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News and
Current Events
The
ACTS Team Gets Active - All Over Europe!
The
latest news about the activities of this community building team
by "Return to the Lord" in Vienna under the leadership
of Gavin Farley can be found in the latest newsletter.
Read
more: ACTS
News - July 2007
Photos:
ACTS Team training sessions in Romania and Croatia
"Return
to the Lord" Joins a Call for Action
Cardinal Schönborn Provides his Support
During
the last year Christians in Austria felt a more pressing need
than ever to raise a voice regarding the increasingly liberal and
ungodly developments in the societiy around us. "Let's pray
and take action - let's take responsibility for our
society!" was a statement given across may Christian groups.
 The
"Forum for Renewal" in the Archdiocese of Vienna was
among them just as the "Evangelical Alliance". A
politician from Vienna who had run on an explicit Christian
agenda on the local elections founded a consulting group together
with her husband and they start giving lectures on Christian
Responsibility in Politics and, recently, organizing a 3-day
conference on the theme of euthanasia which was attended by the
Austrian President and other key leaders of politics and church.
The
general sentiment "we should do something"
turned into
hot action in April, when the new leftist/conservative (SPÖ/ÖVP)
coalition in Austria announced plans to legalize civil contracts
for homosexuals and even put it for public discussion if a
right-out wedding for gays and lesbians should be introduced.
Strong support for these plans even came from the conservative
junior partner in the government, the ÖVP Minister for Health
and Family, Andrea Kdolsky, seemed to emerge as the driving force
for these reforms. Several months before her party had set up an
online forum ("Perspektiven2010") to discuss these and
other matters of political reform. Pointing to the preliminary
results of this forum it became quite clear what the final
decision in the upcoming party congress coming up in 2 weeks
would be. In an online voting only 33% of the participants had
voted against the legalization of gay weddings.
"This
goes too far", some people in the UzH leadership concluded.
Months earlier the leadership team had already taken a decision
to go more public about our opinions regarding issues of
Christian responsibility for the society. Another important
group, the alliance of christian groups and communities "Weg
der Versöhnung" (Platform "Way of
Reconsiliation") had already started its own workgroup
regarding the questions of homosexuality and the appropriate
Christian response to the very active gay lobby groups.
After
even the SPÖ Chancellor Gusenbauer declared that he expected a
quick decision from his junior partner in the coalistion
regarding homosexual unions during the ÖVP party congress, it
was clear that only very quick action could turn around this
development. In a public letter which was send to numerous
Christian contacts in Austria, the Platmorm "Weg der Versöhnung"
called on Christians to join this discussion by writing letters
and e-mails to the involved politicians and to join the ongoing
discussion in the ÖVP forum.
And
Christians responded in large numbers. Within a few days over
1000 signatures to the petition had come in and were handed over
to the Austrians People's Party (ÖVP) right before the party
congress. Politicians responded by expressing their amazement of
the large number of very personal letters they recieved. An for
the online vote on the ÖVP web forum: it ended with a 72% of the
participants disagreeing with the new plans to introduce
homosexual unions. The majority had completely shifted which, of
course, led to massive discussions within the forum. But statring
with this initial campaign, a large number of Christians have now
signed in as active contributors of this political forum,
discussing not only issues of family rights but also topics such
as abortion and prostitution.
The
decision about changed legislation regarding homosexual unions is
now shifted until fall. Follow-up steps for public statements are
currently being planned. A lot more action will be needed if
Christians really want to make a difference in these political
issues. And it will take a whole lot of prayer for our nation...
Now
a dedicated website (www.gesellschaftsverantwortung.at
(German for: "responsibility for our society") has
been set up. One of the first contributors was Cardinal Christoph
Schönborn by giving an interview to "Return to the
Lord", speaking about the need to strengthen the family and
encouraging Christians to take a stand for the Biblical values of
marriage. The interview
with Cardinal Schönborn (in German) has been posted on the video
platform YouTube.
Reports
about Community Life in "Return to the Lord"
/thumbnails/4_Vortraege_IMG_3775.jpg)
/thumbnails/3_Xpand_IMG_3588.jpg)
/thumbnails/6_Kinderprogramm_IMG_3757.jpg)
Report from the last community
weekend, November 2006 in Reichenau/Rax:
29 Years of UzH in Austria
Special
section: Anniversary
pages of UzH Vienna
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