ROM - Renewing Our Minds

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ROM - Renewing Our Minds

ROM is a program of the Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation.

We envision a future where young leaders of integrity, reconciliation, and peace are empowered to transform their communities as ambassadors for a better world. A Bulletin of the Renewing Our Minds (ROM) movement, a ministry of Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation. Our mission: “Developing and encouraging leaders transformed by the person of Jesus in a divided world.”

13/10/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Johannes de Jong has been working for Sallux | ECPP think tank and European platform , the European Christian Party's .eu think tank, since its start in 2011. He has been focusing on economy and international relations with a specific attention to those who are quickly overlooked in the global economy and geopolitics. "Sallux" means salt and light, and for him salt means that we need to be sharp and clear and practical in order to prevent the most oppressed from being forgotten in the economy and international relations. Light means for him that it is often necessary to shed a new light on issues and to work on new paradigms in order to find solutions that solve the underlying issues in the challenges we are confronted with.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

05/10/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Noemi Mena Montes is a Spanish journalist based in the Netherlands, with a PhD in Political Communication. Noemi Mena Montes is a media lecturer-researcher, a consultant on political communication and expert on immigration. In the past, Noemi Mena has worked as a radio journalist, freelance correspondent and researcher in the Middle East. She has had several research grants for international projects and won an award for migration studies in Spain.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

29/09/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: As a son of Hungarian foreign trade experts, Márton Gyöngyösi spent the most of his childhood in Egypt, Iraq, Afghanistan and India. He graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, in 2000, where he studied economics and political science. Marton served as a member of the Hungarian Parliament from 2010 to 2019, and a member of the European Parliament from 2019 to 2024. He currently serves as Director of Political Relations for the European Christian Political Party (ECPP.eu ).

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

22/09/2026

"Stories are a communal currency of humanity.” -Tahir Shah

Our board member Kimberly Ann Mazzocco Hart shares some thoughts on the role and value of stories. While most of our posts these days are focusing on the upcoming Faith, Media and Politics gathering (forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics), we are also looking ahead to next summer's ROM gathering which will be focused on "The Power of Story," and Kimberly's post is a great introduction to the topic!

https://kimberlyamhart.substack.com/p/a-communal-currency-of-story?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=83vsl&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

21/09/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Marc Jost is a pastor and theologian who represents the Evangelical People's Party (EVP) in the Swiss National Council. He lives in Thun with his wife, Denise, and their four children.

Following his training as a teacher and studies in theology, he served as pastor of the Evangelisches Gemeinschaftswerk in Thun from 2003 to 2010. He then transitioned to a leadership role in civil society, directing Interaction, the association of Christian aid organisations, and serving as Secretary General of the Schweizerische Evangelische Allianz (SEA) from 2012 to 2022.

In politics, Jost sat on the Grand Council of Bern for fourteen years, serving as its president in 2015/16. Since November 2022, he has been a member of the Swiss National Council for the canton of Bern, sitting on the State Political Commission and the Control Committee. Central to his politics is the conviction that good governance and durable solutions are founded on listening.

Alongside his parliamentary work, Jost holds various mandates reflecting his professional and personal commitments. He is president of Interaction and StopArmut, and a board member of EVP. He is also the public affairs commissioner for the Schweizerische Evangelische Allianz and sits on the advisory board of Pro Life Switzerland.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

17/09/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Heather Staff is an elected Councillor for Laycock ward in the London Borough of Islington, and the Executive (cabinet) member for community safety and neighbourhoods. Her portfolio includes police, Violence Against Women and Girls, emergency planning and critical response as well as the night time sector, licensing, equalities, prevention of hate crimes and the national prevention strategy. It also includes tackling anti-social behaviour and encouraging thriving neighbourhood work. She also holds the role of Migrant Champion.

is a political advisor to members of the UK Parliament on a range of subjects including migration and international development. Heather is also Chair of the Labour Campaign for International Development and Vice Chair of Christians on the Left as well as a bass player for a community gospel choir.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

14/09/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Edlira Çepani is a lawyer and human rights activist, serving as the chairwoman of the Women’s Network, Equality in Decision Making (EDM), since 2012. EDM is the first network of its kind in Albania, a network of women in politics (representing all political parties in a 50% balance between the left and the right), media, business and civil society. The EDM Network has become a strong voice for women empowerment and gender equality in the country.

Edlira Çepani has spent more than a decade working as a gender expert to promote women's rights and equal opportunities in all fields of life; training and coaching leadership teams and women on how to best engage, empower and promote other women, not only across Albania, but also at an international level.

Throughout her work, Edlira has led several national campaigns focused on women’s rights, including women’s representation in politics, gender-based violence in politics, and the economic empowerment of women. She has also been a key initiator and advocate for major reforms in women's political participation, such as the implementation of gender quotas and ensuring equal access to political financing.

For more than 15 years, she has also been actively engaged in elections observation missions and legislative advocacy for electoral system changes, such as the diaspora vote granted for the first time in 2025 for Albanians living abroad.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

02/09/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Over the course of his 20+ year journalism career, Fisnik Minci has worked with some of Kosovo’s leading media outlets, reporting on political and social developments, public accountability, interethnic relations, cultural heritage, environmental issues and the concerns of local communities.

Minci’s commitment to youth engagement, democratic values and peacebuilding dates back to his participation in the ROM Leadership Forum in 2000 and 2002. Since then, he has remained engaged in multiple NGOs and initiatives that encourage young people to promote dialogue, tolerance, democratic participation and peaceful coexistence.

He is also an experienced journalism and media trainer, and has worked as a trainer and consultant with journalists and media professionals as well as with youth in Kosovo and across the Western Balkans.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics

28/08/2026

Meet our speakers for Faith, Media & Politics 2026: Irena Dragas Jansen is a Croatian art historian, writer, speaker and curator based in the United States. She recently presented her work at the Understory Festival at the National Cathedral in Washington DC, a civic and spiritual gathering to rehumanize our common life in a time of cultural fragility. You can learn more about Irena and her work at irenadjansen.com.

Learn more and register for Faith, Media & Politics 2026 at https://www.forumforleadership.org/faith-media-politics.

22/06/2026

Team members are starting to arrive to prepare for in Crikvenica, Croatia. We are looking forward to meeting participants representing 23
different countries!

Address

Trg Stjepana Radića 1c
Crikvenica
51260

Telephone

+38163661708

Website

http://forumforleadership.org/

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