A week full of (neighbourly) love

Participants preparing for the national youth camp in Hermannsburg.

From 24 May to 2 June 2024, after a long break due to the coronavirus pandemic, an international youth meeting could finally take place again in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover. The meeting, organised by the ELM and the Youth Ministry of the Church of Hanover, has always consisted of two parts since the start in 2008: a short week in Hermannsburg, where a theme is explored, followed by four days at the annual camp of the Youth Ministry of the Church of Hanover in the camp location near the town of Verden. There, the group had its own tent with its own programme, the "Global Village", but also enjoyed the activities in the other tents.

In Hermannsburg, the focus this time was on the topic of "(neighbourly) love", based on the motto for the year: " Let all that you do be done in love" (1 Corinthians 16:14). Fourteen young people from Brazil, Honduras, Latvia and South Africa had been invited via various church partnership groups, plus three participants from Lower Saxony. Unfortunately, there were some problems with the visa applications, so that some participants were unable to arrive at all and others only later. The Hermannsburg part of the programme therefore started with a group of seven young people, which then grew by two more participants in Verden.

And what did the programme on the topic of (neighbourly) love look like? During visits to both a church service in Hermannsburg and the volunteer fire brigade's equipment centre, followed by discussions, the group experienced how differently love of the neighbour can be shown and that both types of commitment are ultimately similar. During an excursion to Celle, eyes, ears and noses were kept open in order to consciously live out love towards people, animals and nature with all senses. Things became a little more political when the participants focussed on the global aspect of neighbourly love, namely peace. At the Friedensort2GO in Hermannsburg, the distribution of population, wealth, carbon dioxide emissions and refugee movements in the world were analysed. The participants then created their own "perfect villages" on paper.

"Despite the differences in language, culture and character, this week in Hermannsburg was really filled to the brim with love thanks to the many conversations, devotions, laughter - and not least chocolate," summarises Thekla Haß, ELM secretary for international youth work and global learning. The subsequent participation at the youth camp of the youth ministery of the Church of Hanover located in Verden was a great opportunity to exchange ideas with many other young people, to try out new things and to trudge through the mud.

 

A report on the Church of Hanover youth ministries annual youth camp in Verden can be found here