The European Politics and Society Network is designed to teach key Christian political and social leaders how to be salt and light through effectively communicating Christ’s character in their respective contexts.  Applicants should be those who are working in areas of politics, campaigning or community action. Both seasoned campaigners and aspirant politicians will benefit from the input of leading thinkers and practitioners. This Network will be led by Nola Leach, Charlie Hoare, and David Fieldsend. Also speaking in this Network are Benjamin W. Bull, Pablo Martinez, Andreas Matter-Tanski, Peter Saunders, Christine Schirrmacher, Stuart Windsor and Vesna Radeka. Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.

It is strongly suggested that all participants of the Politics and Society Network read The Cube and the Cathedral by George Weigel (Basic Books, 2005) in preparation for the Forum.

David Fieldsend is a co-leader of the European Politics and Society Network and is the Manager of CARE for Europe, promoting Christian values in public policy discussion at the European Institutions concentrating on bioethics and family policy. He gained his first degree (town planning) from Newcastle University, holds a diploma in theological studies (Trinity, Bristol) and last year was awarded a European Masters degree in bioethics. He spent many years as a planning specialist in local government in the UK (including a secondment advising the Sudanese Government). He stood as a British Parliamentary Candidate in 1983 for the constituency of Falmouth-Camborne. He is married to Anne; they have three adult children and one grandson. He is a licensed Reader in the Church of England and member of the diocesan synod for Europe.

Charlie Hoare is a co-leader of the European Politics and Society Network. He received his Bachelor's degree in History at the University of Durham. After a year of working for a British Member of Parliament (and junior member of the Foreign Office ministerial team), he studied law before taking a Masters degree at the London School of Economics in social policy and non-profit management. Since 1998 he has been International Secretary at Christian Action, Research & Education (CARE), the UK's leading Christian policy and social justice non-profit organisation. In addition, he has assisted CARE's International Director in establishing a strategic global network of policy makers, academics, politicians and diplomats at the national and regional levels. In the past two years he has also been Deputy Director of the CARE Institute for Faith & Culture and helps direct the IFC Intern Programme, developing and envisioning some of the brightest young graduates in Britain in policy involvement and cultural transformation. He is married to Eleanor; they have two young sons.

Nola Leach is a co-leader of the European Politics and Society Network and serves as the Chief Executive of CARE (Christian Action, Research & Education), one of Europe’s leading Christian charities which provides resources and helps bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives. CARE undertakes a variety of social caring and educational programmes and research.  It is represented in the UK Parliaments and Assemblies, at the EU in Brussels and at the UN in Geneva and New York.  As Head of the Public Affairs team, she leads campaigns on topics such as human trafficking, Internet pornography and the value of human life from its beginning to natural end. She has overseen the publication of Living Free a sequel to the CARE book Searching for Intimacy – a resource designed to help those trapped in the net of internet pornography. Nola is increasingly in demand as both a writer and public speaker.  She has penned numerous articles, and regularly appears in the media.

Benjamin W. Bull, Esquire, is formerly chief counsel and now executive director of Alliance Defense Fund-Global.  He supervises the international activities for ADF. Bull practices in the area of international human rights law and works to prevent the development of adverse foreign precedents and their importation to the U.S.  Bull joined ADF in 2001 as chief counsel and has practiced in the area of American constitutional law and international religious liberties. He is an active member of the bars of Arizona, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has had several cases decided at the U.S. Supreme Court.  Bull has practiced law since 1975 and obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of South Carolina Law Center. 

Pablo Martinez is a medical doctor and psychiatrist at a Christian Hospital in Barcelona and serves on the Forum Steering Committee. Pablo has also developed a wide ministry as a lecturer and counselor, guest speaking in more than twenty countries throughout Europe. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA), also serving as one of the organizations vice-presidents. Pablo has filled the role of President of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance and Professor of Pastoral Psychology at the Spanish Theological Seminary for seven years. He has authored two books, Prayer Life: How Your Personality Affects the Way You Pray (Spring Harvest/Paternoster Press), now published in eight languages, and Tracing the Rainbow: Walking Through Loss and Bereavement (same publisher).

Andreas Matter-Tanski is a lawyer and economist, practicing economic law at the Supreme Court of Switzerland. Besides his professional activity, he has specialized in the fields of sociology and history of law and conflicts. He is particularly interested in the way society tries to restrain violence and uses conflicts as well as their settlement in different arenas (law courts, mass media, political and economic institutions, etc.) to continually redefine the possible spheres and the unavoidable limits of order and peace, shared values and acceptable antagonisms. A few years ago, he has expanded his interests towards a cultural anthropology of conflicts and violence (mainly through the French anthropologist René Girard) and a social, legal and economic anthropology of the Gospel of Luke (especially a cultural history of violence, indifference and compassion rooted in the Parable of the Good Samaritan). He is married with Friederike, a German cardiologist.

Latchezar Popov is President of the Rule of Law Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria.  A 1978 law graduate of Sofia State University Faculty of Law with a Masters of Law Degree, Mr. Popov served as legal advisor for several state enterprises from 1978-1990. From 1990-1993, he was in private practice and in 1993, he became counsel for Advocates International and helped launch the Rule of Law Institute in 1995.  In 1996, Mr. Popov received the Pro Fide Award from the Friends of the Martyrs Church of Finland for his humanitarian work. Mr. Popov successfully completed the Human Rights Course at the Danish Center for Human Rights in 1998. In April 2000, Mr. Popov gave a report about the Bulgarian Legislation of Religious Freedom at the 56th session of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva. Currently, he also serves as Vice Chairman of the Institute for Total Encouragement and is a Board Member of the Lutheran Church in Bulgaria. As of 2000, the Rule of Law Institute had a network of 110 lawyers engaged in the specialties of human rights, religious liberty, conflict resolution, and professional ethics.

Vesna Radeka was born in 1974, in Novi Sad. She attended Philosophical College, where she received a degree in Serbian Literature and Language. She has also completed graduate academic studies at the Novi Sad Theological Seminary. Since 1997 she has been involved in full-time ministry. From 1997-2000 she and her family lived in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they planted a church. From 2001-2003 she was involved in planting another church in Sombor, Serbia. Today she is the President of Pregnancy Resource Center “Choose Life,” whose goal is to raise awareness of the value of human life, to educate youth about reproductive health to help women who are facing unplanned pregnancies, and to help women hurt by abortion. Vesna is also helping her husband Nenad in establishing the NewPlant Church in Novi Sad, Serbia. They have two children.

Peter Saunders was born in New Zealand and originally trained as a General Surgeon, before serving with the Africa Inland Mission in Kenya and completing two years mission training at All Nations Christian College in the UK. Since 1992 he has worked in full-time Christian ministry with Christian Medical Fellowship, a UK-based organisation with over 4,500 UK doctors and 1,000 medical student members, first as Student Secretary and since 1999 as General Secretary. As CMF’s chief executive he is involved in leadership training, teaching evangelism and ethics, medical mission, writing, editing and media work. He is also a member of the European Apologetics Network Leadership Team. He is married to Kirsty, also a doctor, and they have three sons, Christopher, Benjamin and Jonathan. They live in St Albans, UK, and are members of Spicer Street Free Evangelical church.

Christine Schirrmacher received her MA in Islamic Studies in 1988, and her PhD in Islamic Studies in 1991, from the University of Bonn, with a thesis dealing with the Muslim-Christian controversy in the 19th and 20th century. She is presently Professor of Islamic Studies at the Department “Religious Studies and Missiology” of the “Evangelisch-Theologische Faculteit” (Protestant University) in Leuven, Belgium, and is lecturer of Islam at “Freie Theologische Hochschule” (Free Theological University) in Giessen. She is Director of the “Institut für Islamfragen“ (Institute of Islamic Studies) of the German, Austrian and Swiss Evangelical Alliance, as well as an official speaker and advisor on Islam for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA). She lectures on Islam and security issues, serves in continuing education programmes related to politics, and is a consultant to different advisory bodies of the German government. She is member of the “Internationale Gesellschaft für Menschenrechte“ (International Society for Human Rights) (IGFM/ISHR) in Frankfurt, member of the “Deutsch-Jordanische Gesellschaft” (German-Jordanian Society) in Berlin and curatorium member of the “Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen” (Protestant Centre for World View Questions), an academic documentation and advisory centre of the Protestant Church of Germany. She is the author of numerous articles and 12 books, including The Islamic View of Major Christian Teachings (2001), Islam and Christianity Compared (2006) and The Sharia--The Islamic Law (2008).

Stuart Windsor has been the National Director of CSW for 17 years. Stuart has overseen the growth of CSW UK from two members of staff to 33 members during that time and made over 60 visits to countries where Christians and others suffer persecution for their religious beliefs. Since his involvement in CSW, the work has grown to achieve a high profile for advocacy on religious freedom throughout the world. Stuart has spoken internationally on a number of continents and carried out briefings in the US Congress and Senate, giving evidence in hearings at the UNHCR, EU and UK parliaments. Just one example of his work has involved securing the safety of several Pakistani Christian family who were subject to apostasy charges and the Pakistan penal code.

Day 1:

The biggest threat to religious freedom in America is the attack on Christian rights of conscience.  Christians are being forced to engage in various activities which violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. A second threat is government censorship of expression of the Church. There are speech threats against Christian students and faculty on state university campuses. There are increasing efforts to extinguish the life of the pre-born through abortion and experimentation. There are increasing threats to traditional marriages; and promotion of same sex “marriage.” America is being threatened by importation of harmful foreign legal precedents.  There are government efforts to restrict protected Christian expression on public property. 

Christian Values in Today's Culture of Ideological Confrontation

Our society is often called post-Christian. Nowadays, defending or just evoking Christian values frequently meets hostile or even ag­res­sive reactions. At the same time, important evolutions change the very mech­an­isms as well as the rules of public debate and ideol­og­ic­al con­front­ation. Some of these evolutions are examined, then two strat­eg­ies (the first more con­front­at­ional, the second more dialogue-oriented) of de­fend­ing Christ­ian values in different arenas of de­bate and conflict (Chur­ches, mass media, law-making, law courts, univ­ers­it­ies, etc.) are dis­cussed.

Day 2:

Christians are not only members of their church, but also members of state and society like their fellow citizens. They keep watching societal developments and sometimes they are worried about present developments like the spread and growth of political Islam, the building of more and larger mosques and higher minaretts.  What is the appropriate answer for Christians watching the political Challenges of Islam? To abstain from politics and be active only within their churches? To intervene and try to interfere into the building of mosques? Aren't we responsible for how Europe will look like tomorrow?

 From assassinations in Colombia to targeted violence in Nigeria, from questions of church registration in Kazakhstan to Christians abducted in Pakistan, the story of the worldwide church is one marked by suffering and violations of human rights.  It is also the story of faith and courage in the midst of oppression.  What are the challenges today?  What solidarity can we offer?  What can we learn from those who our persecuted for their faith?  What is the role of international lobbying and human rights reporting? Join us as we hear the stories, see the evidence of hope, and debate our role in responding.

Day 3:

Encountering and Engaging Media as Christian Leaders: The Press and Religious Freedom

In our media saturated cultures Christian leaders ought to be able to relate to media in a dynamic, credible and relevant way. This involves thinking through appropriate strategies, arguments and formats. In this session Peter Saunders draws on his extensive media exposure, sharing his experiences from various encounters with secular, Christian and medical media and presenting his reflections on how to defend and confirm biblical truth in the press.

The Spanish Evangelical Alliance's Internet Strategy

Day four will consist of three case study presentations which will address the overarching topic, Religious Freedom: Case Studies from Christian Ministries and Organisations. 

Choose Life - A Pregnancy Crisis Centre

Choose Life is the first pregnancy resource centre in Serbia and is bringing hope and practical help to women, men and children. In a society that was based on atheist principles and values for many years, the ministry challenges the prevailing culture with a message of hope and human dignity. How has this young Christian ministry charting a course through the complex political and theological currents in this part of Eastern Europe? What lessons can be learnt from their experience?

CARE - Christian Action Research and Education

 In 2008, a politically-motivated article appeared on the front page of a mainstream UK newspaper regarding CARE. The article made serious and totally untrue allegations that could have undermined the charity. Using this as a case study, Nola Leach will illustrate how the power of the press following a secular agenda can have far reaching consequences for a ministry. 

Rule of Law Institute

Latchezar Popov

The Rule of Law Institute contributes to the protection of the supremacy of law and harmonization of the Bulgarian legislation of the European Community, in the sphere of the principles of law, human rights, religious freedoms, mediation, peacemaking, integration of faith and profession, moral and ethics, corruption and human trafficking. The Institute helps to enlarge the contacts between lawyers, scholars and students in Law and national leaders all over the country. We also use methods consisting in the monitoring and giving signals to the competent state authorities for violation of human rights and religious freedoms, mediation at solving of problems, applying professionalism and ethics, presenting of expert legal statements in favor of the legislation process in the Republic of Bulgaria as well as encouraging tolerance in society as a condition for successful international cooperation and integration of the Republic of Bulgaria to the European Union.