55th Annual Conference welcomed Bishop Irja Askola - Waltraut Kovacic new President

Irja Askola, Waltraut Kovacic, Wolfgang Lenz

The 55th Annual Conference of Oikosnet Europe at Seurakuntaopisto in Järvenpää/Finland ended on Sunday. Participants from 14 European countries discussed how to deal with different forms of violence in European societies and studied Finnish approaches of work with the Roma minority. On Thursday night, the conference welcomed Bishop Irja Askola and Father Heikki Huttunen for a discussion about ecumenism in the 2010s. The conference ended with drawing up the outlines of a strategic plan for the coming three years, which the board will work out and the next conference in September 2011 in Brasov/Romania will decide upon. Waltraut Kovacic (Evangelische Akademie Wien, Austria) was elected as president, Constantinos Kenanidis (Orthodox Academy of Crete, Greece) as vice president, and Walter Lüssi (Evangelisches Tagungs- und Studienzentrum Boldern, Switzerland) as Treasurer.