On one of the guys’ backpacks there was a sticker that read ‘Mediterranean
Hope’. I knew of that project, which is based on Lampedusa, an island near
Sicily, and is funded by the eight per thousand of the Waldensian Church.
In that one life saved we found a deep connection between countries,
traditions, and customs, raised above all distinctions: humanity at its very
best.
That is the east end, too: people battling to survive through many adver-
sities, addictions and mounting debts but still open and willing to learn and
to change, and still generous to a fault.
In the midst of it all is the church, which is may be small in numbers but
not small in efforts, tirelessly working in hospitality with community groups,
food banks and charities in and outside Scotland, making God’s love felt, one
life at a time.
Rev Monica Michelin-Salomon
News from Sicily
Good news from Sicily! For the first time in 20 years, a FGEI group has been
established. FGEI (Federation of Protestant Youth in Italy) is the ministry for
the Baptist, Methodist and Waldensian Churches that takes care of teenagers
and young adults all over the country. Youth groups are fab and it feels good
to be in a Church where young people are visible and active members. The
downside of this is that youth groups are very delicate and may cease to be
in a short space of time, due to people growing up or, as quite common in
Southern Italy, moving up North. The previous FGEI group in Sicily was a
very strong one, so strong that once its members grew up, for 20 years there
was none to take its place. Eventually things changed and there is now a small
and promising group that is officially federated to FGEI and attends local and
national meetings. How was this possible?
Creating a youth group in small, precarious and isolated Churches like the
Waldensian and Methodist Churches in Southern Italy requires a complicated
strategy. One important aspect is to begin to work immediately from Sunday
school to Confirmation classes. In the last 10 years or so, the Sicilian Churches
created a network for teenagers, called Catechismo Circuitale [meaning one or
two meetings a year], with participants gathering from all over the island.
It has proved a successful and useful idea. The numbers are still small, but
it is far more rewarding for young people (not only for them) to meet twice
a year in groups of 15 or 20 than meeting once a week as two or even four
people in their own Church. Now those who attended these gatherings in the
past years are in their very early twenties and find a way to be in the Church
together. The English Committee of the Waldensian Church Mission gener-
ously supported our teenagers in Sicily in the past years, both by financing
the Catechismo Circuitale and the attendance to other meetings organized by
FGEI. Little by little, step by step, with a little help from our friends (and with
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