Sunday 30 April 2006 (after coffee 10.25-12.05)

1 Introductory
Matthias Jakubec took the chair, Simon Bryden-Brook minuting, as agreed at the introductory meeting on Thursday evening. The two Czech observers, Simon Hradilek and Jan Klime, were specially welcomed. Amendments to and adoption of the agenda: item 7 (Financial Matters) to be taken after 8 and 9 to become last item of 8.
 
2 Constitutional matters
Definitive versions of constitution and standing orders were not available yet but will be available next year, Simon Bryden-Brook promised, and Spanish and Portuguese versions would be included if provided. A proposal for a formal constitutional amendment [4 (f)] on an ‘annual activity report’ to satisfy the Council of Europe [Hubert Tournès] was withdrawn since it is part of a resolution submitted to the assembly in item 7 (a) i.
 
3 Minutes
The minutes of the Madrid conference, May 2005 (EURONEWS No.25, pp 12-23) were AGREED correct.
 
4 Report from Secretariat
In her absence on unavoidable family business, Simon Bryden-Brook reported that Dorothea Kemming-Nassabiwas retiring from the SECRETARIAT and she was thanked heartily for her hard work in this capacity over the years.

5 Report from the Treasurer
Approval of accounts for 2005: Gerd Wild referred to the printed accounts on p 17 of EURONEWS 26 and distributed an additional sheet with some explanation. ACCEPTED with thanks.
 
6 Elections and Appointments:
(a) Election of officers: secretariat [EN Constitution 4 (b)(1)] Simon Bryden-Brook and François Becker were proposed. Simon Bryden-Brook was willing to continue in office if required and François Becker was willing to be appointed, initially for one year on the understanding that all member groups deal with e-mails promptly and send information electronically to the secretariat, preferably in English and the original language. Matthias Jakubec declined nomination because of pressure of work. There was regret at the lack of female participation and Raquel Mallavibarrena said she would be assisting the secretariat in some matters, especially the creation of a website for the network. AGREED.
(b) Election of officers: treasurer [EN Constitution 4 (b)(2)] Gerd Wild re-elected with thanks.
(c) Admission of groups to membership [EN Constitution 2 (c)]
(1) Friedrich Gollbach spoke on behalf of the European Federation of Married Catholic Priests (Belgium, Spain, UK, France and Germany etc) see EURONEWS 26 p18 and p19.  AGREED.
(2) Hubert Tournès said that Partenia 2000 of France was in the process of applying for membership and would introduce itself in EURONEWS – they had attended the EN Versailles conference. Proposed they are encouraged to attend our Lisbon conference. Their president had intended to be here but had had to cancel at the last minute. Gerd Wild said that as Partenia 2000 was a member of PARVIS, they should be accepted without further formality. A paper presenting Partenia 2000 was circulated. Ruud Bunnik raised the issue of umbrella organisation and some of their member groups both enjoying membership of the network. AGREED Partenia 2000 accepted immediately into full membership nemine contradicente. No other groups proposed.
(d) Admission of individuals to membership [EN Constitution 2 (b)] Hugo Castelli proposed a Polish individual wishing to be know simply in all published material as PS, to assist the network in developing its contacts with Poland. Two participants were opposed but the application was APPROVED.  No other applications.
(e) Appointment of members of the Co-ordinating Group: Simon Bryden-Brook, François Becker, Matthias Jakubec, Edith Fèvre, Raquel Mallavibarrena, Dorothea Kemming-Nassabi, Maria João Sande Lemos, Anna Szita-Deline, Hubert Tournès, Gerd Wild, AGREED – also AGREED the secretariat write to ask Anna Szita-Deline whether she wishes to remain as a member of the co-ordinating group as she had been inactive last year.
(f) Appointment of Correspondents for each country [EN Constitution 4 (c)] AGREED any changes to existing list to be sent by e-mail to Simon Bryden-Brook
(g) Appointment of Distributors of EURONEWS for each country [EN Constitution 4 (d)] to be discussed under item 9
(h) Appointment of Editor of EURONEWS on resignation of Dorothea Kemming-Nassabi – to be discussed under item 9.

Break for lunch at 12.05 and afternoon programme

Monday 1 May 2006 (09.00-10.25)

When the meeting resumed, the agenda was re-arranged to ensure all items discussed in workshops were brought before the meeting, after some discussion of transport arrangements for delegates leaving the conference centre later in the day.

7 Common projects for the European Network for 2006 – future activities and matters for decision
(a) Work with the European institutions, motions and decisions:
i. Council of Europe: Hubert Tournès reported the results of the workshop. Need for an annual report to the Council of Europe agreed by the Annual Conference (see EURONEWS 26, pp 43 & 45) AGREED this be prepared by the secretariat. François Becker requested that information for this be sent to him. Thanks for the report in EURONEWS were expressed and the report adopted. François Becker reported that we may well already know in June, instead of next January, the result of our application for participative status at the Council of Europe, and it is important that member groups support this work as much as possible. AGREED. Gerd Wild stressed the need for more individuals in EN member groups with French-speakers willing to attend meetings in Strasbourg. Friedrich Gollbach asked what sort of subjects were of importance for this work and François Becker referred him to the printed reports in EURONEWS.
ii. European Union: Hubert Tournès spoke on early work on our involvement in the question of separation of church and state, for example, closely related to the work at the Council of Europe. Elfriede Harth, Gerd Wild, François Becker and Hubert Tournès would welcome a fifth participant in their working party: agreed the Spanish and Portuguese to consider whether they could nominate someone, but they are perhaps too far from Brussels – a Dominican supporter of WAC Portugal who lives in Brussels may be interested to be appointed. Portugese members would investigate this possibility.
iii. Proposal from DLE and EN Council of Europe team for an international, inter-cultural, inter-religious colloquium in co-operation with the Council of Europe on the subject of the role and impacts of religions for social cohesion in Europe,. [See EURONEWS 26 pp 61 & 63]  François Becker reported that the workshop the day before had supported this proposal and recommended a financial contribution of Ï 300 for 2007. Gerd Wild suggested that some travel expenses might have to be covered too. AGREED. Hubert Tournès requested formal adoption of resolution in EURONEWS 26 pp 62 & 64 with Hubert Tournès, Gerd Wild, François Becker, Marie-Thérèse Chenu, Vitorio Bellavite  and Maria João Sande Lemos mandated. Other nominations would be welcomed by the group by e-mail. Proposal ADOPTED
iv. As a conclusion, it was recommended that the different teams that are working with the European institutions are amalgamated into one team comprising: Hubert Tournès, Gerd Wild, François Becker, Marie-Thérèse Chenu, Vitorio Bellavite  and Maria João Sande Lemos. Other members are welcome
(b) European Social Forum – François Becker noted that at the annual conference in Madrid, we agreed that the EN would support the assembly in Athens 4-7 Mai 2006 and Vittorio Bellavite would be representing the EN – topic: ‘A common social ethic of the Religions of the Book (Christian, Muslim and Jewish) for the future of Europe’. Ï 300 needed for 2006. In principle AGREED we continue to support future European social forums with Vittorio Bellavite as our contact person asking him to liaise with IMWAC groups in Europe. Evaristo Villar noted some connection with the World Form [(e) below]
(c) 3rd European Ecumenical Assembly of churches in 2007 in Sibiu, Romania: François Becker reminded us that at the Madrid assembly we had agreed some support and he had reported in EURONEWS 26 p 46. Likely it will be dominated by the bishops, the question is whether we should offer an alternative presence as we did in Graz.  Ana Vicente said this would be too much for EN to take on although we could support other alternative initiatives, particularly that of IMWAC which intends to be involved. Evaristo Villar could ask in Nairobi if any Romanians were willing to be involved.  Gerd Wild proposed we support the initiative without any financial obligation for the EN and the secretariat to ask member groups whether they are interested in being involved.
(d) EN relations with Poland. Hubert Tournès reported on the recommendation of the working party. PS to be an individual member for Poland; PS to be EN contact with Poland but his name NOT to be published; a team needed to work with contacts in Poland, Hugo Castelli, Anne-Marie Schweighöfer, Zofia Marzec, Christof Weisner and Hubert Tournès; support was expressed for Alicja Tysiac in difficulty as a result of Polish abortion law, with signatures of fifteen member groups. AGREED.

Break for coffee 10.25-10.55

Monday 1 May 2006 (11.00-13.15)

(e) 2nd World Forum for Theology and Liberation
Topic: ‘Spirituality for another possible world’ in Nairobi 2007 It is a forum of theologians (Ursula King, Elsa Tames of Costa Rica, Yvonne Gebara, Boff, Metz, Guttierez etc) and base communities (against ‘neo-liberal capitalist’ tendencies) that is linked with the World Social Forum. Hugo Castelli reported that the workshop had recommended our participation and that we organise a seminar with Evaristo Villar attending as our representative since he is already part of the organising committee. Need for a sub-committee to organise this. Evaristo Villar spoke in support. Hubert Tournès pointed out that Vittorio Bellavite wanted to liaise because of his involvement with the European Social Forum. Gerd Wild mentioned his contacts with EATWOT (Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians), Tissa Balasuriya, Aloysius Pieris etc  Ana Vicente urged that our delegate at Nairobi insist on the need for the separation of church and state. Evaristo Villar was ADOPTED as our representative. Financial support to be discussed at item 8. AGREED member groups to propose to Evaristo Villar people willing to assist him in preparing the seminar: Karim Mahmoud, president the NSAE had expressed interest and Vittorio Ballavite, AGREED. The team will receive support from PAVES.
(f) Future production of EURONEWS
François Becker hopes to match Dorothea Nassabi’s achievements with EURONEWS with an electronic version in future. Each distributor [presently the points of contacts of each member group] will receive a complete electronic version in English French & German, as well as those texts not available in these three languages as they are sent to the editor. Each distributor will have the responsibility of complete the translations in his/her country language and distributing the result within their country, and printing and distributing copies for those who cannot access the electronic versions.  Information about member groups’ activities and information of interest to other groups requested by e-mail from correspondents. Essential that English versions of all texts are made available when submitted to the editor. This new procedure will reduce costs to the network.  Gerd Wild insisted that French and German versions should always be provided by those submitting material for publication. Hugo Castelli willing to assist with English-Spanish texts and translate from one language to the other.  Deadline for November edition required mid-October, and mid-February for the March edition. Maria Hauswirth offered François Becker her help and he would liaise with Dorothea Kemming-Nassabi to benefit from her past experience. This process will be reviewed next year based on this year experience.
(g) Proposals for an EN web site
François Becker reported on the work of the team appointed during the meeting of Friday. This team comprises:  Raquel Mallavibarena, Friedrich Gollbach, Hugo Castelli, Simon Bryden-Brook and François Becker. The team proposes to establish a website in several languages that will present the EN, the list of its member associations with links with their websites, its main publications (EURONEWS) and activities and that will give general information on what is occurring in different countries. . The team proposes to create an URL address: www.european-catholic-people.eu AGREED. As a first step the English version will be initiated as soon as possible. Provisional version will be shown to the coordinating group before it is placed on internet. A webmaster will be appointed. Meanwhile, each point of contact is requested to send information to François Becker

(h) Other future activities:
(1) co-operation with IMWAC (proposal of Christian Weisner)
(2) developing contacts with base communities (proposal of Karim Mahmoud)
(3) future of the EN (proposed by François Becker)
 These matters were not discussed because of insufficient time.
8 Financial decisions:
(a) Budget proposals for 2006
[EN Constitution 5 (c)] expenses expected: max Ï 1,200 for all EURONEWS expenses, Ï300 European Social Forum Athens, travel expenses for European institution work Ï150 and other travel Ï225, secretariat expenses Ï100, website Ï50. Total:Ï 2,025 ACCEPTED although it produces a deficit.
(b) Budget for 2007
EURONEWS Ï200, Nairobi Ï500, website Ï50 and secretariat Ï100, travel Ï500, support for Poland Ï300, Council of Europe colloquium Ï300. Total Ï1,950. Simon Bryden-Brook would assist Gerd Wild in seeking grants from other organisations and foundations.
(c) Financial contributions for 2006
[EN Constitution 5 (a)]  - no discussion

9 Annual Conference 2007
 Lisbon Portugal, Thur 3 May to Sun 6 May 2007 – The group preparing the General Assembly in Portugal proposed three possible topics for the study day: “Church on the move in the 21st century”, “Religions in a Global World”, “People of God is a world on the move”. The assembly decided to choose the third one: “People of God is a world on the move”.
 
10 Annual Conference 2008
 The Netherlands is no longer able to prepare the annual conference in 2008 and withdrew its proposal. Several voices suggested holding this conference again in France. The question is still open and proposals have to be co-ordinated by the secretariat. [Ascension Thursday 1 May]
 
11 Annual Conference 2009
Proposed locations: Poland (or 2010)? – topics – dates. These items were  not discussed [Ascension Thursday 21 May]

12. Any Other Business:
A Press Release had been worked on by Christian Weisner, Ana Vicente and Simon Bryden-Brook and they were authorised to finalise this and arrange translation and distribution.

The meeting ended at 13.15
 
 

sb 30.04.06, 01.05.06, 03.05.06, 04.05.06, fb then sb 08.05.06
 MINUTES rev Wiesbaden 2006 in EN folder on G3