Mediterranean Hope – Newsletter July 2017
The FCEI-Mediterranean Hope Project was Awarded The Global Ministries Award of Affirmation. NEV Agency
Marta Bernardini, MH’s operator was there as Mediterranean Hope representative, and she said: “We are honoured to receive this award by a so important international partner, who supports us in this difficult work we have been doing. Together as churches that want to witness the Gospel but know the challenges of our time, we try to break the isolation and the defeat that often pervades us, by remembering each other where we want to stay and what we want fight.“ Read more…
Click here to read Ms. Bernardini’s full remarks in accepting the Award of Affirmation.
Reception: an overflowing river, by Marta Bernardini, operator of Mediterranean Hope
The UCC has been on the frontline for years. For at least 15 years, it has been at the US borders to the north, towards Canada, and to the south, towards Mexico, offering help to those who risk their life trying to cross the border. It rallies against deportations, and offers assistance and safe refuge by supporting the movement of the church-asylum, i.e. the so-called Sanctuary churches. Read more…
As the sun scorches and the people start talking to each other, I think of how our borders are sadly similar, how the desert and the Mediterranean Sea have been transformed into weapons of death and dehumanisation. Read more…
France: #Couloirshumanitaires Have Opened Today NEV Agency
“A victory over shame, death and fatality!”: tweeted Jean Fontanieu, general secretary of the FEP (Fédération de l’Entraide Protestante) when announcing the arrival of the first French humanitarian corridors tonight at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The FEP, that has always been active in the reception of refugees, is one of the co-promoters of the French ecumenical project following the Italian experience and thanks to which, with the yesterday last arrival in Fiumicino, 850 refugees, mostly Syrian reached Italy from Lebanon. Read more…
Swiss Protestant Churches Consider the Humanitarian Corridors Model NEV Agency
Will we have Humanitarian Corridors managed ecumenically by Switzerland? On Wednesday, 5 July a meeting was held at the headquarters of the FSPC (Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches) to consider the possibility of opening Swiss humanitarian corridors as it has already experienced for year and a half in Italy and as the French humanitarian corridor that has been recently started, as reported by RTSreligion service, a Swiss-Romansh radio broadcast on July 6. Read more…
FCEI claims that Europe has failed in its response to the migrant crisis NEV Agency
“Europe turns its back and leaves Italy facing the migration crisis. But the Italian government should stand firm in Brussels without renouncing its leadership role in welcoming and protecting human rights.” This is what stated by pastor Luca Maria Negro, president of the FCEI, on the eve of Frontex meeting in Warsaw. He has defined the result of Tallinn as unsatisfactory. Read more…
The Lampedusa Solidarity Forum visits the MOAS NEV Agency
On 3 July 2017, Alberto Mallardo and Ivana Abrignani, operators of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI) working in Lampedusa with the Mediterranean Hope project, together with the new Mayor of Lampedusa, Salvatore Martello, the parish priest of the island, Father Carmelo La Magra and the Lampedusa Solidarity Forum, were invited on board the Phoenix vessel by the founder and director of the MOAS project, Regina Catrambone, who also supports the humanitarian corridors being implemented by the FCEI in Lebanon together with the Tavola Valdese (Waldensian Board) and the Community of Sant’Egidio. Read more…
Jamal and Wejdan. A family, a film, a restaurant…. and wishes that come true NEV Agency
The “Lo sguardo dalle frontiere” (A look from the border) editorial is written by operators of Mediterranean Hope (MH), the migration project promoted by the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI). This week’s “look” comes from Scicli and Turin, where the story, hopes and dreams of a Syrian family intertwine with each other. Read more…