A fund to enable women to participate in the work of the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women.
The Forum
The Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women is an international organisation in which women from all the Christian Churches work together.
The Programma
Includes educational projects. It supports women in their search for a common European identity and shared Christian spirituality. The work involves women from 40 countries and most of it is carried out voluntarily.
Even the decision-making and coordinating work of the Forum is educational.
The Ruth Epting Fund
To ensure the future of the Forum we need to make sure that women new to ecumenical engagement can share in the experience of the Forum and that all countries are adequately represented when decisions are made. Many are prevented by the lack of finances and also the inability to raise money in the economic climate of their own countries.
The Aims of the Fund
- The first aim is to raise € 240.000 in the next four years
- The longer-term aim is to raise enough money to set some aside for investment to produce a reliable annual income
Ruth Epting
Rut Epting is one of the first women pastors of the Swiss Reformed Church and a 'Mother of the Forum'. She was teaching theology in Africa and was engaged in the Basel Mission in four continents. She has worked tirelessly for the Forum for more than twenty-five years, to enable women to play their full part in their churches and communities across Europe. Now in her eighties, she is the Honorary President. She still attends meeting and contributes new and radical ideas for the future.
She has graciously agreed that her name may be used for this fund because she knows that:
- Women new to eucumenical engagement need to share in the experience of the Forum.
- All Forum member countries should be adequately represented regardless of ability to pay.
- A central fund, which finances the participation of women, according to need, is the only just way of giving opportunities to all nations of Europe.
How you can help
- You can become a member of this fund by paying a minimum annual of € 20,-. You can make a further donation. It can be a one-off contribution or you may like to commit a regular sum annually. If 600 people were willing to give € 100,- a year for four years we could raise € 240.000-. Just because we use this as an example we would not want to discourage others who can make smaller gifts.
- You can also make a donation without becoming a member of the Fund
- You can arrange for people to make their contributions in your own country so that they can be passed on to the Fund with the least possible exchange costs.
- We hope that national Forum groups will direct their contributions to this central fund rather than helping individual countries.
- Think of leaving the Ruth Epting Fund a legacy.
- You can pass on the information about this fund to somebody else.
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