Verband Christlicher Pfadfinder*innen | |||
---|---|---|---|
Association of Christian Scouts and Guides | |||
Location | Kassel | ||
Country | Germany | ||
Founded | 1973 | ||
Membership | 22,000 | ||
Bundesvorstand | Leah Albrecht, Peter „flip“ Keil, Eric Stahlmann, Daniel Werner | ||
Website http://www.vcp.de | |||
The Verband Christlicher Pfadfinder*innen (roughly: Association of Christian Guides and Scouts, formerly Verband Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder, VCP) is a German Protestant coed Scouting and Guiding association. According to the VCP, the organization has about 22,000 members.
It is a member of the Ring deutscher Pfadfinder*innenverbände (Federation of German Scouting and Guiding Associations, rdp), which in turn is a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). [1]
In 2023 the organisation voted to rename itself to "Verband Christlicher Pfadfinder*innen" to make the name gender neutral. [2]
The association was formed in 1973 through the merger of three Protestant associations:
In 1976, some traditional Scouting groups left and formed a separate association, using the former name Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands again. [3]
Two years later, the VCP held his first national jamboree. Since then, roughly every four years a national jamboree has taken place:
In 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first groups of Protestant Scouts and Guides were formed in the still existent German Democratic Republic. Today, the VCP is present in all Federal States of Germany. [4]
The association is divided in three age-groups:
The age-groups can be identified by their scarfs. Cubs wear scarfs with orange stripes, Jungpfadfinder with light green stripes, Pfadfinder scarfs with dark green stripes and Ranger/Rover scarfs with bordeaux-red stripes.
There is also a special branch for adults in Scouting, the Erwachsenenarbeit, which aims at all members older than 21 years including leaders and non-leaders. They wear scarfs with purple stripes. [5]
Like most German Scout associations, the VCP emphasizes on youth leadership. Most patrol leaders start at 16 and most leaders up to district level are younger than 25.
The VCP has no common Scout Promise. Its constitution proposes the following text, but other wordings are possible:
The association has no common Scout Law. It uses Scout rules, which should be formulated individually by each group. The constitution proposes a number of points, which should go into these rules. Despite this, many subdivisions of the association use a common Scout Law.
The VCP runs two national Scout centres:
as well as a number of regional Scout centres mostly maintained by subnational divisions of the association.
Rieneck Castle was leased by the Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands in 1959 and bought in 1967. It is mainly used for training courses on national level, and the annual International Creative Workshop (IMWe). The VCP-Bundeszeltplatz was bought in 1997 and hosts camps from group to national level.
The International Creative Workshop [7] (German: Internationale Musische Werkstatt (IMWe)) [8] is an annual Scouting and Guiding event run by the VCP. [9] [10] It usually takes place at Rieneck Castle. [7] As a Wood Badge training event, [9] the aim of IMWe is to give leaders of Guide and Scout groups the opportunity to explore their creative talents in a relaxed setting. [7] IMWe is prepared on behalf of the VCP by an international group of scouts [11] who meet several times a year to organize the workshop, which is held around Easter. [7] [12] The workshop lasts for 8 or 9 days, with a symbolic framework or theme. [7] Participants have to be aged 17 years or older. [8] [7] [13] IMWe has been represented at international Scouting events such as EuroJam 2005 [14] and World Scout Moot in 2015. [15]
Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs is the largest Scouting and Guiding organization in Austria and the only one approved by World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). The association claims more than 300 troops with more than 85,000 Scouts nationwide. WOSM and WAGGGS give quite smaller membership values for the PPÖ: 27,274 members in WOSM and 10,508 members in WAGGGS.
VCP may refer to:
Magyar Cserkészszövetség, the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990. The coeducational Magyar Cserkészszövetség had 12,937 members in 2021.
The Ring deutscher Pfadfinderverbände was the German national Scouting organization within the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM). It served 115,944 members.
The Ring Deutscher Pfadfinderinnenverbände was the German national Guiding organization within the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS). It served 47,688 members.
The World Federation of Independent Scouts (WFIS) is a non-governmental international Scouting organization with over 7 million members in 151 affiliated Scout organizations in 65 countries. WFIS was formed in Laubach, Germany, in 1996 by Lawrie Dring, a British Scouter with the independent Baden-Powell Scouts' Association (BPSA).
The Scout movement in Germany consists of about 150 different associations and federations with about 260,000 Scouts and Guides.
The Association of Belarusian Guides is the Belarusian member organization of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), with a membership of 1,274 Girl Guides.
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Rieneck is a town in the Main-Spessart district in the Regierungsbezirk of Lower Franconia (Unterfranken) in Bavaria, Germany.
World Thinking Day, formerly Thinking Day, is celebrated annually on 22 February by all Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It is also celebrated by Scout and Guide organizations around the world. It is a day when they think about their "sisters" in all the countries of the world, the meaning of Guiding, and its global impact.
National Scouting and Guiding organisations are divided into different age groups to deliver the Scouting and Guiding programmes for a full range of youth.
Scouting in Austria is served by multiple Scout associations, among them
The Südtiroler Pfadfinderschaft, abbreviated as SP, is the Roman Catholic Scout association of the German minority of the Italian province of South Tyrol. The association is coeducational and has 600 members in seven troops. It is affiliated to the Associazione Guide e Scouts Cattolici Italiani (AGESCI), is strongly connected to Pfadfinder und Pfadfinderinnen Österreichs and Slovenian Catholic Girl Guides and Boy Scouts Association Scouting organizations, and maintains some contact with the Deutsche Pfadfinderschaft Sankt Georg. The association owns two campsites in the province.
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The Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands e.V. (CPD) is a German Protestant Scout association established in 1976, after the 1973 fusion of Bünde Christliche Pfadfinderschaft Deutschlands, Evangelischer Mädchen-Pfadfinderbund and Bund Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen to form the Verband Christlicher Pfadfinderinnen und Pfadfinder (VCP) led to dissatisfaction with the development of the VCP. This conservative movement then formed a new association which largely relies on the traditions of the original CPD.
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