Ökumenisches Forum für Glauben, Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West

The Ökumenisches Forum für Glauben, Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West — widely known as Forum RGOW, and historically as G2W (Glaube in der 2. Welt) — is a Swiss ecumenical research institute, association and publishing house based in Zürich. It was founded on 10 July 1972 in Chur, in the canton of Graubünden, by the Reformed pastor Eugen Voss together with thirteen individual founding members and five collective members, among them the Protestant regional churches of Aargau, Bern, Graubünden and Thurgau and the Episcopal Ordinariate of Chur. Its original statutory purpose was the documentation, information and research on religious faith in the "Second World" — that is, in the socialist states behind the Iron Curtain. The organisation's work is built around two main publications: the monthly journal RGOW (Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West), formerly G2W, and the news service Östliche Kirchen. It also produces thematic dossiers, interviews and articles, organises lecture series and seminars for churches, society and business, arranges educational and cultural trips, and brokers local contacts. Its geographic focus covers Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and its thematic scope spans church life, religious freedom, interreligious relations, migration, urban development and social change. Forum RGOW is constituted as a registered association (Verein) under Swiss law, with individual and collective memberships open to all interested parties. It is governed by a board (Vorstand) and supported by a patronate committee that has included figures such as Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, the emeritus Archbishop of Vienna. A German section, G2W – Deutsche Sektion e.V., supports the work of the Zürich forum. The institute is led by director and editor-in-chief Stefan Kube, with Regula Zwahlen Guth as deputy director and editor, and Natalija Zenger as editor of the journal and the Östliche Kirchen news service. Over more than five decades the forum has functioned as a bridge between Western and Eastern European churches and societies, documenting the situation of Christians under communist rule during the Cold War and, after 1989, accompanying the religious and social transformations of the post-socialist region. Its journal regularly addresses contemporary questions such as urban development in Eastern Europe, war and displacement, and the role of religion in public life.

The Ökumenisches Forum für Glauben, Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West was founded on 10 July 1972 in Chur, Switzerland, under the name "Glaube in der 2. Welt" (G2W), with the subtitle "Forschungs- und Informationsstelle". The founding assembly recorded the willingness of those present who had entered their names in the attendance list as members to establish the association. The founding members comprised thirteen individuals and five collective members: the Protestant regional churches of Aargau, Bern, Graubünden and Thurgau, and the Episcopal Ordinariate of Chur. Observers from other Reformed regional churches of Switzerland and five press representatives were also present. The statutes defined the purpose of the new association as the "documentation, information and research on religious faith in the Second World". The decisive initiator was the Reformed pastor Eugen Voss from St. Moritz, who came from a Russian-Swiss family and had witnessed the church-closure campaign under Nikita Khrushchev at first hand during a journey to the Soviet Union in 1963. He subsequently began collecting information about the situation of Christians behind the Iron Curtain in order to alert the churches in Switzerland to their precarious position and to raise awareness of violations of religious freedom in the socialist countries. After his lecture "New Documents on the Situation of Christians in the Soviet Union" before the synod of the Evangelical-Reformed Regional Church of Graubünden in 1968, the synod commissioned Voss to develop a concept for a corresponding information institute. This was a first step towards the founding of G2W four years later. Over the following decades the institute documented the situation of churches and believers in the Soviet Union and the socialist states of Eastern Europe, publishing the journal G2W and later the news service Östliche Kirchen. With the political upheavals of 1989–1991 and the end of the Cold War, the organisation adapted its focus to the religious and social transformations of the post-socialist region. It eventually adopted the name Ökumenisches Forum für Glauben, Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West, while the journal was renamed RGOW (Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West). The forum continued to report on church life, religious freedom, interreligious relations and social developments from the Balkans to Central Asia. In the 2020s the forum remains active from its base in Zürich. Its journal addresses themes such as twentieth-century urban development in Eastern Europe, including modernist architecture in Brno, Zlín, Gdynia, Ljubljana, Wrocław, Višegrad, Vilnius and Tashkent, as well as war and displacement. The organisation also highlights social projects in the region, such as the Ukrainian foundation "Förderung der Medizin", which supports vulnerable populations in rural central Ukraine with mobile medical teams and outpatient centres. A German section, G2W – Deutsche Sektion e.V., supports the work of the Zürich forum. The association is governed by a board and a patronate committee, and membership is open to individuals and collective bodies.

• 2023

  Current version of the association's statutes dated 1 September 2023.

• 1972

  Founding of the association "Glaube in der 2. Welt" (G2W) on 10 July in Chur, Switzerland.

• 1968

  After Voss's lecture on new documents about the situation of Christians in the Soviet Union, the synod of the Evangelical-Reformed Regional Church of Graubünden commissions him to develop a concept for an information institute.

• 1963

  Eugen Voss witnesses the church-closure campaign under Nikita Khrushchev during a journey to the Soviet Union.

An ecumenical and interreligious information and research institute serving as a bridge between Eastern and Western European churches and societies.

• RGOW – Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West

  Monthly journal formerly known as G2W, covering religion, church life and society in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

• Östliche Kirchen

  News service on churches in Eastern Europe.

• Thematic dossiers

  Topical dossiers compiled by the institute.

1. 1RGOWrgow.eu
2. 2Geschichtergow.eu
3. 3Teamrgow.eu
4. 4Vereinrgow.eu
5. 5Ökumenisches Forum für Glauben, Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und Westwikidata.org