Sharing the Good News
Sharing the Good News involves witness to God’s salvation for humanity and all Creation, particularly where Christ is still unknown. We especially focus on groups that suffer discrimination so that they will be part of the Church.
Examples of our work in sharing the Good News:
We cooperate with theological institutions and provide scholarships to build our partners’ theological capacity. We support Lutheran theological training that builds openness and inclusive churches. We especially focus on gender justice and women’s and girls’ role in the church.
Sharing the Good News means also Bible translation and language development. Bible translation lays the foundation for church work because it finds ways to express Christian concepts in minority languages.
Building an Open Church for Everyone
An Open Church is a Christian community which welcomes people from all groups and walks of life. Open community accepts all as equal human beings created by God, and invites them to join the community, either permanently or as visitors.
The aim of our work is to reduce ‘otherness’. Our joint witness means sharing the Good News and empowering Christians to act openly and without prejudice. This witness dismantles the walls between ourselves and others. Different groups of people, including those suffering discrimination and the vulnerable, are an integral and equal part of congregations, communities and society.
We help those who are discriminated against to stand up and change the world themselves. We strengthen the Church’s cohesion and contribute to its openness.
Helping Children and Young People Suffering from Discrimination to Fulfil and Use Their Potential
We reach out to children and young people at risk of marginalisation. We strengthen children’s rights in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. We focus largely on securing children’s access to basic education and on ensuring its quality. We support elementary, secondary and higher education, and vocational training.
We consider the role and status of children in all Church Cooperation projects and plan all work in accordance with Felm’s Child Protection Code of Conduct. We aim at removing obstacles to the comprehensive development, protection and observance of the rights of children and young people at individual and community levels. We work to increase society’s responsibility for improving the position of children.
We offer various forms of mental and psychosocial support for children. We improve the professional capacity of those who work with parents and children so that they can provide the best possible mental support to children. We create hope in children’s lives, showing them that they have many ways to develop themselves. In cases of severe trauma we use our existing networks to put children in touch with professional services. We support the healing and well-being of children at every stage of our work.
Strengthening Our Partners’ Capacity and Good Governance
Good governance, which entails both good leadership and strong and just administrative structures, is the best way to prevent corruption and combat economic injustice. We support leadership training for our partners as part of building good governance within Church Cooperation projects. Such training may focus on theological and ethical leadership principles or on practical management skills. This improves our partners’ ability to lead their Church or organisation in accordance with good governance and manage their operations to achieve quality results.
We believe in continuous training in governance, management and thematic capacity. We strengthen the impact of our partners’ work. We contribute to the improvement of their professional capacity by supporting cooperation between different actors and networks locally, internationally and ecumenically. Local networks increase opportunities for advocacy and an exchange of capacities and expertise between organisations.
