Valuable discussions and great atmosphere at the 3rd ECPM Congress
Posted by africanpress on November 8, 2007
Valuable discussions and great atmosphere at the 3rd ECPM Congress!
donderdag 27 september 2007 13:04
The ECPM Congress of 21 and 22 September combined valuable, in-depth discussions with a fantastic atmosphere! More than 70 participants attended during either Friday or Saturday in the Novotel Brussels Airport in Diegem. The theme of the Congress was: Focusing on the Family. A Christian-democrat view on family policy in Europe.The Congress started with the announcement that 4 new parties have joined the ECPM. These parties are the Evangelical Peoples Party and the Federal Democratic Union from Switzerland, The People’s Party of Montenegro and the Belarussian Christian Democrats. The new members received a warm welcome form the other members.
After the presentation of the new members the Congress continued with a video message of Andre Rouvoet, Dutch minister of Youth and Family, followed by a presentation of the report on the evolution of families by Lola Velarde, president of the Institute for Family policies.
In the afternoon, the Congress continued with speeches from Peter Ostman (vice-chairman CD Finland) Marius and Ileana Radu (PNTCD and Areopagus, Romania), Gevorg Babayan (chairman CPUA, Armenia). The closing speech was given by Leon Meijer (Dutch Christian Labor Union).
After that all guests were transported to the center of Brussels for dinner and a some sight seeing.
The next day Kris Vleugels (Chairman, C’axent, Belgium) gave a lecture about the consequences of a lack of family policy while Rev. Okoth Otura introduced the attendants to the position of the family in Kenya.
Leo van Doesburg, the representative of the ECPM in Eastern Europe, updated us about the developments in Southeast-Europe.
Last June there has been a conference held in Lithuania for the Balkan countries. Paulius Saudargas, the vice-chairman of the Lithuanian Christian Democrats (LKD), partly organized this conference. He prepared a report about this conference and showed this to us after the presentation of Leo van Doesburg.
Three delegates from the two German parties informed us about the status of their parties, and the crucial phase they are in right now. They asked us for our prayers for the Partei Bibeltreuen Christen (PBC) and Zentrum.
Lilit Kostanyan informed us about the CPUA and several activities in Armenia.
After this, the attendants were divided in two groups in order to discuss some more about the solution for the current problems of the family in Europe (the outcomes will be published on this website soon). After lunch there was time for the member Congress where Dick van Dijk was chosen as a new executive board member and where the ECPM members accepted the changes in board structure and the future plans of the ECPM.As organizers of the ECPM Congress we would like to thank all speakers and attendants who made this a very fruitful and blessed Congress.
By Anne Marije Staat
Posted by Rev Okoth Otura,
Christian Democratic Movement of Kenya-(CDMK) &
East Africa Christians Transformation Mission Fellowship-(EACTMF), CANADA
Published by API/APN africanpress@chello.no tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525
Peter L.Akhonya said
It is suprisingly to know that money can make people to be drunk. I thought beer could do that, but I have seen leaders being drunk and confused to know what is going on on their people they are leading.
In Kenya we have few people being drunk because of the money they had acquired from corruption. Now if those people talk about the economy growth in some percentage,what do they think the small man also can see the growth of the economy while they don’t have food?
The Kenyan economy is for the President and his Ministers only, and that is why they cry that if somebody else takes over leadership from them, then their economy will fall down. How can one like our former President Moi and his group tell people that Kibaki is doing well, and yet he forget to know that Kibaki kicked him out of leadership because of poor economy after his 24 years in leadership? Does these people of economy growth know that Kenyans are living bellow the standard, and even some people does not have a blanket to cover? Why should these people cheat the World that there is economy growing in Kenya? I have been in KENYA for all of my life, and I have never seen anything growing from the grassroot as economy?
Kenyans should wake up and see what these few people are trying to misuse them for? They should vote them out with their economy growing for themselves? The World Bank and IMF has poured bellions of money in Kenya, but all those bellions have ended in those people’s pockets and then they say Kenyan economy is growing very fast? May God bless them.
Peter L.Akhonya,
USA.