AGAPE CENTRO ECUMENICO!INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CAMP 2014!

INFORMATION PACKET!!Agape Centro Ecumenico!

Borgata Agape 1!10060 Prali (TO) Italy!!

phone: 39 (from abroad) 012180 75 14!fax: 39 (from abroad) 0121807690!

e-mail: ufficio@agapecentroecumenico.org!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CONTENTS:!1. Introduction to Agape and camp customs; what to bring!2. Introduction to International Political Camp 2014 staff!3. Themes and Program of 2014!4. International Political Camp!!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WHAT IS AGAPE?!! Agape describes itself as an “Ecumenical centre,” where ecumenism is understood in broad terms. It offers an encounter between believers of different faiths and denominational backgrounds certainly, but it is also secular in character so that those who are not believers can also feel at home. In an open dialogue among atheists, agnostics and believers, each participant comes to lose his or her presumptions in

claiming to know and possess the truth.!! Agape is located in the Waldensian Valleys, the only part of Italy where Protestants are a sociologically relevant presence. It is affiliated with the Protestant world and is involved in organizing national and international encounters and conferences.!! The construction of Agape began in 1947 as an initiative of young Italian Protestants under the guidance of Waldensian Pastor Tullio Vinay and with the support of the international ecumenical movement. Hundreds of young people from all over the world were involved over a period of years in the construction of Agape. For the young generation emerging from the Second World War, Agape was a sign of reconciliation, standing for collective effort in manual labour, communal life and ecumenical experience.!! The name Agape refers to God’s love for humanity which is reflected in the lives of believers. The Apostle Paul affirms, “Love [agape] never fails” (I Corinthians 13:8). From the very beginning, volunteer work has been a

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hallmark of Agape. A resident community was formed early on to manage the practical organization of the centre but was also involved in the centre’s cultural development.!! The resident group is composed of women and men coming from different countries and differing confessional traditions and includes those without religious faith. Life in the community gives the opportunity to learn and grow together, enriching one another through the demanding effort of encountering others, of comparing ideas and also of disagreeing. The resident group represents the first test of Agape’s challenge to create a multicultural community.!! In the busy periods (summer, Christmas, and Easter) a group of “work campers” (campolavori), both Italian and non-Italian, support the resident group. To ensure the group can feel involved in the Agape project and to avoid an experience of undefined volunteerism, much energy goes towards creating a sense of community together.!!!!!SPIRITUALITY IN AGAPE!! There is no chapel at Agape. The area called the “open air Church” cannot be used for services during the long winter months, and during the short summer we often prefer other places. Even so, the “open air Church” represents quite accurately the nature of the faith and spirituality here at Agape. It has no walls and echoes the voices of those who are studying, singing, or playing. This space represents the decision made during Agape’s construction not to live with separating walls: neither walls which divide people from one another, nor walls between spaces devoted to our relationship with God and those dedicated to ordinary discourse – discourse carried on as if “God took no part,” only to be confronted by God in those who carry God’s presence with them as a part of their lives.!! Those who come to Agape seeking regular moments of meditation and encounters with the word of God and with spirituality are likely to be disappointed. However, those who wish to challenge their own spirituality, to express their desire to share the hope that spurs them to inter-personal relations, can organize, along with other men and women present, times for worship, meditation, and spirituality.!

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! Within the resident group, Christ cannot be forgotten. He is the oldest resident, here from the start. We don’t know if He has ever left, but we certainly never asked him to go. When we meet Him, we talk together about the history of this place: He remembers that Agape was not always here but that it was built thanks to the imagination of those who dared to dream it, thanks to the sweat of the men and women whose toil raised the walls, who dedicated a part of their lives and who dedicated themselves to the project. Sometimes we talk about the Agape of today, and He wants to know all about it. He comes to the meetings, he slips into camp sessions, even those to which he has not been formally invited. It’s as if He’s afraid we’ll forget about Him.!! The walls of Agape have plenty of cracks. We like these cracks because they say something about our lives here. On the one hand, the message is extremely concrete: something really most be done about those cracks, just as we must clean the staircases, put up with occasional boring discussions, and accept that our relationships with one another are not always perfect. On the other hand there’s the utopian aspect. The very architecture of this place, and the symbolism expressed by it, with its main living area opening out onto the world, the open-air church, the upward tilting roofs are interwoven with our actions and our testimony. The walls supporting Agape are those who stay here, the friends who get involved in the life of the centre and who contribute in various ways to give us a new perspective, a motivation and sometimes even a profound re-evaluation of what we’re doing.!!TRAINING AND TEACHING!! In recent years the training work here at Agape, particularly the work carried out

on communication and listening and on the themes of “adulthood,” authenticity and the role of education, haven’t only provided an important stimulus to the camps, but have also borne fruit in self-awareness and personal growth. Women and men have attempted the difficult, contradictory, utopian--and thus never entirely successful--task of coming together for one week within a community which seeks to live out agape, by a welcoming attitude and a willingness to listen.!! Listed below, in schematic fashion, are the objectives we have always tried to achieve:!!

1) To motivate people in the work of Agape. The difficulty lies in clarifying adequately the reality of Agape today, allowing each person the opportunity to participate in the various camps while maintaining a clear vision of the totality of the various projects which Agape stands for.!2) To teach adulthood. A great deal of effort is directed towards increasing the staff’s awareness of the difference in age and maturity between them and the children or adolescents attending the camps and in identifying the staff’s educative role towards

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them. This calls for intensive individual work directed toward becoming as much one’s real self as possible. It’s a search for the maximum in personal authenticity, without confusing this with mere spontaneity or pure instinctiveness. It’s only an apparent paradox to state that only those who have worked long and hard on self-awareness can permit themselves to act spontaneously.!3) To teach interpersonal relations. In theory, we all agree on how interpersonal relations should be lived: in practice, it is much more difficult. One important theme in training in interpersonal relations is that of training in dealing with differences: differences in gender, social class, race and culture.!4) Teaching freedom defined in terms of responsibility. This is a key question in an educational context, particularly one which seeks to emphasize coherence and authenticity.!5) To encounter the Gospel. Once again, the challenge is both difficult and intensely absorbing: to speak of God in layman’s terms, to give witness to the faith to those who have none, accepting the risk of superimposing our own projections on the Word of God. How can we prepare ourselves for dialogue with everyone, believers and non-believers alike?!!A CULTURE OF DIFFERENCES!! In recent years, Agape has carried out its activities starting from an awareness of the rich multiplicity of the society in which we live. A noteworthy stimulus to reflections of this kind has come through the study of women’s relationships. To give meaning to the differences is one way to live our relationships better and to recognize the value of each person. Valuing differences which are revealed in relationships means for us in the first place recognizing a relationship as the space in which personal identity is formed. As a center which organizes meetings and encounters, we are interested in proposing encounters where differences become truly enriching rather than become homogenized in a kind of “Agape identity,” understood as a sort of identity card for those participating in our activities. Therefore we want to recognize those persons and groups who can bring their “differentness” to Agape and submit it to scrutiny. It is chiefly through the awareness of the partialities that motivate our lives that we can manage to construct a new way of being a community. Therefore we need to work on understanding in our minds and expressing in our lives the idea that no individual is either neutral or universal. Each of us begins with the inescapable partiality inherent in our own gender and yet this necessary starting point can become fruitful and productive if it is accepted and internalized in the right way. This gender-determined partiality can develop and change

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when consciously measured against the various limits given to us through our cultural, historical, and social origins. Certain people, at this very moment of history, are the spokespersons for some important challenges to civil society. At Agape, such people are present at camps for homosexual believers, as well as those on women’s issues, political camps on the issue of multicultural society, and in general in our search for true dialogue between living faiths. But you’ll also find them in an area where Agape has a long and positive tradition:

the theme of the common elements in the life experience of atheists, believers, and agnostics. Our concern with the proper appreciation of differences has also informed the development of the theological camps held here in recent years, with their emphasis on the partiality of truth. This is the only point of departure for an encounter which recognizes the differences among the various positions of faith yet also the existential valency they represent.!!ARCHITECTURE AND UTOPIA!! People who already know Agape and are returning for their second, fifth or thirtieth time, often try to catch a glimpse of it from the road, before getting to Prali, but it can’t be seen – apart from the bell tower – not only in the summer when the foliage hides everything, but also in autumn, when the larches turn orange, then yellow, and finally lose their leaves: the large structure in stone and woods seems invisible, camouflaged by the colors of the dried leaves and the earth.!! Those who come to Agape for the first time and see the main block with its huge windows, the three houses, and the open-air church, are surprised to discover that the center was built nearly fifty years ago: the novelty and freshness of the architecture lead one to imagine a more recent project.!! The uniqueness of the center is the result of an intense collaboration between Tullio Vinay, minister, and Leo Ricci, architect. It is the result of their ability to dream and to long for something. From their dreams and their capacity to make them come true, emerged the building as it is today, with its characteristic features and powerful symbols which take place here.!

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! Let us take for example the enormous windows, or the upward-turning roofs, an architectural folly at 1600 meters above sea level: Agape’s roots open towards heaven as if to receive the grace that descends from on high; Agape’s roofs are concave in order to symbolize her openness towards the world. A horizontal and a vertical opening above which intersect the ping-pong area: the world and God living together in this place, without end and without boundaries.!

! This characteristic, belonging to the windows, roof, and walls of Agape, of opening towards heaven and towards the exterior, reminds us of the constant reaching-out towards meetings, transcendence and the rest of mankind experienced by those coming here, each with his or her own suitcase of experiences, to meet and share ideas with other people, to enrich one another, and finally, to go home carrying a larger suitcase.!! In the same way, the open-air church reminds us that we don’t need intermediaries between

ourselves and God, just as the voices of those who sing, play, and discuss, remind us of where we are, and bring us back to the ecumenical context of the center, where catholics, protestants, muslims, atheists, and agnostics cannot ignore each other’s presence. Even the cracks in the walls speaks of the utopia, the boldness of those who dared to visualize Agape and to transform their dream into wood, walls and stones day by day, digging a trench, building a doorway, overcoming a difficulty.!They also speak of our projects, and of our desire not to shut ourselves up in a house, but to allow the community to take shape according to the different people that come and go: they reflect to our search for transcendence in freedom, when we experiment different forms of worship, in heated discussions, late at night, in encounters of love and in intense friendships.!!!THE INTERNATIONAL DIMENSION!! Is Agape in Italy? Yes and no. It is true that the centre is situated on the territory of the Italian Republic and that most of the people who come here frequently are native Italian speakers. Agape, however, was not built in one of the main areas of italian culture but at just a few kilometers from the border with France. Agape is located in a region which, throughout history, has been a site

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of transit and meeting between different cultures, and the language spoken by the local population, Provencal, is widely used in three countries (Spain, France and Italy) although it has never been made an official language in any of these states. On a wider scale, yes, Agape was built in Europe, but rather than being in the centre of this continent, it is closer to the Mediterranean, an ancient centre for meetings between different cultures. !! Similarly, although the main language spoken at Agape is italian, any visitors will realize straight away that, not only is this italian pronounced in different regional

and national accents, but that it can be heard amidst other tongues. English, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and many other languages and dialects too. Because of this, the Italians who come regularly to the centre often speak one of more foreign languages and they also find a way to communicate in languages of which they know only a few words. !! All this has not come about merely by chance, but has been an integral part of Agape’s project right from the construction of the centre, which was initiated immediately following the end of the second world war, and which was accomplished thanks to the labour of volunteers coming from different countries and continents. When the Centre is defined as it is also in the etymological sense of the term: a center where people from all inhabited part of the world may meet. Now and then the centre also organizes meeting on topics of national or local interest, but for the most part the themes of our camps are of global aspect, even when, for practical reasons, the official language of a camp is Italian alone, as is the case, for example, in the camps for children and adolescents. Every year Agape’s programme includes a series of specifically international seminars, organized by people of different nationalities, and which ensure the translation (usually into english, german and french) of the whole camp’s activities. Every year the work-camp is international, the Resident-Group is international, and so is the General Committee. !! Agape’s research is based on the recognition and exploitation of differences. One of the fundamental differenced is that between cultures, and we try to live this differences, explore it and lay it out to profit both through the formulation we give to every meeting, and through the experience of relationships we try to make possible.!

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!TO WHOM DOES AGAPE BELONG?!! Does Agape belong to the Waldensian Church? In a sense yes. It belongs to the Waldensian Church Council, one of whose members chairs the meetings of Agape’s general Committee, and the Centre comes under the auspices of the Waldensian organizational network. But if the Centre is described as ecumenical and not waldensian it is not only because it works on the dialogue between different churches. During the inauguration ceremony the symbolic key to Agape was

presented to the representative of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, who accepted it, only to then give it straight back in order to indicate that the Council entrusted the management of the centre to the Waldensian Church. So does Agape belong to the Ecumenical Council then? In theory that is certainly partly true, even if in practice the links between the two institutions are not always that apparent. !! From a pragmatic point of view however, you could say that Agape belong to the Resident Group, who are not only responsible for the practical running of the centre, but who also coordinate the work of the various teams who prepare and run the camps. The Resident Groups also welcomes the camp’s participant and visitors to the centre, and represents the very heart of Agape life. !! But the Resident Group does not make all the decisions alone of course. The general Committee that sets the general guides-lines does not only appoint the members of the Resident Group, but also elects an Executive Committee who support the residents in the management of the centre. Agape could not function without the work of those who organize and lead the camps either. But even these teams of “staff” cannot be considered masters of their own camp, which always remains part of a larger project. !! In a sense it is also correct to say that Agape belongs to those who take part in her camps, not only because, far from being empty vessels who come to Agape to fill themselves up, they make an essential contribution to the life of the centre, but also because these active participants are members of the Association of the Friend of Agape, which moreover nominates three

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representatives to stand an the General Committee. The Italian Evangelical Youth Federation also elects three representatives to the general Committee and cooperates at various levels in the activities of the centre, and so, to a small extent, Agape also belongs to the Youth federation. !

!So, in short, to whom can we say that Agape belongs? The answer is that it belongs to all these institutions and individuals together, but to none if isolated from the rest. We hope, moreover, that God too considers Agape as something of his. !! A confusing situation? At times it can appear so, but it is also without doubt a situation which allows a vast and varied richness of self-expression and production. It is for this reason that, despite the problems we often have to face, we are fond of our organizational structure and would like to keep it as it is, at least in spirit. !!

VOLUNTEERS AT AGAPE: The Resident Group!! The centre is run by a group of men and women who live and work at Agape as volunteers the whole year through, taking responsibility for both the organization of the camps and the practical running of the structure. In their heterogeneity of the geographical, cultural, and religious origin, we find an adequate reflection of the people who come to the centre during the summer.!! The proposal that a group might live at Agape all year round first emerged immediately following the opening of the centre, and became a reality in 1956 with the construction of the “resident” house, since that time several hundred people have come, at different dates and for differing periods, to contribute their part to the “Agape project” through the testimony of living the community life, where they have shared everything, from the kitchen to the bathrooms, and where the distinction between private life and works, which is usually very clearly defined in our society, has

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suddenly become much less apparent.!! Every day we are confronted with the challenge that is inherent in the utopia of community life. The practical problems, the difficulty of establishing relationships with people, a different age, culture, language and faith to our won, the difficulty of finding a balance between subjective needs and awareness of the others, and between personal free time and work time, all make necessary a continual cycle of interpersonal confrontation, dialogue, and negotiation.!We believe that the significance of one of the founding ideas of Agape (that of the community experience) may be found in the management of this productive conflict, that could also be defined as a “school of contradiction”.!! The Resident Group is made up about a dozen long-term (two/three years) volunteers, of whom one is the director and two are conscientious objectors. At times the group also includes one or two short-term volunteers who contribute much to the life of the group, in spite of their staying only several months.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AGAPE PARTICIPANT COVENANT!!* Be on time / Essere puntuali.!* No wifi during sessions. / Non usare internet durante le sessioni. !* Participate in all programs. / Partecipare a tutte le sessioni.!* Do not be judgmental. / Non essere giudicante.!* Remember there are cultural differences and try not to be too sensitive. / Ricordare

che questo gruppo è culturalmente molto diverso e non essere troppo sensibili. !* Share programming ideas. / Condividere idee nuove per il programma con la Staff.!!!

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!AGAPE CUSTOMS AND THINGS TO BRING!

! Agape provides blankets and sheets, but not towels.!! Agape is at an altitude of 1600 mt / 5000 ft therefore you must remember to bring

warm and comfortable clothing and appropriate footwear, even in summer.!! There will be a vigorous hike option in the Alps; please bring a backpack and

appropriate shoes and sportswear.!! Please bring a reusable cloth napkin as we are attempting a new ecological

measure of not using disposable paper napkins at each meal. !! Please bring an item (sing, picture, object, nonperishable food, etc) from your

country to share at the International Night program!!! Adults and young people aged 15 or over must possess a valid National Identity

Card or passport.!! A g a p e o n l y o f f e r s

accommodation in rooms of 3-4 people in bunks and single beds. There are bathrooms on each floor. On the premise there is one bathroom for disabled people. We would appreciate it if, at the end of your stay, you would strip the beds, leaving the blankest and duvets folded on top of the bed, and taking the sheets downsta i rs , in the entrance area between the kitchen and the Main Hall.!

! The lunch and dinner largely consist of a first and second course, in Italian style, salad and fruit or dessert. Any allergies or food intolerances should be brought to the attention of the office beforehand along with any requests for vegetarian food or meals to comply with religious requirements. In any case, for ethical reasons, we try to keep the consumption of meat quite low, so it will not be served every day. Drinks are not included though they may be bought at the bar ten minutes before each meal. Breakfast largely consists of bread, butter, jam, hot milk, tea, and hot water for hot chocolate or malted drinks.!

! All participants are requested to take part in clearing and laying tables and washing and drying dishes: Agape is founded on the concept of reciprocal service and voluntary work and this little time of service is a visible sign of this idea of sharing.!

! The Centre has a bar open from 9.00 till 9.30 as well as 10 minutes before each meal and 30 minutes after.!

! Agape has a public phone and at the bar it is possible to order phone cards for various countries (available then in 1 or 2 days). Not all mobile phone network

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operators guarantee a signal locally.!! In the main hall of Agape there is wireless connection, and the password can be

requested to the office. During activities the WiFi will be switched off.!! Since Agape is not entitled to provide any kind of medicines or drugs if you have

any special or recurring needs (aspirins, painkillers, etc) you should bring the necessary amounts with you. Please consider that the small pharmacy in Prali is not open every day.!

! Agape will demand reimbursement of any damage caused by guests.!! The Centre will only accept liability for the cash and personal effects of those

participating in the camps if these are expressly handed over for safekeeping.!! !!INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CAMP 2014 STAFF!!!

TILL FRANK (Germany)!Born 1984 in Constance, Germany, Till R. B. Frank is now doing his post graduate legal traineeship in Berlin before having his second state examination in 2014. He is currently living and working in Berlin, where he is the chairman of the staff council. Furthermore he is involved in a local Anti-Mafia-NGO (Mafia? Nein Danke!) and doing pro bono legal service at the non-governmental Contact and Consultation Center for Refugees and Migrants (Kontakt- und Beratungsstelle für Flüchtlinge und MigrantInnen e.V.). Before starting his legal traineeship, he has been living in South Africa for half a year, working with a lawyer in Cape Town in the fields of International Private Law and Constitutional Law and at the same time doing volunteering in environmental education at schools in the townships of Cape Town with an NGO (South African Education and Environment Project). Till studied Law at the Humboldt University of Berlin,

where he specialized on International and European Law and also with minor subjects in English Law and Italian Law. He graduated in 2012. In between Till worked as a child care worker in a Children's Village in Germany, also to finance one of his favorite hobbies, traveling. Until now he visited different countries of the world. In 2003/2004 he was a Resident in Agape for one year, where he was the person responsible for the kitchen. He still likes cooking very much. till.frank@t-online.de!!!!!

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!LUCIANO KOVACS (Italy and New York City)!

Luciano is currently serving as North America Regional Secretary for the World Student Christian Federation and has held this position since January 2008. In this capacity, Luciano coordinates the work of the WSCF in North America (Canada and US) and has global responsibilities as member of the global staff team, which includes, among other staffing and co-moderating the WSCF Advocacy and Solidarity Committee. Luciano has facilitated the rebirth of the US Student Christian Movement. Luciano is a member of the Waldensian Church of Italy in his hometown Torre Pellice. He

has been a member of the Agape Political Camp "staff" since 1998 and was a member of the Theological Camp staff in 1997. Luciano was involved in leadership positions in the Federazione Giovanile Evangelica Italiana (Italian Youth Protestant Federation) and the national representative to the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF). From 1995-97 he sat on the European Regional Committee of the WSCF. Luciano writes poetry and lyrics for an Italian band, Pellicans, whose second CD will come out in October 2012. Acting and wild dancing are among his most-cherished passions and ubiquitousness his most sought-after desire. Luciano considers himself a long-life justice and peace activist!  wscfna@gmail.com!!!JENN LINDSAY (USA)!

Jenn Lindsay is an anthropologist, filmmaker, and PhD student in Religion and Society at Boston University. She studied Interfaith Relations and Ecumenics (MDiv '11) at Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University in New York City, where she was co-chair of the Interfaith Caucus and the Chair of Student Activities (AKA the Minister of Fun). At Boston University, Jenn studies different forms of interfaith dialogue. Her current research on community-level interreligious activity is based in Rome, Italy. Jenn is originally from San Diego, California, raised in a

religiously eclectic family whose members draw from progressive Jewish, Christian Scientist, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist, Hindu, Western Buddhist and secular

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humanist traditions. She studied playwriting at Stanford University (BA ’01) and arts business management at the Yale University School of Drama (CT '05). She lived in New York City for ten years before returning to graduate school, working in the film and music industries as a composer, film editor and documentary filmmaker at MTV, the Sundance Channel, and several independent post-production facilities. Jenn is also a singer-songwriter and her ten albums are available on iTunes and at www.JennLindsay.com. This is Jenn’s fifth summer at Agape Centro Ecumenico, where she loves late-night dancing, hot milk for breakfast, and meeting passionate and socially engaged people from all over the world.!Jenn.sue.lindsay@gmail.com!!!MANUELA LOPS (Italy)!

Manuela comes from the south of Italy, a land called Puglia. She is serving as Volunteer in the office of Agape Ecumenical Center. Manuela has a parallel pedagogical, social and artistic education; she is a professional trained dancer, dance teacher and Dance Movement Therapist, as well as an educator. She graduated in Italy with a degree in the Science of Education, as an intercultural and socio-cultural educator, and she served the Waldensian Church in Italy in the FGEI (Italian Youth Protestant Federation) for many years as regional secretary and Italian contact for the WSCF (World Student Christian Federation). She participated in an Ecumenical Leader's training, and a World Council of Churches's (WCC) project called the Bridge Project, which gives her the opportunity to travel around Europe for one year, getting to know in theological and praxis fields several different Christian European denominations. At the same time she has studied for 22 years the different ways of dancing throughout the world (from classical to the New dance, from the Modern Dance to Tango Argentino, from Popular Dance to the Passing

ThroughTechnique). Her University thesis focused on the process and method of composition and improvisation in dance, especially in American Post-Modern Dance, and analyzed its social and artistic effects in the society from the 1960s to today. Manuela joins her passions by producing performance of social significance, especially on the women’s social situation. She worked as dance-performer author and videodance performer and author. She worked with the Qualibò Dance Company and founded the Corpulento Dance Company. Manuela graduated in Genova as a Dance Movement Therapist and worked with physical and mental disability problematics and with the addicted people, as well as in wellness fields. She has taught dance for 12 years to every kind of people, and she loves to do it! Manuela believes that dance enhances both the physical and mental aspects of life. manuela.lops@gmail.com !

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!MARIALE-COLETTE MEFFIRE (Cameroon)!!

Mariale-Colette Meffire is a Cameroonian journalist now residing in Turin (Italy). Before her arrival in Italy in 2010, she worked with Equinoxe RADIO in Douala (Cameroon) for almost ten years as news presenter and field reporter. She specialized in health and environmental issues. A political refugee in Turin, she graduated from the Advanced School of Mass Communication (ASMAC) in Yaounde (Cameroon), and now collaborates with different human rights organizations to look for ways of ameliorating the living conditions of refugees but especially vulnerable female refugees from the African continent. Mariale-Colette Meffire equally writes for ‘SCONFINATI FREE PRESS’ a newspaper for and by refugees residing in and around Turin. She was introduced to Agape Centro Ecumenico in 2011 by a former member of the organizing committee of the International Political Camp, Berthin Nzonza. The human rights activist is a mother of two kids still living with her family in Cameroon. meffire@yahoo.co.uk !

!BENJAMIN GRÜNWALD (Germany)!!

Benjamin is now doing a gap year at Agape in North Italy. He does this service through the Protestant church of Baden, Germany and the Waldensian church in Italy. He is 19 years old and graduated last year with a higher education entrance qualification, as well as a qualification in French. During his schooldays he successfully presented two science projects about sustainable generation of energy and the human body. He also took part in international youth contests to present his works with his team and to exchange about others. At his school he was the Referent of L.U.C.Y., a social organization in India that works together with the Holy Cross Sisters, who supported students, especially girls, to build up school education, to create fountains with clear water and to organize sufficient meals. Since his childhood he has been playing the trumpet, takes persistent lessons and he is part of an orchestra. With this orchestra he did traveled to play in South Korea. Besides music, sports are his passion: for many years he has played soccer, goes skiing, and runs long distance, recently running two half marathons. Until now

he has not participated in a project similar to Agape’s International Political Camp. But he is very pleased to do so, because he enjoys this work together with the Staff.beni.gruenwald@freenet.de!

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!ATHENA PERALTA (Philippines)! !

Athena Peralta, from the Philippines, works with the World Council of Churches (WCC) as a Manila-based consultant for the WCC's Poverty, Wealth and Ecology Project. Athena previously worked with the National Economic and Development Authority of the Philippines. She obtained her master's degree in economics of development and post-graduate diploma on feminist development economics from the Netherlands and her bachelor of science degree in economics from the University of the Philippines (Diliman). Her research and advocacy interests focus on the links between

gender, international trade and finance, and ecology. ! womenandgloby@yahoo.com!!!!

THEMES AND PROGRAM OF 2014 INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CAMP!!AGAPE 2014 INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL CAMP!FROM GOODS TO THE COMMON GOOD: CONSTRUCTING NEW POLITICAL PARADIGMS FOR THE STRUGGLE TO OVERCOME GLOBAL CAPITALISM!!Activists envision a utopian world where planetary resources are distributed equitably, fundamental rights, social justice, and peacebuilding are promoted by political and economic systems, and diverse human communities participate in peaceful civil dialogue. But hegemonic political ideologies have culminated in a profit-driven capitalist system that favors the wealthy, imposes dominant political agendas on local communities, dehumanizes marginalized peoples, and decimates the environment. Is it possible to bridge utopia and reality? Can we engage utopian sociopolitical ideals and dislodge the forceful reality of global capitalism and colonialism? In this camp we examine the struggle to implement fairer political paradigms that prioritize the common good on economic, ecological, and ethical levels. Once we have imagined a better world, how do we build it? What is required for historically, politically enmeshed systems to reprioritize and restructure? What would be the terms of a new social contract that is mindful of varying international contexts? Is a new post-capitalist global politic a myth? We will examine if and how powerful political paradigms can be restructured, where people are succeeding at this struggle, and how constructs of wealth may be redefined to place human dignity and a thriving planet at the center of global consciousness.!!!!

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!International Political Camp 2014!Day-by-Day Draft !* Subject to change!!!!! !!

TEMA

!Introduzione

& Political

Systems and Alternatives

!!GITA

Excursion

!Critique

!Dream

!Build

!What’s next?

Send off Final party

!

Dom 3 Lun 4 Mar 5 Mer 6 Gio 7 Ven 8 Sab 9 Dom 10

8.30-9.00

Colazione Colazione Colazione Colazione Colazione Colazione Colazione

9.3 Staff and theme intro Intro Agape Covenant

Theme Movie Intro

workshops & manifesto

!gita

Bou du Col

!!Keynote

current global system of

global capitalism

!!Panel /

Keynote Envisioning

New Political Paradigms

!!!Keynote—constructin

g new political

paradigms (Mayor)

Evaluations Partenze Departures

Salidas

11.30 !!12.45

11.45 !Keynote speaker

On Theme:

!gita

Lago Verde

!Story

Telling of participants critiquing

their current paradigms/

systems

!!Agape Hard rock Caffè !Controversial Questions on the blocks

!!Activist Small group presentations

Wrapping up !Writing of Statement on a draft

done by the drafting

committee

Pranzo Pic Nic Pranzo Pranzo Pranzo Pranzo

15.30 !!17.30

7 Break-out groups !

Morning theme (30 minutes)

What kind of activist are you (1h)

Reports to plenary

(30 minutes)

!gita

Community organizing session

!!Role Play

Working groups

for writing the manifesto

!Preparaz

Culto/festa

�18

!!!!! !

18 !!Laboratori

!!gita

!!Laboratori

!!Laboratori

!! Laboratori

!Worship service

20 Cena Cena Cena Cena Cena Cena Cena

21.15 Oasis Oasis Oasis Oasis Oasis

21.45 Intro

games

!Danze

Occitane

!Falò

!International

Night

!Movie Night

!Nafsi

!Festa

�19