Board members this year:

Female co-president: Randi Solberg, Germany /Norway

Male co-president: Arthur Thiry, Sweden

Secretary: Heleen de Boer, Netherlands

Treasurer: Arie Borgdorff, Netherlands

This year has been a very special one for the European Forum, with board members and other Forum representatives taking part and making Forum visible in several big events of importance to our work and organisation.

In addition to the running Forum business, the board has this year had special focus on the following main areas /events:

- WCC assembly in Brazil

- ILGA conferences and cooperation, including a "Day on Religion" at the ILGA World conference

- Development and financial funding of an Eastern Europe activist training program

(see 'special focus' points below).

After having worked with these and other subjects, we would like to invite you to a special workshop at the conference in Riga (see separate point below), where those who are interested are welcome to discuss future European Forum strategies. The workshop is placed on the Friday, so that proposals which might come up can be handed on to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Saturday for voting.

1. Running business during the year

1.1 Board meetings

The board has had two board meetings, where we had some good work discussions, amongst other things concerning the special focus areas described in this report. At each board meeting, Arie Borgdorff has reported on our financial status, and the expenses have been held within the budget. The board is actively using the "board tasks overview" from the portfolio project as a check list for its running work.

Both meetings took place in Riga, in November 2005 and March 2006, to be able to work closely with the Riga conference arranging team. Both times we had discussion and coordination meetings with the team, lead by Matti Michelmann, the leader of the arranging committee, and in November we also visited the conference venue with the team. In connection with the meetings with the local group, we have also had social gatherings, including talks about the situation and development for LGBT in Latvia and the churches there. At the conference, Maris Sants, the responsible for the content of the conference workshop program, will probably tell more about this.

After the board meeting in November 2005, Randi Solberg visited the Sunday evening service of the Open Church in Riga and held a greeting to the parish members from the European Forum.

1.2 Internal communication; Newsletter and egroup

Heleen de Boer has sent out one formal newsletter this year, and otherwise there have been several more informal emails to the Forum egroup from the board. Egroup address: EuropeanForum@yahoogroups.com

In addition, the board members have often given out information about the Forum to external people who ask for it.

1.3 Website

Mike Dark has done a great job by getting our website further developed. Heleen de Boer and Ineke Lautenbach (NL) have agreed with Mike the way we want to continue to develop our website and put more information on the internet. Heleen will make a separate report of the website-group (the way we have built the website and putting now the information to our webmaster). www.euro-lgbt-christians.org

1.4 The Forum book project

Kerstin Söderblom and Randi Solberg continue to present the book "Let Our Voices Be Heard! Christian Lesbians in Europe Telling their Stories" and giving lectures /readings based on the book

The last year, the book has been presented (and most of the places a lecture has been held) in /at:

- the "Kirchentag" in Hannover /Germany, May 2005 (Protestant Church days with more than 100.000 participants)

- the European Forum conference in Oslo/Norway, June 2005

- meeting with the Christian LGBT group "Five Loaves of Bread" in Budapest/ Hungary, August 2005

- a congress of all German Christian LGBT networks in Bielefeld /Germany, October 2005

- the ILGA Europe conference in Paris /France, October 2005

- a women's culture house in Augsburg /Germany, December 2005

- the International Christian lesbian conference in Bad Boll/Germany, December 2005.

- the WCC assembly market place in Porto Alegre/ Brazil, February 2006

- the ILGA World conference in Geneva /Switzerland, March/April 2006

- CSD /Gay pride arrangement in Leipzig /Germany, May 2006

The book itself is being presented, along with articles and lectures based on the information in the book, describing the situation for lesbians and gays in the churches and societies of Europe. Meanwhile, the lecture has been extended to covering the situation for Lesbians and gays in the three big religions on a world basis. In addition, Randi gave a copy of the book to the UN Special Rapporteure on Freedom of Religion or Belief, while meeting with her in Geneva in April 2006.

There have not been sold many books this year except the ones which have been sold in connection with Kerstin's and Randi's lectures. So, there must be a big potential of buyers out there who have not been reached yet, - go and get them!!

Arthur Thiry reports that the book has been reviewed and received very positive comments in "Church Magazine" in Sweden.

During the last year we have received two donations for the book project:

- Euro 500 from the Forum member group "Åpen Kirkegruppe", Norway

- Euro 550 from a private donator in Frankfurt a.M. /Germany

Thank you very much!

The final accounts of the book project will be done in June 2006 and will be reported via the Forum egroup.

In Germany the lesbian network "Lesben und Kirche" (LuK), represented by Nicole Warning, has taken on the work of coordinating a German translation of the book. Most of the texts have been translated and many also proof read, but there is still a lack of somebody who can put time and energy into the search for a publisher for the German version.

1.5 Articles

1.5.1 "Werkstatt Schwule Theologie", Germany

At the end of 2005, Randi Solberg published an article in the German Journal "Werkstatt Schwule[1] Theologie" about the work of the European Forum and the situation for lesbians and gays in Europe.

1.5.2 "Junge Kirche", Germany

In spring 2006, Randi Solberg and Kerstin Söderblom published an article in the German liberal church magazine "Junge Kirche" about how / whether or not the situation for LGBT people has changed in the new EU member states after they have joined the EU. Several Forum contacts in these countries were interviewed /asked about their experiences for the article.

1.5.3 "Vroom & Vrolijk", Netherlands

In spring 2006, Randi Solberg published an article in the Dutch LGBT magazine "Vroom & Vrolijk" about the WCC assembly in a "queer" perspective.

1.6 International /global work

1.6.1 WCC (World Council of Churches)

The European Forum sent a delegation of four people to the WCC assembly conference in February in Brazil, and the delegation were able to host a workshop on the subject of homosexuality and Church, called "Diversity as a base for Unity". For more information, see the "special focus" point about this below and the separate report from the Forum delegation. The delegation will also give a slides presentation at the Forum conference in Riga.

Heleen de Boer and Arie Borgdorff arranged for a letter of recommendation from a Dutch WCC member church for the Forum delegation for Brazil. A recommendation like that is necessary to make non-WCC-members able to participate in the WCC assembly conferences.

While being in Geneva for the ILGA World conference, Randi Solberg and Kerstin Söderblom tried to get a meeting with representatives at the WCC head quarter which is located in Geneva. This unfortunately did not work out because of the full program of the WCC representatives.

1.6.2 CEC (Conference of European Churches)

Arthur Thiry was able to make a follow up visit at the CEC offices in December where he met with the human rights officer. Arthur reports that the meeting was excellent though it became clear that there is little (no!) help to be expected from the staff of CEC in our matters.

1.6.3 Lutherans Concerned / North America (LC/NA)

Randi Solberg has continued the contact with Marti Scheel and Philip Moeller in Lutherans Concerned /North America, and she has been invited to give a lecture about the European Forum and the situation for lesbians and gays in the European Churches, at their North American conference in Toronto / Canada at the end of June 2006. It is now clear that LC/NA will cover the costs of travel, conference and accommodation.

1.6.4 "Canaries in coal mines" on the Faroe Islands

August 22^nd - 27^th 2005, Arthur Thiry and Britta Svensson represented EKHO Sweden at the "Canaries in coal mines" which was the Nordic LGBT students' movement's conference which was held in Torshavn on the Faroe Islands. They presented the European Forum, EKHO, and for the first time open faces for the Christians of the Faroe Islands. One letter to the local press (published while they were there) stated that the Faroes didn't need help from Swedish Sodom and Gomorra. They were given plenty of press coverage as well as TV time.

1.6.5 Homo marriage in Sweden

Arthur reports that the church of Sweden's theological committee's hearing regarding "homosexuality, church and marriage" manuscript has been translated into English and is being published. There is a mixture of good and bad as in all hearings when all views are aired.  Arthur presented the European Forum and our work in this connection, -in an international context as well as some radical LGBT perspectives.

1.6.6 "Katholische Weltjugendtag" in Cologne /Germany in August 2005

Young people from all over the world were invited to come to this huge Catholic meeting taking place in Cologne, Germany. Arie Borgdorff was representing the European Forum in preparations for this, together with HuKGermany.

1.7 New Forum member group

The Hungarian network „Five Loaves of Bread"has applied for membership this year. The board is supportive of them as a new coming member group, and they will be suggested and supported for membership by EKHO Sweden and David & Jonathan (France). They will not be able to be present in Riga, but both European Forum presidents have during the last years had meetings with representatives of the group, also discussing future cooperation and possible Forum membership;

- at the ILGA Europe conference in Budapest, October 2004 (Arthur)

- while giving a lecture and reading from the book "Let Our Voices Be Heard!" at a meeting in Budapest, August 2005 (Randi)

1.8 Forum conference Riga

In addition to the planning of the Annual General Meeting (AGM), the board has been communicating on a frequent basis with Matti Michelmann in Latvia, leader of the local arranging committee, supporting the process of preparing the European Forum conference in Riga 2006. A delegation from the Latvian group was being sponsored to participate in the Oslo conference in 2005 to get to know the Forum better. During the last year we have had cooperation concerning practical, financial and content aspects of the conference. It has come out very useful that Matti works in the travel business. The board has been very grateful for that! The Riga group did not see any possibilities of finding financial means to support participants from Eastern Europe, and we agreed that we would use money from the existing Agape fund for this. Arie Borgdorff took on the responsibility of administrating the process of dealing with the applications from potential Eastern European participants.

In addition, several representatives from Eastern European countries are being funded to participate in the Riga conference through the Eastern European Pilot Project.

Matti Michelmann, Maris Sants and the rest of the Riga arranging committee have been putting an enormous amount of work into the preparations of this conference, and the board is looking forward to an interesting and exciting conference at the wonderful bay at the Baltic Sea.

1.9 Next Forum conferences

The next Forum conferences will be:

2007 - Ascension weekend in France

2008 - United Kingdom

The Forum Group "David & Jonathan" is preparing for 2007 already, and we hope to get it settled with the UK for 2008 at the AGM in Riga. Suggestions /invitations for conference places the following years are of course also welcome.

2. Special focus: World Council of Churches (WCC) assembly,

Porto Alegre /Brazil, February 2006

At the AGM 2004 there was a separate working group established to develop the relationship between the Forum and the WCC. During the Forum AGMs the last years there have also been set aside money for a Forum delegation to participate in the WCC assembly in Brazil in February 2006. The WCC holds its assembly every 6^th -8^th year. A group from the Forum board and the Forum "WCC working group" put together an application to the WCC to be included in the official workshop program at the assembly conference with a workshop about homosexuality and church. We were chosen amongst several groups which had applied, and so the European Forum was able to offer the workshop "Diversity as a base for Unity", where ca 80 people from many churches and countries (including also orthodox representatives and African and Asian countries) took actively part in discussions and dialogue.

The European Forum delegation, travelling to Brazil and doing this workshop, consisted of:

Brenda Harrison, UK, Forum delegation coordinator

Kerstin Söderblom, Germany

Matti Michelmann, Latvia

Randi Solberg, Norway/Germany, European Forum female co-president

The delegation members also took part in many other workshops, and attended bible studies, lectures and the so called "Ecumenical conversations about Human sexuality", which is the (only) place during the assembly where official WCC delegates (together with youth participants up to 30 years) discuss the subject of homosexuality. The subject is very much discussed amongst the more informal ecumenical participants from all over the world, though, especially in those workshops where it is relevant to bring up the subject.

During the 10 days of intensive assembly program, our delegation was arranging daily strategy meetings with present representatives from the Metropolitan Community Churches (MCC) and other LGBT representatives/networks from around the world. MCC had an information booth at the "assembly market place" where we were able to also present Forum and our book "Let Our Voices Be Heard!". Together with MCC representatives we also wrote and submitted an article to the assembly newspaper about the importance of including homosexuality in the WCC anti-violence program. Unfortunately, the newspaper editors did not react to this submission. Some very positive sides of the participation at the assembly were the many conversations and discussions with people from churches all over the world, and our broadening the field of contacts for a possible future worldwide Christian LGBT network. The Forum delegation was definitely also visible with rainbows attached to our name tags spelling out the whole name of our organisation in big letters.

During the assembly, the European Forum delegation was regularly reporting back from Brazil to the European Forum through emails through the Forum egroup.

The delegation will report in more detail from the WCC assembly in a separate document and at the Forum conference 2006 in Riga, including a slides presentation on the conference opening night.

3. Special focus:

ILGA (International Lesbian and Gay Association), Paris and Geneva

At the AGM 2004 there was a separate working group established to develop the relationship between the Forum and the ILGA. We find it very important to work together with ILGA. In many countries church leaders have a big influence on politicians and government, so it could be of advantage to bring "church" and "society" closer together also on the LGBT side, to reach our LGBT-political goals. In this co-work ILGA would be the expert on LGBT questions in the society at large, and the European Forum the expert on LGBT questions in the Christian Churches.

Last year the board suggested - and the AGM decided - not to become ILGA members, but to seek out ways on how to cooperate more closely with ILGA, by sending formal Forum representatives to the annual ILGA Europe conferences and - as a "check out" - to the ILGA World conference in Geneva in 2006.

3.1 ILGA Europe conference, Paris, Oct 2005

Chris Newlands and Randi Solberg were formally representing the European Forum at the annual Conference of ILGA Europe, taking place in Paris for four days in October 2005. Randi held a workshop about "Homosexuality and religion" together with the founder of the Muslim LGBT group Al Fatiha in the UK. She also talked with many representatives of ILGA Europe, especially discussing the Forum plans of a pilot project, training LGBT activists in Eastern Europe in theological argumentation. Discussions with a representative of the "Organisation for Security and Cooperation" (OSCE) showed that it would be a good help for OSCE if we can report to them about hate crimes /speeches in religious contexts. This aspect is built into the Forum Eastern Europe pilot project (see point 3). Chris was also active in promoting the European Forum in various discussions and conversations. During the conference, Chris and Randi met with representatives of Forum member groups which are also ILGA members, to discuss a possible relationship between Forum and ILGA.

Chris and Randi also had lobby discussions with the ILGA World representatives about the "Day on Religion and Homosexuality" being planned for the ILGA World conference in Geneva in March 2006.

3.2 ILGA World conference, Geneva, March 2006

Chris Newlands, Kerstin Söderblom and Randi Solberg were formally representing the European Forum at the ILGA World conference, taking place in Geneva for five days in March 2006. The World conference was this time also preceded by four days of thematic pre-conferences, covering the areas of transgender, religion, health and workplace.

3.2.1 Day on Religion

The Day on Religion, where the Forum was directly involved, was a one day pre-conference where LGBT people with Jewish, Muslim and Christian backgrounds were exchanging experiences and visions/thoughts about the future. Chris Newlands had been Forum's representative in the arranging committee and responsible for preparing the Christian part of this pre-conference, where even Bishop Michael Ingham from Vancouver/Canada took part. He was the first bishop in Canada to decide positively on blessing same sex couples. Also a gay minister from Nigeria, who is setting up a church for LGBT people there in cooperation with Changing Attitudes (UK), gave strong witness of his thoughts and experiences. Kerstin Söderblom took actively part in promoting the European Forum, and Randi Solberg was one of the lecturers, presenting the European Forum and its work and projects.

3.2.2 Meeting with the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
Representing the European Forum, Randi Solberg took part in a small delegation (from ILGA) with representatives from Jewish, Muslim and Christian LGBT networks, which was invited to speak (short 3 minute speeches) to this UN Special Rapporteur, Ms. Asma Jahangir at the UN offices in Geneva. After our speeches, she and her two present colleagues emphasized the importance of getting reports with concrete examples of human rights violations in religious connections. We are taking this seriously, and within the frameworks of our coming Eastern European Pilot project we will seek to collect such information.

The speech given at the meeting has been circulated to the European Forum people /groups through the Forum egroup.

3.2.3 Dalai Lama

At the opening ceremony of the ILGA World conference, a very supportive letter from Dalai Lama was read out loud. Other reports tell that he is no supporter of same sex relationships, though (rather against it, but protesting against violence on such grounds), but still it was a special and emotionally "strong" experience to hear these words of support from one of the religious leaders of the world, while sitting in the room with around 200 LGBT representatives, who are daily fighting for justice and human rights for all people in societies and churches all over the world.

Dalai Lamas greeting has been circulated to the European Forum people /groups through the Forum egroup.

3.3 Input to the Forum strategy discussion after the two ILGA conferences

One of the very important experiences after the two conferences, is that ILGA is a place where we meet other LGBT activists - Christian, Jewish, Muslim, non-religious - from all over Europe /the world. For instance, at the World conference in Geneva, there was a gay Imam from South Africa (which Randi also interviewed as a journalist), which is quite special, when we think about the Muslim leaders claiming that there exists no such 'thing' as a Gay or Lesbian Muslim even.. LGBT-people are facing very much the same kind of prejudices and challenges everywhere, although in very varying degrees.

Contacts through conferences /organisations like these can be very useful for Forum with the aspect of developing a world wide Christian /inter-religious LGBT network (long time perspective) and in cooperating with more secular groups in Europe in our fight against religiously based homophobia. Through these two conferences we are searching to develop the contact to for instance the LGBT interfaith group in Bosnia Herzegovina, - starting through including two of their representatives in our Pilot project training program. It also seems as if the more and more visible participation of religious groups at the ILGA conferences is challenging ILGA to also include this aspect in their central work.
The Forum representatives, who have visited these two ILGA conferences, seem to be getting more open also for the thought of the forum becoming a member of the ILGA. This will have to be discussed at the strategy workshop and the AGM in Riga. If Forum should become a member, we would be members directly in ILGA World, but belong to the geographical part ILGA Europe. The annual membership fee is 125 Euro. Participation at conferences would have to be included in the Forum budget as annual costs (The ILGA World conferences every second year, in addition to ILGA Europe conferences every year). The board sees that if we want to take part in all /both types of conferences, we would most likely need to raise the forum membership fee. This will also be discussed in Riga.

4. Special focus:

Eastern European Pilot project; theological argumentation training, financially supported by Kerkinactie (NL) and the Norwegian Government.

4.1 Background

The European Forum has been doing work in Eastern Europe through several years, amongst other things inviting and sponsoring representatives of Christian LGBT groups to come to the annual Forum conferences. The experiences from this work, including cooperation with Forum groups in Eastern European countries, clearly show us that the situation for (Christian) LGBT people in Eastern Europe - in churches and society - is extremely difficult, that there is a big need for changes, and also that there are people who are eagerly working to do so. The attitudes in the different churches are often very hostile towards homosexuality, and many church leaders are actively condemning LGBT people through media and in their churches (socalled "hate speeches"), and also working hard to influence state politicians according to their views, for instance to prevent them from fulfilling EU demands /expectations like anti discrimination and registered partnership laws. There is often no 'space' in church and society for lesbians and gays to be open and to address the subject of homosexuality and church /faith, - and there is definitely not a safe space. One of the goals of the European Forum is to contribute in creating and developing such a 'safe space' in a presently hostile environment, in cooperation with local LGBT people.

In connection with the book project "Let Our Voices Be Heard!" we have widened the number of our contact persons in Eastern Europe even further, we know more about the concrete situation, and we are continuing to develop our contacts further through ILGA Europe. It is time to gather forces, organize our work in the Eastern European countries in a more structured and professional way, and build up a package of concrete projects in cooperation with chosen representatives in the different countries.

At a conference in Budapest in August 2005, Kerstin Söderblom and Randi Solberg met a representative from the Dutch Church organisation Kerkinactie (an organisation of the Protestant and several ecumenical churches in the Netherlands, - which supported the Forum book project with 10.000 Euro in 2004). Through discussions about Forum's work and future visions /plans, the representative expressed the opinion that Kerkinactie might be interested in supporting our work in Eastern Europe. On this background, a group of Forum people (the Forum board members plus Kerstin Söderblom, Brenda Harrison, Chris Newlands, Robert Simon, Leah and Jasmina) discussed how we could form a concrete project in Eastern Europe out of the thoughts and visions we had discussed till then.

4.2 Pilot project

We have chosen to start with a pilot project, concentrating on the countries Moldova, Poland and Bosnia Herzegovina. Within this pilot project we want to train chosen representatives, to enable them to work towards churches, LGBT- and the general society in their countries. Through training in theological argumentations they can be able to participate in discussions in local media, seek debates /dialogue with local church people and also in the secular LGBT movement, where there is a prevailing attitude that it is impossible to be both LGBT and Christian. The basic principle will be "to train the trainer" as multipliers, in content and methods. The project is also based on the principle of "mutual learning", meaning that the participants and the trainers all have things to learn from each other and to contribute to the development of this project and training program.

The pilot project has three training modules which will take place as follows:

* At the European Forum conference in Riga, May, 2006
* At the ILGA Europe conference in Sofia, October, 2006, and
* At the European Forum conference in Strasbourg, May, 2007.

The European Forum board finds it important to get a closer link to ILGA and its member groups, which are working on LGBT issues in a more political connection. In many countries local church leaders and political leaders are closely linked to each other as institutions of power, and we see the necessity of getting a closer link between church political and state political lobby work also on the LGBT side. Through arranging one of our course modules in connection with the ILGA conference in Sofia, we hope to also strengthen the connection between our two organisations.

One of the big problems (also) in many Eastern European countries are so called "religious hate speeches", and also hate crimes. They are very seldom reported into a professional system. Through informal talks with a representative from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the meeting with the 'UN Special Rapporteure on Freedom of Religion or Belief' in Geneva, we have come to understand that such reports would be useful and wanted by both institutions. Parallel to the training, we want to develop a system for reporting information about hate crimes/hate speeches based on religious argumentation /aspects, with the goal of canalizing this on also to the OSCE and the UN Special Rapporteure.

We also want to look at the positive aspects and learn from so called "success stories". We are starting to have quite a lot of examples of positive developments in especially northern and western European countries and churches. We will continue to collect these examples and use them in the dialogues and work in Eastern Europe. As part of the project, the trainees will be asked to collect and report also positive experiences and developments in their countries and churches.

An important part of the pilot project will be to evaluate the experiences, learn from these, and - if the European Forum decides positively on this - then develop a main project for the three years' period 2008-2010. In 2006 and 2007 training/course packages will have to be developed, used and evaluated and then adjusted for the potential following main project. Therefore there will be a high portion of development costs in 2006-2007, which will serve as ground investment on which we can build the planning of the potential main project 2008-10. If the experiences from the pilot project show that we should go on with planning a "main project", this will include some broader fundraising work. We are thinking of the possibilities of looking for EU funding for a "main project". Therefore, Kerstin Söderblom and Randi Solberg have been participating in a two days seminar /course in "EU funding possibilities" in Frankfurt a.M. /Germany in December 2005. The information and training they got there looked promising for the future possibilities, and were also helpful for the development of - and fundraising process for - the pilot project.

The European Forum is an ecumenical network, and so is this project. In many Eastern European countries the Orthodox and Catholic churches are the most dominant ones. But, there are also other churches represented in several of the countries, for instance; Lutheran, Reformed, Protestant, Anglican and Independent Churches. Our work will, on a long term, aim to include all the bigger churches represented. Our project co partner in Bosnia Herzegovina is an Interfaith group, with which we also see it as desirable to develop the cooperation.

In our work we also, on a long term, wish to include lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgendered people as trainers and trainees.

4.3 Finances

The total project budget is Euro 45.700. We have till now received confirmations from both the Norwegian government /Equality department and Kerkinactie in the Netherlands that they are supporting the project financially with Euro 15.000 each, and also private /group donations of Euro 2.000.

In addition, ca Euro 4.000 of the costs will be covered by unpaid work time from involved people. This means that we still have to fundraise ca Euro 9.000, but we are far enough that we can start and fulfil the core activities of the project. To make sure we get closer to a 100% cost coverage, the European Forum board proposes to the Annual General Meeting in Riga that Euro 3.000 should be donated to the Eastern European pilot project. This could be done in one lump sum in 2006, or divided in two partial sums spread on 2006 and 2007.

This is important for the "internal funding percentage" of the project, which makes external sponsors more positive to support our project financially. For the rest (Euro 6.000), we will continue to seek external funding. Contributions from groups, service collects or private persons are of course also very welcome.

Those of you, who would like to read the full project description, are welcome to contact Randi Solberg (randi.solberg@web.de). The project description has more detailed information about the goals, project /training content, expectations to the project participants, indicators for measuring the achievements of project objectives, perspectives for a potential main project 2008-10, and the detailed budget for the pilot project.

5. Workshop on European Forum strategy in Riga

At our AGM in Oslo last year, there was an agreement that we should try to set aside time outside of the AGM in Riga to be able to discuss more about European Forum strategy. The last years we have had several arrangements, presenting the situation in different countries, and during the last year Forum has been involved in many things which might make an impact on our strategy. The board has made sure that we have the space for a two hour workshop on Friday before lunch (parallel to other workshops) for those who are interesting in this discussion. The AGM is put on the program Saturday morning, so that it will be possible for the workshop to come with concrete proposals to the AGM.

The two Forum presidents, Arthur Thiry and Randi Solberg are the formally responsible persons for the workshop, and Kerstin Söderblom, who is an educated Consultant of Organisation Development, has been asked to contribute to the development and co-moderating of the workshop. There will be short inputs about the WCC assembly, CEC, ILGA Europe, ILGA World & the Day on Religion, the meeting with the UN Special Rapporteure on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Eastern Europe Pilot Project and the use of the book "Let Our Voices Be Heard!" before we open for discussions in groups and plenary sessions. Other people, who have inputs they want to share about specific themes related to the European Forum strategy, are of course welcome to do so.

For instance, we have had some thoughts about making a more professional Forum image, like special titles for people who take on concrete responsibility for Forum projects, and business cards for them and the board members, so that Forum as an organisation can get a more professional image when we are being represented at conferences etc around Europe, - and the world. This could also be discussed at the meetings in Riga.

6. Final greetings

At the Annual General Meeting in Riga there will be an election of a new female co-president. Randi Solberg will not be running for this position for the coming two years' period. She will be concentrating her work within the Forum on the Eastern European pilot project, also with the aspect of possibly developing this to a longer "main project". This would include looking at funding possibilities, with the goal of reaching more LGBT activists and more countries.

Randi thanks for the trust you have shown in her by electing her as president and for the good cooperation with many of you during this period. She is looking forward to working with the board and many other Forum people in connection with the Eastern European Pilot Project.

We thank you all for a full and intense Forum year. We have a lot of challenges and exciting work possibilities at hand, and we hope that many of you will engage and work with us in the coming year, - in the areas mentioned in this report, and/or with new suggestions and projects which you would like to do within the framework of the European Forum!

On behalf of the European Forum board,

Randi O. Solberg Arthur Thiry

female co-president male co-president

To be filed together with the presidents' report:

- Project description for the Eastern European Pilot project, Oct 2005, revised Jan 2006, updated May 2006

- Randi Solberg's speech at the meeting with the UN Special Rapporteure on Freedom of Religion or Belief