Rome (NEV), October 2, 2020 – In a letter sent on September 25, 2020 to the female bodies of the Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Waldensian, the Salvation Army and the Adventist churches, the president of the Federation of Protestant Women in Italy (FDEI), pastor Gabriela Lio, presented the project against gender violence “Let’s start again from you” and announced the funding of 10 scholarships for the Gender Theology Course of the Italian Theologians Coordination. Both initiatives involve churches and structures belonging to the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI).
Financed by the Baptist and Waldensian-Methodist Eight per thousand of the Income Taxes, the project “Let’s start again from you” aims to prevent and combat violence against women, in implementation of the Istanbul Convention which affirms “the need for targeted educational interventions” and the Declaration on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence of the Executive Committee of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (WCC) which encourages “constructive efforts to overcome the attitudes that incline to such violence, and to continue working with local organizations and groups that oppose all forms of sexual and gender-based violence”.
The initiative, which will involve churches, hospitals and schools, plans to “provide in-depth information on the social and cultural causes of gender-based violence”, to build “relationships and practices other than those of domination”, through a critical awareness and the weakening of prejudices, discrimination and violence; furthermore, in-depth studies are planned on the legal, sociological, psychological, demographical and statistical aspects of violence. Creative activities inspired by the theater of the oppressed and the invisible theater will be offered together with a workshop on the pastoral relationship of help to women victims of violence.
The disbursement of the scholarships, on the other hand, concerns the first-level online course in gender theology organized by the Coordination of Italian Theologians. The FDEI National Committee has in fact allocated a fund for 10 scholarships for the distance learning course entitled “Theology of women – Themes, contexts, practices”. The course offers a basic knowledge of the perspectives, themes, methods and contexts that women have developed, experienced and practiced.
For further information please contact gabriela.lio@ucebi.it
