Lithuanians in the News
9th August 2009
XIII Lithuanian World Community Congress
In the second row from the front, Australian Lithuanian delegates at the PLB Seimas
- (L-R) Girius Antanaitis, Sigita Gailiūnaitė, Lilija Kozlovskienė,
Dr. Angonita Wallis, Ramona Zakarevičienė.
The XIII Lithuanian World Community Congress (Pasaulio Lietuvių Bendruomenės (PLB) Seimas) was held at the Lithuanian Parliament House July 8 -10, 2009 in Vilnius. The Lithuanian World Community encompasses all Lithuanian Communities around the world outside Lithuania and its governing body is the Seimas (Congress), which currently meets every three years and elects the Community Council to deal with everyday issues.
There were 136 delegates (out of a possible 183) attending from 41 Lithuanian Communities around the world. The largest number of delegates was from the USA (37), followed by Russia (16), Canada (14), Germany (8), UK & Poland (7 each), with Belarus & Latvia having the same number of delegates as Australia (6).
President–elect Dalia Grybauskaitė
speaking at the PLB Seimas
The Australian Lithuanian delegates to the PLB Seimas were Dr Angonita Grincevičiūtė - Wallis (President of the Australian Lithuanian Community Federal Executive, from Sydney), Sigita Gailiūnaitė (Canberra), Lilija Kozlovskienė (Melbourne), Ramona Ratas -Zakarevičienė (Sydney), Dr Ramutis Zakarevičius (Sydney) and Girius Antanaitis (Australian Lithuanian Youth Organisation representative, from Melbourne now residing in Vilnius).
Over three days of intense deliberations the PLB Seimas discussed the various issues of concern to Lithuanians dispersed throughout the world. Important issues were the question of dual citizenship for Lithuanians outside Lithuania and the Lithuanian education of children outside Lithuania.
(L-R) Dr Angonita Wallis, President of the Australian
Lithuanian Community Federal Executive, and
Regina Narušienė, Chairperson of the Lithuanian
World Community Council
Regina Narušienė from the USA was re-elected as Chairperson of the Lithuanian World Community Council for a further three year term. Other delegates that were elected to the Community Council were Stasys Kuliavas (Canada) representing PLJS (Lithuanian World Youth Organisation), Jūratė Caspersen (Switzerland), Rimas Čuplinskas (Germany), Juan Ignacio Fourment Kalvelis (Argentina), Dalia Henke (Germany), Vitalija Kolesnikova (Belarus), Petras Maksimavičius (Poland), Aurelija Norienė (Belgium), Arūnas Pabedinskas (Canada), Msgr. Edmundas Putrimas, Antanas Rasiulis (Russia) and Angelė Vaičiūnienė (Canada).
The Congress concluded with a reception during which the delegates enjoyed a performance by the superb “Lietuva” Ensemble in the newly constructed theatre of the M.K. Čiurlionis Ballet School in Vilnius.

Further information: www.bernardinai.lt 8-10/07/09, www.plbe.org