Seventh-day Adventist young people marched through the streets of downtown Indianapolis April 7, beating drums, carrying banners, and calling for an end to school and community violence.  Newspaper and television reporters recorded their observations along the parade route while one television news crew shot footage from a helicopter.  This “Rally For Life” parade was a highlight of the four-day United Youth Congress 2001, an international conference organized every four years by the Black Adventist Youth Directors Association.

A record 5,000 youth delegates attended the event—the largest United Youth Congress since its inception in 1972, according to James Black, chair of the planning committee. “This is a thousand more delegates than we were expecting,” he says.

The event began April 4, as Adventist youth delegates converged on the convention center in downtown Indianapolis.  Young people came from the United States, Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Africa to have fun, participate in friendly competition, and make new friends.

Delegates attended workshops that addressed how youth relate to peers, parents, sexuality, and spirituality, and took part in discussions led by pastors, psychologists, business owners, and motivational speakers. Other highlights of the congress included worship, music, games and competitions, and community service, with several groups of delegates visiting local nursing homes for the elderly.