This year’s Andante Summer School focused on the theme “We are the inheritors of the earth – what can we do to live responsibly?”. 60 participants, coming from 13 European countries, from Norway to Albania and from France to Latvia, listened to expert speakers from very different backgrounds and took part in vivid discussions and practical workshops on how to meet, as a person and/or as a community, the challenge of living in a sustainable and environment-friendly way.
“The world should not be seen as a market but rather as a household, and women have special experience in running households”, said Dr. Michaela Moser from Austria addressing the summer school. Another speaker was 14 year old Clara Slawik (Germany) who spoke passionately about the children’s ‘Plant-for-the-Planet’ campaign to plant 1000 million trees worldwide by 2020: “For us children future is a question of survival; ‘stop talking - start planting’; save the human, not (only) the polar bears.”
At the end of the summer school there was a call from the participants to create an annual ‘Andante Day for the Environment’ when the wonders of creation would be celebrated as a reminder of the threat to the earth from climate change. This day could be marked by environmental initiatives, such as tree planting; or by individuals and families deciding to reduce energy consumptions, and thereby carbon emissions to a bare minimum for one day.
At its meeting immediately following the summer school the Andante Coordinating Committee (CoCoA) decided to organise an event on 29^th September, during its next meeting in Oslo. It was suggested that all Andante member organisations should try to organise a similar event on that same date in their countries. To this purpose they could contact national branches of ‘Plant-for-the-Planet’ and/or other organisations working in the field of environment protection and see how they could cooperate and take action together.

To the flyer
To  the programme
To the outline of the workshops
To the text ‘Dialogue’
To the text 'the 4 Elements
To the prayer ‘Fragile Earth’
To the talk of Sr. Dr. Helen Costigane
To the talk of Gabriele Ulbrich
To the power point presentation by Sarah Rodriguez

On 18 January, Andante has been granted ‘participatory status’, as an international NGO, at the Council of Europe.
We thank all those, inside and outside Andante, who – at various stages of the procedure and at both national and European level – helped us with their good advice and action.

‘We leave from here enriched, inspired, encouraged, grateful’ – just some testimonies from the Andante Summer School on the theme ‘Recognise the signs of the times: Spirituality put into practice by European women – yesterday, today, tomorrow’. Approximately 75 women from 13 European countries, age between 29 and 76 years, had come to Reute, Germany. Listening to some renowned speakers made them discover and become familiar with various forms of spirituality, not only in theory but also in the practice of everyday life. During the last plenary session several organisations already presented their ideas and projects for follow-up work on the theme of spirituality in their own organisations and countries. Such as: publish a booklet on remarkable women in Poland, create a ‘Mary Ward Society’ in Albania, encourage women to become more active in politics in order to fight against discriminations of all sorts, to commit themselves in working for Ecumenism and for a rightful place in our churches, and for an ‘authentic lifestyle’ which respects the environment and Creation. 

To the programme
To the presentation of the workshops
To the talk of Barbara Baumann (only in German)
To the definition of ‘Dialogue’ (in 3 languages)
To the abstract of the talk of Aurelia Spendel
To the texts concerning the 3 women she presented
To the talk of Tina Beattie
To the texts of the labyrinth of Reute