Rome, 17 September 2024 – article written by Stefano Bertuzzi. For italian version click here: Volontariato e salvaguardia del creato – Riforma.it
The Ecumenical Diaconal Year Network (EDYN) is an international network of organizations working in the field of youth volunteering. EDYN’s main purpose is to foster dialogue between organizations with common values and similar long-term volunteering activities, share best practices, ensure quality projects for volunteers, as well as lobbying supranational funding bodies, holding the focus of witnessing the faith in Christ declined through diaconal action.
In the last two years EDYN has decided to explore the environmental issue, responding to a strong need coming from the youth, since the younger generations are particularly interested in the preservation of the planet received as a legacy from previous ones. Going deeper to a new theme for an organization like EDYN, used to working in the social field, was not easy. This is why it was decided to submit a project to the Otto per Mille of the Waldensian Church to receive enough funds to help train staff and to create useful tools for organizations and volunteers.
The project was approved by the Waldensian Synod of 2023: in November of the same year, a seminar was held in Riga, Latvia, involving all EDYN members and some interested partners. The Pastor Tamás Kodácsy, member of the European Christian Environmental Network, president of the Hungarian Reformed Church’s Eco-Congregations Movement and researcher at the Institute for Creation Care of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Károli Gáspár University, was selected as the main trainer. The study documents were numerous: among them are certainly worth mentioning “Every Part of Creation Matters” of the Ecumenical Council of Churches, the “Green Bible,” a Bible that underlines and explained all verses concerning the creation are care, “The Book of Sustainability,” which proposes a Christian faith perspective on the goals of sustainable development. During the meeting, working groups explored these and other issues related to the involvement of youth voluntary service, with the idea that social justice and environmental justice should go hand in hand.
With the support of the Otto Per Mille of the Waldensian Church, a “Green Manual” with many suggestions for volunteers to face their year abroad in a greener way, was also recently published. Actually the youth sensitivity to this topic is visibly growing, starting from the daily choices up to the commitment, also political, of many young people: an increasing number of volunteers organizes their trips by choosing sustainable transportation and there is even a growing preference for final destinations that can be reached without the use of airplanes. In general, there is very high interest in activities or projects that also have a focus on environmental issues and rediscovering contact with nature.
The project is going to finish in the next few months, but EDYN’s journey on environmental issues will certainly not end here: the tools acquired so far will be fundamental to improve our activities and thus continuing to stimulate the involvement of young people in social work that serves both people and the planet.
Stefano Bertuzzi – EDYN Secretary
