Karli Gourley of Province VIII (edited for length)

On December 30, 1998 approximately 1350 college students and campus ministers descended on Ridgecrest Conference Center near Asheville, North Carolina for five days of workshops, speakers, fellowship, and worship called Celebrate III.  Students and campus ministers and many denominiations were represented.

The theme for Celebrate III was Micah 6:8, "What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Each of the full days of the conference was centered on the three main parts of the verse, doing justice; loving kindness; and walking humbly with your God.  Many well known preachers and speakers were there to give their insight about the theme of the day.  On the first full day of Celebrate III with the theme of justice, Archbiship Desmond Tutu spoke to the large group of also the Episcopal group during denomination time.

Archbishop Tutu's talk to the large group focused on a wide variety of examples of justice.  He spoke about topics ranging from sexuality to having respect for one another.  He called for the young people to come together to work against the discrimination of people with different sexual preferences like they did in the discrimination of people due to their color.  He also talked about how each one of us is unique and special because God made us who we are and knew us even before we were born.  He was an interesting speaker to listen so because he had a way of keeping the attention of the audience and a way of throwing humor into serious subjects to lighten them up.

Episcopal students and campus ministers representing all eight provinces participated in Episcopal denomination time.  It was a time of worship, songs, and games.  But mostly it was a time of fellowship and just getting a chance to see the other Episcopalians.

The whole conference was an awesome experience having so many Christians gathered together in one place.  It was even more awesome when one considered that many of these were college students who had decided to spend the closing of the year and the celebration of the new year together in Christ.