Eurofest '75
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Eurofest '75 was an International Youth Conference and Evangelistic Campaign organised by the
Billy Graham William Franklin Graham Jr. (; November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018) was an American Evangelism, evangelist, ordained Southern Baptist minister, and Civil rights movement, civil rights advocate, whose broadcasts and world tours featuring liv ...
Organisation in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
,
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
. It followed on from '' Spree '73'' held in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. The General Secretary for both was Harvey Thomas. Graham preached from Phillipians teaching on the connections between
joy Joy is the state of being that allows one to experience feelings of intense, long-lasting happiness and contentment of life. It is closely related to, and often evoked by, well-being, success, or good fortune. Happiness, pleasure, and gratitu ...
and
prayer File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...
- two of the book's major themes. He insisted: "Young people should learn to pray." The festival took place from 24 July - 2 August 1975, in the Centenary Palace Exhibition Halls whilst the public Campaigns were in the near-by
Heysel Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium ( ; ) is a sports ground in Brussels, Belgium. Located in the north-western district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau, Heysel/Heizel Plateau in view of the Brussels International E ...
, Brussels.


Personnel

Many well-known evangelical figures first came to prominence at the festival, such as
Luis Palau Luis Palau Jr. (November 27, 1934 – March 11, 2021) was an Argentine-American international Christian evangelist. He was born in Argentina but moved to Portland, Oregon, in his mid-twenties to enroll in a graduate program in Biblical studies. ...
, Bishop
Festo Kivengere Festo Kivengere (1918–1988) was a Ugandan Anglican leader sometimes referred to as "the Billy Graham of Africa". He played a huge role in a Christian revival in southwestern Uganda, but had to flee in 1977 to neighboring Rwanda in fear for his l ...
, Annie Vallotton the French-Swiss
Good News Bible Good News Bible (GNB), also called the Good News Translation (GNT) in the United States, is an English translation of the Bible by the American Bible Society. It was first published as the New Testament under the name ''Good News for Modern Ma ...
illustrator and
Manfred Siebald Manfred Siebald (born 26 October 1948 at Alheim-Baumbach) is a German singer-songwriter and lecturer in American studies in Mainz. Siebald is best known as a Christian singer-songwriter, who writes and speaks on contemporary worship music. His s ...
the German singer-songwriter. Vallotton gave a talk each morning before the Bible expositions, that she illustrated on an
overhead projector An overhead projector (often abbreviated to OHP), like a Movie projector, film or slide projector, uses light to Projector, project an enlarged image on a Projection screen, screen, allowing the view of a small document or picture to be shared ...
, fitted with an
acetate An acetate is a salt formed by the combination of acetic acid with a base (e.g. alkaline, earthy, metallic, nonmetallic, or radical base). "Acetate" also describes the conjugate base or ion (specifically, the negatively charged ion called ...
scroll.


Committees


Executive committee

Chairman: Werner Bürklin (Federal Germany) Vice-Chairman: Brian Kingsmore (Ireland) Secretary: Elon Svanell (Sweden) Richard Bewes (U.K) Ingulf Diesen (Norway) Juan Gili (Spain) Gien Karssen (Netherlands) Elio Milazzo (Italy) Richard Møller Petersen (Denmark) Herbert Müller (Federal Germany) Jean-Jacques Weiler (France)


Programme Committee

Chairman: Richard Bewes (U.K.) Vice-Chairman/Training: Arnold van Heusden (Netherlands) Vice-Chairman/Music: Svante Widen (Sweden) Maisie Adamson (Ireland) Ruth Büchli (Switzerland) Hermogenes Fernandez (Spain) Herbert Müller (Federal Germany) Yves Perrier (France) Paul Vandenbroeck (Belgium)


Prayer Committee

Chairlady: Eliana Vuffray (Switzerland) Moises Gomes (Portugal) Sheila Stone (U.K.) Veli-Pekka Toiviainen (Finland) Dora Winston (Belgium)


Administration

General Director: John Corts General Secretary: Harvey Thomas


Full-time co-ordinators

German-speaking Europe: Hans-Jürgen Beulshausen Iberia: Hermogenes Fernandez Denmark and Norway: Peter Hofman-Bang Finland and Sweden: Peo Lannerö Greece and Italy: Salvatore Loria Ireland: Cassells Morrell Netherlands: Bouke Ottow Great Britain: Tony Stone French-speaking Europe: Jean-Jacques Weiler The Co-ordinators were also supported by more than 3,000 district and local voluntary representatives.


Developers

The morning programmes and materials were developed by:-


Expositors

Anglican Bishop
Festo Kivengere Festo Kivengere (1918–1988) was a Ugandan Anglican leader sometimes referred to as "the Billy Graham of Africa". He played a huge role in a Christian revival in southwestern Uganda, but had to flee in 1977 to neighboring Rwanda in fear for his l ...
(Uganda) and evangelist
Luis Palau Luis Palau Jr. (November 27, 1934 – March 11, 2021) was an Argentine-American international Christian evangelist. He was born in Argentina but moved to Portland, Oregon, in his mid-twenties to enroll in a graduate program in Biblical studies. ...
(Argentina & USA) led the Bible expositions. The handbook labelled Palau "Mexico" as he recently had been a Missionary there.


Seminar teams

Apostolos Bliates (Greece); George Brucks (Netherlands); Alain Burnand (Switzerland); Alain Choiquier (France); Gert Doornenbal (Netherlands); Knut Magne Ellingsen (Norway); Bill Freel (U.K.); Juan Gili (Spain); Charles Guillot (France); Martin Homann (Federal Germany); Tom Houston (U.K.); Brian Kingsmore (N. Ireland); Alfred Kuen (France); Kalevi Lehtinen (Finland); Johannes Lukasse (Belgium); Elio Milazzo (Italy); Yves Perrier (France); Bernhard Rebsch (Federal Germany); Dagfinn Saether (Norway); Anton Schulte (Federal Germany); Hugh Silvester (U.K.); Emmanouel Smpraos (Greece); Theo Sorg (Federal Germany); Don Stephens (Switzerland); Billy Strachan (U.K.); Don Summers (U.K.); Paul Vandenbroeck (Belgium); Virgilio Vangioni (Spain); Jim Wilson (Switzerland).


Music

The Finnish group ''Treklangen'' sang the theme song: "I don't know what you came to do, but I came to praise the Lord" by
Dallas Holm Dallas Holm (born November 5, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter of Christian music, whose musical ministry has spanned almost four decades. His 1977 live album, with the group Praise, featured his best known song, "Rise Again". The group ...
. They recorded on the
Pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
label in English and Swedish as well as their own language. One of the special guests was
Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is a British singer and actor. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and, as of 2012, was the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart histo ...
. He was secured for the conference too late to be mentioned in the handbook. Choralerna, who had featured at ''Spree '73'', performed their gospel oratorio ''Living Water''. The Dutch gospel band 'The Lighters' also gave several performances. The organisers wanted to cater to all tastes, so they invited a selection of groups and singers from all over Europe. The resident staff musician was Peter Bye (U.K.) who, with his band and vocal group, led the morning music spots and accompanied the other sessions. The handbook in each Eurofest language included a songbook of 28 songs. The words for most of the songs were translated, if not original, and a further six remained untranslated. The non-English songs in the English handbook were: 6. GUD JEG VIL VÆRE KRISTEN (Norwegian) 16. MIJN VADER, DANK U WEL (Dutch) 17. OH, JOVENES VENID (Spanish) 20. QUAND LES MONTAGNES (French) 22. SIGNOR T'ADORIAMO (Italian) 26. VERGISS NICHT ZU DANKEN (German) The non-English handbooks did not translate number 21. SEEK YE FIRST, as it had recently been written (1973) by
Karen Lafferty Karen Lafferty (born February 29, 1948) is an American Contemporary Christian musician from Alamogordo, New Mexico. Lafferty graduated from Eastern New Mexico University and unsuccessfully attempted to join a Campus Crusade for Christ musical ens ...
.


Languages

Delegates registered in one of seven official languages. On sign-in they were given a handbook in that language and a colour coded wristband for access to the site. The languages were: English - pink; French - blue; German - yellow; Italian - green; Dutch - white; Spanish - orange and Norwegian - violet. There were seminars in each of the seven Eurofest languages, as well as in Finnish and Greek. Most seminars had a "Teach Team" of two people that shared the teaching. The meetings were held in the main hall that was divided into eight language areas with wide walkways in between. They were simultaneously translated from English into the other six official languages delivered by overhead speakers in the language areas. English speakers were told to sit anywhere so that their area could be used for on-the-ground simultaneous translation into the additional seminar languages of Finnish and Greek as well as Swedish and other languages.


Minigroups

All participants were assigned a "minigroup" of 8 - 10 people with a leader to work through each day's Worksheet based on the seminar and pray together. "Minigroup" was the organisers' term for
cell group The cell group is a form of church organization that is used in many Christian churches. Cell groups are generally intended to teach the Bible and personalize Christian fellowship. They are always used in cell churches, but also occur in para ...
. Some worksheet questions required further subdivision (in half or in partners) to achieve the best group dynamic for the task.


Daily Timetable


+Optional programme

Options offered for the 14.00 - 18.00 slot included: * Joining a witnessing team traveling into the city centre * Joining prayer groups for the witnessing teams * Special interest seminars (detailed below)


Special interest seminars

Stott's seminar on leadership was originally intended for "pastors or those interested in full-time service". Graham believed that Stott deserved a wider audience, so he up-graded it to a plenary session that he chaired so that "everyone could be present".The Blue Riband
ichardbewes.com


References


External links

* A page of photographs

* More photos

* Richard Bewes obituary for
John Stott John Robert Walmsley Stott (27 April 1921 – 27 July 2011) was a British Anglican pastor and theologian who was noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He was one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974. I ...
, where he tells how Graham changed the programme at Eurofest ′75 to give Stott a larger platform: http://www.richardbewes.com/2014/12/the-blue-riband-evangelical-john-rw.html {{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418211318/http://www.richardbewes.com/2014/12/the-blue-riband-evangelical-john-rw.html , date=18 April 2019 * A film in monochrome showing many aspects of the festival (Hungarian commentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbqV9WwW3Bs&t=311s * Pathe film of the event (no audio) showing ''Treklagen'' in the Heysel Stadium singing the theme tune

* ''An Assessment of Mass Meetings as a Method of Evangelism'': Case Study of Eurofest '75 and the Billy Graham Crusade in Brussels - Google books

Evangelical Christian conferences Religious festivals in Belgium