Can we envision an International Festival of Young Preachers? in Rome?

Vatican Festival

This question first arose almost a year ago, in June of 2015. AoP president Dwight A. Moody huddled with Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville to discuss the matter. The two have been partners in the work of the AoP since the very first festival, January of 2010; the archbishop hosted the National Festival of Young Preachers twice in his Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville (2011 and 2012). Together they wrote letters to Pope Frances and sent them by way of the papal nuncio in Washington DC. There was no response...until Sunday afternoon, January 3, 2016, right in the middle of the 2016 National Festival of Young Preachers. Kurtz received a letter from the Vatican, signed by the secretary of state, conveying greetings and blessings from Pope Francis to the "young men and women assembled in Lexington." Kurtz read the letter to the assembly that night in the sanctuary of the Broadway Christian Church.
Here is that letter:



In response and in an entirely unrehearsed way, we made a video to send to the Vatican, to Pope Francis, inviting him to host the first International Festival of Young Preachers in Rome. On the video are Archbishop Kurtz, President Moody, student Andrew Wellman, AoP'16 from the diocese of Toledo, and minister Aline Sylvia-Schriner, AoP'16, from Brazil by way of Kansas City (Central Baptist Theological Seminary). Even before the video has made its way, via the papal nuncio in Washington DC, it has been published throughout the Protestant and Catholic networks, and many people are praying for a successful presentation to the Vatican in the very near future.

Here is that video:
https://vimeo.com/151697598


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