ELCA News Blog
July 6, 2006
Tony Campolo addresses ELCA Youth Gathering at opening session
by Katherine R. Hinck*, ELCA News Service
The 2006 Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Youth Gathering kicked off a week of events July 5 with more than 15,000 high-school-aged Lutherans gathered in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The event featured a mariachi band, a video introduction with the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the ELCA, a Martin Luther cartoon, Canadian musicians Hawk Nelson, Chicago-based band Superchic[k], and keynote speaker Tony Campolo.
Campolo, founder of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, St. Davids, Pa., and author of 28 books, spoke to participants about his experiences in Third World countries and the importance of service. "You can make a difference," Campolo told the group. "It's time for a new generation to rise up with hope, to rise up with vision, to rise up with dreams," he said. Campolo is one of the founders of Opportunity International, an organization that has worked to create over 3.5 million jobs in Third World countries around the world. "There is only one way to eliminate poverty: Create jobs for poor people," Campolo said.
About 40,000 high-school-age and adult Lutherans from the United States and around the world are gathering for the ELCA Youth Gathering. The gathering is taking place in two back-to-back events -- July 5-9 and July 12-16 -- at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and Alamodome in San Antonio.
*Katherine R. Hinck is a senior journalism and religion major at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D. This summer she is an intern with the ELCA News Service.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog