A fresh look: Photos from 1980 Presbyterian Youth Triennium
Reflecting on the first Triennium through archival materials
Every three summers since 1980, high school students from all over the world have come together for the Presbyterian Youth Triennium (PYT) — except in 2022 — to create a community of young Presbyterians committed to strengthening their relationships with God and the church.
This year when the PYT convenes for the first time in Louisville from July 28-31, it will also be the first gathering to welcome young adults to the event — 19-25-year-olds who are active in the PC(USA).
While the Presbyterian Church has a rich history of youth work and Christian education (take, for example, the Westminster Fellowship), a regular gathering the size and scope of Triennium wasn’t developed until 1980.
Three years earlier, the 1977 General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. approved the Strategies for Implementation statement of the Design for Ministry in Youth, a collection of structures and actions created to develop youth ministry within congregations and churchwide. Not only did the first Youth Triennium develop from the Design for Ministry in Youth, but it also became the primary youth gathering for Presbyterian denominations in North America. In addition to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and the Cumberland and Second Cumberland Presbyterian churches all participated in the first Youth Triennium in 1980.
The inaugural Triennium was a great success, with approximately 3,700 young people attending, including 60 international participants. The theme for that first gathering was “Christ Among Us … Journey of Hope.” A 300-member youth forum met to assess youth ministry in the church; seminars with topics like “A Search for Values Through Music,” “Coping with Broken Relationships,” and “Youth Leading Youth” were filled to the brim. Participants took leadership roles in youth ministry and left the Triennium prepared to share what they had learned with their congregations.
To better understand the intent of this gathering, we can look toward the 1986 Youth Triennium Goal Statement, which identifies seven aims for that year’s conference:
- Explore our unity and diversity
- Build a community of faith
- Grow spiritually and personally
- Realize the power of God’s presence in our lives and celebrate it
- Be the people of hope in God’s world, to help and serve others through Jesus Christ
- Be doers of the Word
- Examine critical issues in the lives of young people and in the world.
This item, as well as a few others, can be found at the Presbyterian Historical Society, which houses a single box of records pertaining to the organization and history of Youth Triennium.
One of the most insightful items within the small collection is the 1981 edition of Youth Magazine, which consists of articles that are based on the speeches and workshops held at the first meeting. It also includes several incredible photos that help to transport us back to that August week in 1980.
The introductory piece, “Inside Youth,” was penned by Larry Golemon, who served as moderator of the morning plenary sessions and as youth coordinator for the conference in its entirety. Golemon reflects particularly on what was learned about youth empowerment, offering readers the following definition:
“It is the necessity of dealing with young people as full members of the church. Phrases like ‘youth are the future of the church’ and ‘the promise of the church’ tend to emphasize that the main gifts we have to offer won’t be used until 10 years from now. We won’t learn how to offer those gifts unless the church learns that we have those gifts to use now. Youth empowerment means inviting and enabling young people to offer those gifts — a sense of youthful vigor and energy, optimism, creative imagination, sensitivity to questions about identity, questions about vocation, issues of social justice and mission, questions about how to use church funds …”
Not only did Youth Triennium serve to highlight the necessity of treating younger congregants as full Christians and fully capable church members, it also meant to bolster the confidence of the youth in attendance to make them feel truly equipped and encourage them in their personal faith relationships as well as their participation with their home churches.
There were several guest speakers and members of clergy at the 1980 Triennium meeting, including Andrew J. Young and the Rev. Dr. Joan Salmon Campbell. The latter led the students in worship during the plenary sessions; the former gave a talk titled “Let’s Be More Humane," in which he spoke about his journey of hope and his visions for the future.
Young, who began his career as a United Church of Christ minister, is also known as being a civil rights giant, Georgia’s first Black congressional representative in more than a century, the former United Nations Ambassador, and 53rd mayor of Atlanta. He celebrated his 93rd birthday this past March. Salmon Campbell would be elected the first African American woman Moderator of the PC(USA) nine years after this photo was taken, in 1989. She died in July 2019.
Scattered throughout the March 1981 edition of Youth Magazine are short profiles on a handful of participants. They are titled “Youth Power,” and enabled student attendees to share their personal responses to the event.
Lydia Overton, who was 20 at the time and a member of the delegation from Philadelphia Presbytery, had this to say of her experience at Youth Triennium in 1980: “Adults have the experience and the knowledge, but youth have the willingness to take risks. Youth as leaders can offer fresh insights and different points of view, renewed hope and lots of energy. Youth have a way of picking out what is outdated and useless, so that the church is constantly growing and changing. All youth should know that there is a place for them in the church with responsibility and empowerment. The important thing for youth to show the church is their willingness to work and take responsibility. I found out from the foreign delegations that youth are more active in their churches than in most North American churches.”
Another Youth Power entry was penned by Dave McCann, a member of the UPCUSA Design Team who hailed from Coralville, Iowa. McCann said that “through the Triennium, we, the youth in the church, got our feelings out and stated our feelings and questions. Churches are going to have to continue to be responsive to the youth. Maybe they can’t provide all the answers, maybe they can’t provide any of them, but the church has the chance to walk down the road in a hand-in-hand experience with youth.”
Other items that live within this collection include a leader’s handbook from the 1983 Triennium, the theme of which was “Lay Down Your Nets”; a program book from the 1986 meeting, the theme of which was “Like a Burning Fire”; a Good News Bible from the 1989 Presbyterian Youth Triennium, the theme of which was “From These Roots…”; and a poster and program from the 1995 gathering, the theme of which was “…and the walls come tumbling down.”
Next week, when the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) welcomes its high school-age youth and their adult youth workers to Louisville, Kentucky, for four days of worship, recreation, Bible study, outreach, and faith formation, the theme will be “As If We Were Dreaming." Presbyterian Historical Society can’t wait to see what history this year’s gathering will make!
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