Erasmus+ – project
Center Social Responsibility of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (ZGV, Germany)
The ZGV is the applicant for the Erasmus+ project »sustainable preaching«.
The Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN) is an ecumenically minded Protestant Church and sees itself as part of worldwide Christianity. Vital to the EKHN is the inseparability of faith and social responsibility. A lively spirituality, the engagement for peace, a fair distribution of wealth and employment, a future-orientated, sustainable and responsible economic policy, as well as environmental sustainability are central to our Christian identity. More than 1,4 million people belong to the EKHN.
The Center Social Responsibility is part of the EKHN. The tasks of the Center are mainly twofold:
(I) Place public dialogues and issues in the context of the Church work, e.g. declarations, and (II) place church work and positioning in the context of public dialogues and issues.
With respect to both tasks the Center Social Responsibility can be seen as a transmission belt that aims at creating a dialogue between society and church.
The Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau (EKHN) is one among currently 26 churches in Germany, members of the Anglican Church in Europe and two Swiss churches who run the German speaking project “nachhaltig predigen”. The Center Social Responsibility of the EKHN is currently in an executive position for “nachhaltig predigen” and therefore brings a lot of experience to sustainable preaching. The Center has sustainability as a key section across its five departments. All deal with different aspects of sustainability: economically, socially, digitally, environmentally, culturally and with respect to youth education.
The work of the Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau addresses not only the educated middle-class but aims at reaching all groups our society consists of, from the poor to the wealthy people, from young to old, from Politicians to members of NGOs, from religious to non-religious people. It uses different formats to address these groups: direct contact is just as important as social activities and organizing lecture series.
www.ekhn.de (
German only)
www.zgv.info ( German only)
Orthodox Academy of Crete (Greece)
The Orthodox Academy of Crete (OAC) is a Conference and Meeting Centre of the local Diocese of Kissamos and Selinon under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Since 1968, the OAC has been active in the organisation, planning and hosting of conferences, meetings and seminars at local, regional, national, European and beyond international levels. Many ecumenical and inter-religious meetings have taken place here, as well as meetings of the Orthodox Church. The OAC is also a platform for issues concerning Church and Society at a local and international level and organises cultural and educational projects, also with educational institutions (schools, universities and others). The OAC is a place of adult education and training of priests and theologians and organises special courses. It also has the following joint bodies:
- Institute of Theology and Ecology, where ecological projects are carried out,
- Euro-Mediterranean Youth Centre and
- Iconography workshop.
The Institute for Theology and Ecology has organised youth exchange and workcamps, and in doing so has linked theory, education and practice.
Since 2019, the Academy has been a research centre recognised by the Ministry of Education (FEK 4610/7-5-2019, Article 255 of the same law) and is a member of the European Academy of Religion (EuARe), the Association of European Academies (OIKOSNET EUROPE), and has a cooperation agreement with Universities and research centres (Halki Theological School, Foundation for Technology and Research, Museum for Natural History of the University of Crete, Technical University of Crete, University of Ioannina).
The already existing networks enable the core ideas of “sustainable preaching” to be disseminated in the Orthodox world. The OAC brings into the project the perspective of the Orthodox Church and its experiences with sustainability at theological and ecological level, and as a conference centre also offers the place and space for meetings in which the project can be implemented and discussed.
The scenic location conveys the experience of beauty that the encyclical Laudato si’ can come as a lever for social-ecological change into view. With its natural path and the face-to-face meditation trail of Abba Makarios, a PV plant and the Monastery of Gonia with the Icon Museum nearby, the Institution offers inspiration and the space in which thoughts, dialogue and exchange can unfold.
Flyer OAC (PDF-File)