Preparing hope

From April 11 to 13, 2025, eleven young people from The United Methodist Church (UMC) in Central and Southern Europe met to prepare for the youth meeting YouMe.
 
Why should young people have hope - despite all the crises and threats? The members of the Working Group Children and Youth of the UMC in Central and Southern Europe, who traveled to Budapest (Hungary) from eight countries, are convinced that the Christian faith gives reason for hope - even and especially in times of crisis.
 
The international youth meeting YouMe, which will take place in Cluj-Napoca (Romania) from July 24 to 28, 2025, is intended to encourage young people in their life's journey based on this Christian hope.
 
Based on 1 Corinthians 13:13, the participants will explore the reasons for Christian confidence based on the three daily themes of "love", "faith" and "hope". In addition to the content of the program, the aim is, of course, also to bring the young people from the various annual conferences into contact with each other and to have a lot of fun together. After all, Christian hope is shared from person to person, and the joy of faith is particularly palpable in the community.
 
This time, the focus of the annual meeting of the working group was the preparation of the YouMe 2025. However, other topics relating to the work with young people from the UMC in Central and Southern Europe were also discussed: sharing resources, mutual invitations, and social media were just some of them.
 
The Working Group Children and Youth is expected to meet for the next time in Vienna in November 2026. Between the meetings, work will continue via video conferences and other communication channels.
 
Pastor Martin Obermeir-Siegrist expressed his wish for the coming months as follows: "May God preserve the exceptionally good and warm-hearted cooperation of our working group; and may our work - in the various countries of Central and Southern Europe - strengthen the hope of many children and young people."
 
Source: Pastor Martin Obermeir-Siegrist, Linz (Austria) / Urs Schweizer, Zurich (Switzerland)