Contact: Larry Jacobs, 815-964-5819, media@worldcongress.org; Don Feder, 508-405-1337, dfeder@rcn.com; both with World Congress of Families 

RHODES ISLAND, Greece, Oct. 7, 2011 /Christian Newswire/ -- World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs is at the 9th Annual Session of the Rhodes Forum of the World Public Forum's "Dialogue of Civilizations" from October 7-10.  Jacobs will co-moderate the Roundtable Session with Natalya Yakunina.  The session is titled Maintaining Family Values in the 21st Century and will be held on Rhodes Island, Greece on Saturday, October 8, 2011.

Natalya Yakunina is Chairman of the Board of Trustees, "Sanctity of Motherhood" Program, vice-president of St. Andrew the First-called Foundation and wife of Vladimir Yakunin, founder and president of the World Public Forum.

The Family Roundtable is one of three roundtable discussions on "New Social Reactions to Disproportions in the Present-day World."  The other two sessions include Recent Changes in Arab Countries and The Impact of Civil Society on the Aftermath of the World Economic Crisis: Intercultural Commonality Models and the Purpose of Media.

Jacobs commented, "The natural family is the fundamental group unit of society across all sustainable civilizations so it is quite necessary that the World Public Forum's "Dialogue of Civilizations" discuss the family values and virtues that hold the keys to solving our socio-economic crisis and making the world a better place to live for humankind."

Mr. Jacobs continued, "Much credit should be given to Vladimir Yakunin, who has invested his time and resources for the betterment of world civilizations.  He has founded a unique organization that transcends the typical international deliberation on global issues and brings together people from East and West of goodwill -- including leaders, scholars, clergy, and other professionals -- to dialogue, listen, and learn about the fundamental values and principles of which a society must be based."

The World Public Forum promotes discussion and social cooperation among the world's civilizations (with an special emphasis on Russia, India and Greece) as an alternative to the United Nations model of international governmental cooperation.  It was founded by Vladimir Yakunin (CEO of the Russian National Railway), Nicholas Papanicolaou (a Greek businessman and former owner of Aston Martin company) and Yagdish Chandra Kapur, an Indian scientist, philosopher and businessman.  Over 800 people from more than 60 countries are expected to attend the invitation-only Forum.

The main goals of the forum are to unite the efforts of the global community to protect the spiritual and cultural values of humankind and to create a space for constructive dialogue among the major civilizations of the modern world.  The work of the forum is aimed at defining, developing and promoting dialogue, and introducing the spirit of cooperation and understanding into everyday life.

Besides Jacobs and Yakunina, other speaker/participants in the Rhodes Forum Family Roundtable discussion include: Anatoly Antonov (Professor at Moscow State Lomonosov State University), Tatjana Zdanoka (Member of the European Parliament, Latvia), Mofid Kamran (UK, Founder, Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative), Miguel Moreno (Bolivia, Director of the Leadership Institute), John DeFrain (USA, Professor of Family and Community Development at University of Nebraska-Lincoln), Gilbert Crouse (USA, Senior Economist, US Department of Health and Human Services), Theodore Baehr (USA, Chairman of the Christian Film and Television Commission/Movieguide), Alexey Komov (Russia, WCF Representative in Russia and CIS), Janice Shaw Crouse (USA, Concerned for Women for America), Christine Vollmer (Venezuela, Founder of Latin American Alliance for the Family and Member of the Pontifical Council for the Family), Thomas Ward (UK, President of the National Association of Catholic Families), Igor Beloborodov (Russia, Director of Demographic Research Institute), Margaret Hartshorn (USA, President of Heartbeat International), Ewa Kowaleska (Poland, Human Life International Manager for Central and Eastern Europe), John Smeaton (UK, President of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children), Archpriest Maxim Obukhov (Russia, Head of Orthodox Medical Center Life), Marguerite Peeters (Belgium, Director of Institute for Intercultural Dialogue Dynamics), and Henry Potrykus (USA, Senior Fellow at MARRI, Family Research Council).

World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain - May 28-30, 2012.  Go to www.worldcongress.es for more information or contact Ignacio Arsuaga at iarsuaga@hazteoir.org.

WCF VII will be in Sydney, Australia - May 15-18, 2013. For more information on Sydney 2013, contact Mary-Louise Fowler, Vice-President of the Australian Family Association and Chairperson of the Local Organizing Committee at mary-louise@family.org.au.

Information on World Congress of Families go to www.worldcongress.org. To schedule an interview World Congress of Families Founder Allan C. Carlson, Larry Jacobs at  815-222-2490, larry@worldcongress.org. 

The World Congress of Families (WCF) is an international network of pro-family organizations, scholars, leaders and inter-faith people of goodwill from more than 60  countries that seek to restore the natural family as the fundamental social unit and the 'seedbed' of civil society (as found in the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948).  The WCF was founded in 1997 by Allan Carlson and is a project of The Howard Center for Family, Religion & Society in Rockford, Illinois.  To date, there have been five World Congresses of Families - Prague (1997), Geneva (1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw, Poland (2007) and Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2009).  World Congress of Families VI will be held in Madrid, Spain in May 25-27, 2012.