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European Forum of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Christian Groups
[music and people talking, not understandable]
[welcome to the conference 2010 in Barcelona, in Catalan and English]
The European Forum was born about 1982 in Paris
and it started with a very small group of 16 people from 7 groups spread over 5 countries.
exists to work for equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
within and through the Christian churches of Europe.
We are a growing ecumenical network of 41 groups from 20 European countries.
What we do is: we support one another and any individuals who are facing discrimination.
We also represent the member groups in discussion with ecumenical bodies,
national churches, and civil and political organisations.
The Forum, it takes chair often during Ascension tide in different cities of Europe,
meeting for a conference in which we made the Annual General Meeting inside.
We do prayers, ecumenical services, meditations; we also do workshops, roundtables and lectures.
We offer also a unique space for women and men together.
We are a network that fights against discrimination and also deals with faith and LGBT right issues.
We are split in different cultures, traditions and confessions. Our values are friendship, love.
We have a space of respect and dialog in all the activities we do.
We have also official contacts with World Council of Churches (WCC)
and also we are members of the International Lesbian and Gay Association of Europe (ILGA).
We are participating in international events.
We have the Agapè Fund which is a support to growing groups around Eastern and Central Europe.
There are especially two things that´s important to do
for people to be able to develop and to work for their own rights.
One of those things is to tell your own story.
So we decided that we need to get people to tell their stories, personal stories.
So we gathered almost a hundred histories from lesbian, Christian women all around Europe.
And this is where people tell about their experiences with faith or with doubts
and their experiences also with church and church people.
So, I think this is a way. When we publish these stories, we have a solid prove that we are everywhere
and that we exist in all kind of churches and all over Europe. This is an important message.
The second thing we were thinking is important is to teach people or train people
to be able to challenge the arguments that a lot of conservative politicians and church leaders
are using against lesbian and gay people in churches but also in local politics.
[singing the hymn “Courage (to follow the law of love)”]
Well, I´m a trained and ordained minister of the Protestant church in Germany,
and so for me it is very important to link spirituality and issues of faith
with the search for the identity of being lesbian and gay.
So, I would like to stress two things.
One thing is that I ´m very much interested in lesbian and gay celebrations and to find rituals to express our faith
and also to express our work towards advocaty work and human right works
within the framework of churches in Europe and beyond.
For me it was extremely important that we were able to share our stories or little pieces of it
and open up a room where also the others in the auditorium could tell
about there lifestyles, their stories, their hopes, their dreams and their doubts
and their questions about how to live an authentic life and be a believer at the same time.
But knowing that we live in the 21th century and not in some other places.
So it was a very important workshop and we got a lot of positive response
and I think that’s the type of workshops that we try to stress on in the European Forum
and we would like to go on also in the future.
The European Forum will not only bring a comfortable place for people to meet each other
but also to act to churches and be in touch with them,
try to have talks with bishops and senators and so on.
To me personally it meant that I was for the WCC in Harare in 1998.
We could join and speak about homosexuality and sexuality as well.
I was very lucky in my life because I never experienced in Italy discrimination.
I found a lot of friends in gay Christian groups
and it was so natural through the storytelling, through the experience to understand more myself.
We tend to think that the church is only one, the Roman Catholic church,
but in the world there are so many Christian churches,
with different experiences and different paths of faith and theology and approaches.
A lot of lesbians and gays, especially young lesbians and young gays, they leave the churches.
Christians should take care of young LGBT people
and what we can do in the future is to work together.
The LGBT movement as a whole to promote a positive view of the religion.
This is the way to promote change within our churches.