Robert E. Leech, president of the Foundation, announced at the 218th General Assembly June 25 that the youth groups of Central Presbyterian Church in Lafayette, Ind., Elmwood United Presbyterian Church in East Orange, N.J., and Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Long Beach, Calif., produced the best short videos creatively expressing the theme of this year’s 218th General Assembly: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
Each of the three winning congregations will receive a $25,000 endowment to provide continued financial support for their youth ministry programs.
Leech said 112 Presbyterian youth groups submitted videos in the competition, which ran from March 1 to June 1, 2008 on ymiLIVE.org, the online community for young Presbyterians and their parents who all share a commitment to the active support of PC(USA) youth ministry and mission.
Fifteen finalists were determined in online voting that drew more than 10,000 participants during the entry period, Leech said. The three winning videos were selected in voting by the Assembly’s youth advisory delegates here.
Ryan E. Little, the Foundation’s marketing director, said he was pleased with the enthusiastic participation from Presbyterian youth groups and supporters. “From the beginning, our hope was to connect and engage with a wide variety of Presbyterian churches, whether large, middle or small memberships and with youth groups from across the country,” he said.
“The 15 semifinalists indicated we were successful: three churches had fewer than 100 members, five had fewer than 500, three had fewer than 1,000 members and four churches had more than 1,000 members,” he added. “Video entries came from New York to California to Minnesota and Florida and points in between.”
Lafayette-Central has 580 members, Elmwood has 1,030 members and Long Beach-Emmanuel has 46 members.
