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- New Apostolic Church plans European Youth Day in 2009
Zurich. The New Apostolic Church is seriously considering the possibility of organising a European Youth Day in 2009. The chief apostle and the district apostles from Europe decided on this during the European District Apostles' Meeting in Zurich. The host country might well be Germany.
Both Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber and his predecessor, Richard Fehr, have more than once expressed positive sentiments on the idea of an international youth day. Recently Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber mentioned the issue in an interview with the Church magazine "Our Family". The Catholic Church's World Youth Day in Cologne in 2005 had demonstrated that such a large event could generate impulses for blessed development among young people, he said (OF 21/05).
A New Apostolic Youth Day in Europe would attract an estimated 40,000 participants and would require careful planning. Thus the relatively long period between now and 2009 does indeed appear realistic. Next year a planning committee is to be established, which will investigate further details on behalf of the Church. We will continue to report on the project as it develops.
In Europe, the New Apostolic Church has around 500,000 members, some 380,000 of whom live in Germany. The Church's infrastructure there also makes it likely that Germany could be the hosting country for a European Youth Day.
16 November 2005