to connect those dots, would then be sexual desires or sexual acts be associated with sinfulness, which therefore, precludes sex to be sinful as well.

Just as divorcees and homosexuals were stigmatized by the Church at various times, the sexual element of human relationships has remained only superficially explored by the Church. Returning to the point that since

If we treat sex as a gift from God that allows two individuals to express love and intimacy, sex is beautiful and a natural part of relationships.

God has created human being in God's image and that we are divinely designed as we are today. Then, why should one deny the sexual desires of our bodies and souls as long as it complies with the teachings that our bodies is for the glorification of God and are to remain temples of worship? The struggle here is if carnal and sexual experiences can be categorized as the glorification of God and if participating in sexual acts is to maintain our bodies as temples of worship.

I do not have an answer for that, but it is something that faith communities should define for themselves because it is foundational to how this same community reacts to victims of sex trafficking and the global trade of sex. If the Church remains static in treating sex as sinful and those partaking in it must also be sin-ridden, where will the compassion arise and where will the justice emerge for those who have been victimized and commodified for their sexual appeal?

How often have you heard 1 Corinthians 13 read during weddings because it speaks of an unconditional love? That love is agape in the original Greek New Testament text and agape is not the eros that one would associate with romantic love. Instead, agape is the love that God holds for humanity. It is the love that Christ embodied on the cross. It is the love that the Church is called to manifest in its acts of solidarity, walks of peace, and pursuits of justice.

If the Church upholds the agape that flows through the veins of the Body of Christ, Christians' task is to kneel beside those who have been beaten down by trafficking rings, abused and dehumanized through the global web of sex traders, and to offer an out-stretched hand so that Christ's agape may shine through in our compassion and accompaniment. It is a risk to love another but Christ has already taken that risk to love humanity via the cross. Therefore, we are called to bear this symbol of love daily, struggling with the captives towards freedom.

Sex: Gift or Sin? JoAnne Lam

If it is the Church's stance that a celebration of love is to take place in the sanctuary such as wedding rituals, then the Church also has the responsibility to stand against acts that destroys that very understanding and definition of love and intimacy such as in the case of sex trafficking. This requires a greater exploration on the topic of sex by church leaders and the Church's position on the usage of sex as a tool for manipulation and exploitation.

As Christian students, one of the important tasks is to make faith relevant and to bring the Church into society

and the world into the Church. Theologian Karl Barth was quoted in an interview for the Time Magazine to have said, "[I] advised young theologians 'to take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible"1

The biblical message without a context is ineffective. If the Church can establish a clear stance on sex and its role in life, it will also establish its stance on the societal

1 (Time Magazine, Friday, May 31, 1963. Princeton Theological Seminary. http:// www.ptsem.edu/Library/index.aspx?menu1_id=6907&menu2_id=6904&id=8450

Mozaik 33 I Human Trafficking

abuses of human dignities through the exploitation of sex. The Church can be a resounding presence, irritating societal complacency and economical exploitation to reform and to resemble a glimpse of justice and compassion. Jesus stood in solidarity with a prostitute who was being threatened with violence. Are Christians willing to do the same for those who are inhumanely traded for sex and money?

Human trafficking is identified by Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to be a contemporary form of slavery. On the other hand, according to the International Labour Organization, trafficked sex workers do not fall under their mandate because governments have not agreed upon if the sex trade is a legitimate industry or a crime. If sex workers are working under illegal circumstances, they are not protected under labour laws and neither will their working conditions be standardized by international rules and regulations.

At an ILO presentation on migrant workers, it was explained that if it has something to do with an exchange of service for a fee then it is governed within the work of ILO. However, though sex workers are also offering services for a fee, they are not considered to be a concern of ILO, the presenter simply informed me that sex trafficking was the work of the High Commission for Human Rights instead. While individuals involved in the sex trade knowingly do have a choice to refuse participation, human trafficking must include the element of coercion and deception. People who are trafficked are deceived into giving up their freedom and their basic human rights are not respected.

A historical example would be the Korean and Chinese (as well as many others) Comfort Women taken forced into prostitution during the Second World War by the Empire of Japan. They were taken into brothel-like camps and some accounts described the young women's

Sex: Gift or Sin? JoAnne Lam

experiences as being like "toilets" for the men's sexual pleasures. Such is the current experience of trafficked people. Because there is a demand for sex as something to be purchased, bodies are being supplied. Human trafficking is defined by coercion. It is understood that trafficked persons do not have the freedom of choice. However, when desperation pushes a person to choose exploitation for the sake of survival, is that still considered to be a freedom of choice?

To choose is to have more than one option at hand. When one speaks of the freedom to choose, we would assume that there are at least two items from which to choose. If one of those options is not viable, then the situation no longer is fostering a freedom of choice, but rather a "cornering" effect to force the individual to the only feasible option. To choose between "bad" and "worse" is not a freedom of choice;, at least it is neither fair nor just. At the same time, trafficked persons are coerced into believing there is a promise of life where in reality, there would be only abuse and exploitation. In their desolate situations, they could not imagine that life could be worse than their present circumstances. They placed their faith into strangers who offered them life in the midst of hopelessness. There was no freedom of choice because to be offer life and death, the only choice is life.

Human beings were created in the image of God. As God moulded Adam and Eve out of clay and breathed into them the spirit of life, would you imagine God to fathom the destructive practice of human beings buying and selling each others for sexual comforts? As God gazed upon creation and said that it was "very good," do you think God could have imagined the uncompassionate treatment of women, men, and children as sexual objects and commodities to be traded?

As Christians, we hold the Malachi passage where God requires us to "seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly

When one speaks of the freedom to choose, we would assume that there are at least two items from which to choose.

with our God" (Malachi 6:8). In Isaiah 58:6, the prophet proclaims that God calls the people of Israel "to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke." Finally, Jesus stood to bear the sin of the world in order that creation may be redeemed back to God. Therefore, the Church, the body of Christ, is to embody this call to justice which is woven from the beginning of God's relationship with creation. The Church may not be comfortable with the topic of sexuality, but we have to move from that spot quickly before our Christian witness no longer is relevant in the world.

The voice of the Church is there to challenge the societal standards and values. The witness of the Church is there to stand with the vulnerable. On the global crisis of human trafficking, the Church has a significant role to call people into re-evaluating the state of the world and the treatment of fellow human beings. To be in solidarity with the suffering and the abused requires us to step into the desolate pits of miry mud that greed and desire have shoved the vulnerable and the marginalized ones. As God is willing to stretch out and accompany us in our pains, Christians are called to accompany and stand in solidarity with others. What are you willing to give up in order to answer this call? �

JoAnne Chung Yan Lam is a Master of Divinity student at the Waterloo Lutheran Seminary in Canada. She has served as an intern at the WSCF-Geneva office in 2002-2003. She is a graduate from the Toronto School of Theology, Master of Theological Studies and the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey, Master of Advanced Ecumenical Studies programs. Her latest project was a thesis on the LutheranOrthodox dialogue on Eucharist.

Sex: Gift or Sin? JoAnne Lam

As God gazed upon creation and said that it was "very good," do you think God could have imagined the uncompassionate treatment of women, men, and children as sexual objects and commodities to be traded?

Mozaik 33 I Human Trafficking

Book Review: the Bible, love and homosexuality

Exactly two years ago at the conference preceding the European Regional Assembly of WSCF Europe Renato Lings was vividly talking about the Bible, its translations and a fascinating life of words. Today he delivers his thoughts in a compelling book “Love Lost in Translation: Homosexuality and the Bible”.

When you first see the book you may think that you will never be able to go through a whole volume. It is over 700 pages on densely worded paper. It is unthinkable however to imagine that the variety of issues and methodological approach used would allow anything smaller. Lings looks at various Bible parts in twelve different translations into English. He analyzes both the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) and the New Testament in five parts of his book and in appendixes gives a brief account on Sodom in Islam. Lings offers his thoughts in a very structured, rigorous way serving ready-made arguments for discussions that go well beyond homosexuality and the Bible. Whole material is presented in an accessible way a variety of tables allow comparisons of different Bible translations.

But what is this book really about? Is it a manifesto in which the author tries to delegitimize the commonly used Bible translations? Is it a scholarly argument that does is too academic to be useful for a non-expert? Lings himself says that he was trying to show that the current biblical interpretation is based not that much on the text itself, but on the assumptions that go back to the Middle Ages and the church fathers. It is a challenge that Lings brilliantly handles in his book.

Firstly, the author goes well beyond looking for the love lost in translation. He gives a broad account of linguistic subtleties and nuances in a well-researched analytical way. He engages in tracking how certain words were translated in certain periods and why as well as he presents a whole broader canvas of social interactions that were in the background of events described in the Bible. This is particularly important when it comes to the Hebrew Bible that at times poses numerous challenges to a nonexpert. Secondly, he encourages the reader to understand the whole politics of translation. Many biblical dictionaries were produced when homoerotic relationships were condemned and this could have influenced the process of translating parts where homoeroticism is present.

Pawel Pustelnik

Probably the best part that shows how both translation and interpretation of the Bible in the Middle Ages is a meticulous analysis of the story of Sodom that spans three chapters of Genesis. Lings provides countless observations about the part that is generally understood as a biblical condemnation of homosexuality. He challenges these providing a whole rich background of various discourses included through tremendously detailed reading of each and every word. His arguments are juxtaposed with many references of representatives of different views on Sodom. Lings’s conversation with them is an extremely inseminating exercise for anyone interested in understanding the Bible better and deeper. Lot’s family drama is a fertile sole for further inquiries into the issue of homoeroticism and Christianity.

Even though homosexuality becomes more and more accepted in Christian churches, there are still many parties who are opposing equality of homosexual relations. The Ling’s book gives a very useful tool to all those who wish to understand better the underlying reasons of this attitude. And if English is not your mother tongue, “Love Lost in Translation” will surely direct you to approaching the Bible in your language in a new way. �

K. Renato Lings: Love Lost in Translation: Homosexuality and the Bible. Bloomington, Indiana: Trafford Publishing. 738pp. £21,08 (hardback) £18,64 (paperback), £8,04 (Kindle edition)

Pawel Pustelnik is a PhD student at Cardiff University, UK. He has been working with various faith-based organisations including WSCF, EYCE, Religions for Peace and Jewrnalism. In his free time Pawel likes running, cooking and travelling.

Participants of the conference.

What was being a Prepcom member like?

James Jackson

After attending a WSCF conference as a participant two years ago, I kept my eyes open for any way to participate in future events. However, perhaps my eyes were not open enough as I seem to have missed the call for Preparatory Committee (prepcom) members when it was first announced, or perhaps I thought that I did not have enough knowledge about, or interest in, the topic of human trafficking. After meeting Hans, the WSCFEurope regional secretary at an SCM Britain conference, he mentioned to me that the prepcom was short of one member, and he subtly hinted that he would like it to be someone from a Western European country, for example Britain, and it would be even better if that hypothetical person was male. After I finally saw through the delicate Hans’ understated allusions, I began to think about what it would entail. An expenses paid long-weekend spent planning in the beautiful Alps with fellow WSCFers for company, away from Manchester’s post-industrial gloom and the infamous British weather? After considering the offer for an Augenblick, as the Austrians would put it, I accepted his offer.

I started packing my bags a few days later, having done some preliminary reading on the topic. Human trafficking is not only a very serious and depressing topic, but also a very concrete one. It offered an alternative to

At the conference venue in Sankt Gilgen.

my theoretical university studies, and was a real problem in the real world, as opposed to most of those studied in theology courses. I didn’t know much about how we could stop it, but I thought that being on the prepcom would be a great opportunity to learn.

After a long journey, to my own surprise, I arrived on time to St Gilgen, the conference location. I seemed to

have absorbed some of the Austrian Pünktlichkeit, of which our contact at the hostel was so fond of reminding us. On the same bus were Miro, the WSCF staff person who insisted on calling me “comrade”, and Marti, the Gender and Solidarity co-ordinator who took the lead in organizing the conference, despite being distracted by the muchachos of Tenerife during the summer.

St. Gilgen.

What was being a Prepcom member like? James Jackson

We walked around the beautiful central European town of St Gilgen nestled in between mountains, by the still lake to find our hostel. Once my jaw finally returned to its normal position, we began talking and waiting for our other prepcom members to arrive.

There was a great harmony between us; we all had very different skills that we could bring to the planning of this conference. Gaya, the Armenian daydreamer, was not only artistically talented but musically gifted. Aga, the hyperactive Pole, brought her infectious laughter and an unmatched love of embarrassing games perfectly suited to lighten the atmosphere of such a serious conference. Marti brought a groundedness to the project that kept us on track through our difficulties, and Miro brought the expense forms. This difference in focus rarely led to disagreements, and instead helped us compliment each other’s work.

That first weekend was a valuable time in getting to know each other and the surrounding location- could we organise walking trips? What about the excursion day? As a prepcom member you have a lot of freedom in planning the experience of the participants. We thought that as this topic was so serious, it could overwhelm the participants with stress if they didn’t have a chance to relax or participate in a more active way. Marti suggested that she could get a friend of hers to lead a dance workshop to help people express their emotions, and Aga planned icebreakers that would help people get to know one another. Whatever your skills you can bring them to the role I planned a number of Bible studies based around the topics of gender and sexual slavery, based on a talk I saw by Rev Raj of SCM India.

Despite the fact that we were spread across the continent and busy with our own lives, we had regular Skype meetings throughout the summer, planning, talking, and sometimes worrying. Things went wrong, and some

Particularly with the topic of human trafficking, there are a lot of misconceptions and damaging media stereotypes around trafficking victims, migrants, and sex workers.

Evenings

after the conference sessions.

of them went wrong in the week before the event! But things also went right. In fact sometimes things that we weren’t sure about went really well.

Do not worry if you do not feel you are the right person to organize a conference… you are not doing it alone! If it gets too much for you, there are other people, valuable team-members, for you to talk to. This is not to say that it is easy- it requires commitment and hard work. There are difficulties that you will not expect (Visa problems, the weather), but it is also a lot of fun, and it is a really inspiring experience to be able to look around you at young people from across Europe learning and interacting, and be able to say that you helped organize it.

Particularly with the topic of human trafficking, there are a lot of misconceptions and damaging media stereotypes around trafficking victims, migrants, and sex workers. It was amazing to see these ideas confronted, and see people wrestle with the difference between what they had been told and the facts. You get to know the participants as well as the prepcom members and, as anyone who has been to a WSCF conference can attest, it is quite an experience gathering together with a group of other young Christians from other cultures. In the UK some people have a hostile attitude towards Europe, and see the separation between ourselves and mainland Europe as a lot wider than the 32km of the English Channel, but personally I found the experience of collaborating with fellow European students to be very interesting. Of course we exchanged jokes and stereotypes from one another’s countries, but also by working together we saw what it meant to be in solidarity.

Although we were not really able to get as much input from human trafficking victims as we hoped, we heard from a former sexworker who is now a sexworker’s rights activist about the legal problem of providing rights, and from an NGO officer about the importance of transparency and scepticism towards statistics and

Ice–breakers.

What was being a Prepcom member like? James Jackson

WSCF-E OFFICE

figures. We co-operatively designed t-shirts, created stop-motion videos and produced an ecumenical prayer, which I will post below:

Dear God, who created the heavens and the earth.

You created humanity in your own likeness. Let us not forgot that each person reflects the divine image, and we thank you that you teach us to recognize this. We thank you for our own safety, and for those who have so far been saved from the evil of human trafficking. We thank you for the strength you have given to people who are fighting against this corruption of your image.

As you led your children out of Egypt, we ask you to lead victims of all kinds of slavery and exploitation to freedom, both spiritual and material.

We ask that you give peace to the souls of the victims, that they can escape the circle of violence and we ask for justice in your infinite wisdom. We ask for the exploiters to recognize their sins, and to change their ways through your grace.

We pray for the awareness of society at large and ourselves, and that we can recognize the roots of injustice in our own actions and inactions, as Moses did when he saw when his Israelite brother was being beaten by an Egyptian slavemaster.

We have been taught in the Epistle to the Galatians that there is no more slave nor free, and yet through our own ignorance and cold-heartedness we have failed to recognize the exploited as our brothers and sisters, as Jesus showed us. For this we pray for forgiveness. Together we pray, that you send the mercy of your spirit onto the whole of humanity, we who are your children.

Amen. �

James Jackson is a 25 year old political theology student in Manchester, England. He is currently researching the origins of rastafarianism and the role of Satan in the Bible. He enjoys trance music, festivals and insulting his friends with dreadlocks.

Intercultural evening.

WSCF-E OFFICE

Challenge yourself and run a conference!

In summer this year I was one of the members of the Lingua Franca conference preparatory committee. A lot of people asked: how is it to run a conference? Yeah... I can write about it a lot.

First of all I must say it is hard work! It is a lot of stress but it is worth doing it!

I started with filling in my own application. I was pursuing European Voluntary Service (an EU project that was created to develop solidarity and promote active citizenship and mutual understanding among young people) at that time and I wanted to use this time well on what I like to do. I always like international environment, crazy people. What is more, I just made training course for work camp leaders in Berlin so why not do more and put the new skills into practice?

My big adventure begins when I received a positive response from Marti, the WSCF coordinator of the Solidarity theme at that time, who told me that I was accepted to the team. After having exchanged couple of e-mails, we agreed to make an online conference. We were an international team and first 'meeting' was via Skype, what was in my case hard because, given the technical problems I could only type. Our team included six people Marti – a Hungarian, great organizer,

Agnieszka Amelia Lisiecka

Walking the streets of Salzburg.

Miro – a Slovak soul and our support from office, Annika –a German specialist for accommodation, James – a British that likes to ask provocative questions and Gayane –an Armenian who took care of our visual side, and myself. The first big thing I have learnt was how hard it is to meet at the same time when you work with people from four different time zones... Uh..and of course we all have different duties so even finding one or two hours free time was just hard.

We had met once in person before running the actual conference: in May in beautiful St. Gilgen we met in the same venue as the conference was held – the venue was chosen for the conference we were preparing. Austria is a beautiful country with really nice people. And the views – were just amazing! What a great place for a conference! We tried few energizers and Marti suggested a first draft around which we developed the full schedule. We were sitting all together planning what we have to change, how long breaks should be, how to plan days – when to start, when to finish and the most important: who is responsible for what. Miro was taking notes all the time, so later we could use all that information in next the Skype conferences.

We had a lot of time before the conference, but many of things didn't go well. Problems withour lectures, planning exact time for workshops, opportunities for free time. Money, time, people....

Some things you just cannot predict. For example, One of our team members ended up in hospital just before the conference started. We faced problems with lectures invited for the conference and timetables. We had plans B and C just encase everything failed. We had to write a lot of invitations and our process for recruiting people was really long and slow. many people did not confirm so we did not know how many people to expect and we were worried about numbers and so this meant we were inconvenient for the hostel staff.

Challenge yourself and run a conference! Agnieszka Amelia Lisiecka

PAWEL PUSTELNIK

In the end we came a few days before the seminar started as we were not sure how it would turn out. These first few days were a lot of stress and a lot of work. I did not recognize myself. I was not the nicest person in the world and in the end I crossed a few limits but all in all the experiences taught us what to avoid next time. Our team was a great support but I think I could have done more to help them. Overall I am happy that we spent these few days together with the participants. There were some great surprises like the talk with the former sex worker which really woke up the participants and started a lot of discussions. The make your own t-shirt, movie or picture workshop was well received. It was a shame that we did not have time to evaluate what we learnt in the quiz and that we did not have winners for the photography contest but in the end we were all winners as we all had fun.

Thanks you guys for this crazy ride! If you think you are ready to take on this challenge then go ahead! I hope we can meet one day and compare our experiences. Try it for yourself because nothing can describe this experience better than doing it yourself. �

Agnieszka Lisiecka comes from a beautiful city called Cracow, Poland. She graduated there in law and later has been volunteering for 2 years in Germany. She was recently leading a work camp in Berlin and also was in the preparatory committee for the WSCF conference in St. Gilgen. She always enjoys studying topics connected to human rights and ecology. She likes challenging myself. Last year she moved to Switzerland and has a big craving for new projects.

We were sitting all together planning what we have to change, how long breaks should be, how to plan days – when to start, when to finish and the most important: who is responsible for what.

My start in the ERC with travelling to South Korea, Seoul

Annika Foltin

Since October 2013 I am on the new European Regional Committee(ERC), which was elected at the European Regional Assembly (ERA) in St. Gilgen, Austria. I am the new events coordinator for Theology, Culture and Higher Education. Only two weeks later I was asked to step in for our Executive Committee (ExCo) member Vera Papp to travel to Seoul to the WSCF Global ExCo meeting. Only 32 hours after having booked the flights I started my journey to Seoul.

The ExCo meeting was held in a small village located outside Seoul. The Korean Student Christian Federation (KSCF) hosted us for a full week in their small but cosy house before most of the ExCo members were going to the World Council of Churches(WCC) conference in Busan. The ExCo meeting comprises of two ExCo members from each WSCF Region (Asia-Pacific, Latin-America, NorthAmerica, Africa, Middle East, and Europe), the officers (chair, two vice chairs, and the treasurer), the Regional Secretaries, and the General Co-Secretary.

Executive Committee members with the participants of the Peace Symposium participants.

During this meeting we mainly discussed and planed the upcoming General Assembly (GA) in Colombia in August 2014. The GA is the most important WSCF meeting on the global level of WSCF. There decisions about the future of the Federation are made. The new officers will be elected for the next period. Also the new ExCo members from the regions will be elected during the Assembly, as well as there will be the new Co-Secretary introduced. Each national SCM in the world can send one delegate to the Assembly, so students from all over the world will come together and discuss and form the future of WSCF.

We developed a topic and theme for the GA, “We are many, we are one. Affirming Identities, uplifting diversity, sent to build God's Peace”, as it will not only be an assembly but also a conference. Furthermore it was decided that before the GA we will have a women and men pre-assembly to make participants confident for the upcoming days. The pre-assembly will be separated by gender. We think that it is especiallyfor the women very important to make them feel comfortable to speak in the front and raise their voices. The procedures of speaking and the overall process will be explained. The participants of both preassemblies will be prepared for the upcoming days in order to make the outcome of the assembly as successful as possible.

Our days in Korea were long and the nights were short. Often we set until midnight or longer to work and discuss together. The end of our ExCo meeting was overlapping with the Peace Symposium of the Asia-Pacific Region which was held in a neighbour town. We were kindly invited to join them for the opening worship and the excursion day to the Demilitarized Zone.

For me it was such a great experience to get to know the global level of WSCF. I met people from all over the world and got to know different cultures. As I have never been at an ExCo meeting before I didn’t know what was expected of me. Also I was unfamiliar with some work of

My start in the ERC with travelling to South Korea, Seoul. Anika

The European Executive Committee members and Regional Secretaries together with the officers and the General Secretary.

Foltin

the global level however everyone was really nice and helped me or answered my questions if I didn’t know what they were talking about ;) I got well integrated and I am really thankful for including me into the group. A great experience for me was to travel to the Asia, as I have never been there before. The kindness of people especially of our hosts was overwhelming and so great. The community of KSFC cooked and hosted us which was so great and so much work for them.

Also I am part of the Search Committee for the new officers and the General Co-Secretary and representing WSCF-Europe there, which means that I will also travel to the GA in Bogota and I am looking forward to see hopefully many of you there. �

Annika Foltin is from Germany but she lives in Austria, where she studies Jewish Studies and Science of Theatre, Film and Media at the University of Vienna. Currently she is serving as a chairperson of the Austrian SCM. Annika’s heart fully pounds for the SCM and WSCF work. When she is not studying she likes going to the theatre and meeting with friends. Her smiles are omnipresent!

We developed a topic and theme for the GA, “We are many, we are one. Affirming Identities, uplifting diversity, sent to build God's Peace".