Crusaders Celebrates 100th Year With New Name & Delirious?

|PIC1|As Crusaders celebrates its 100th birthday today at the Royal Albert Hall in Central London, the Christian youth organisation announces a new name to mark the start of a new century. From 1 January 2007, Crusaders will operate under the name ‘Urban Saints.’

Commenting on the new name, Matt Summerfield, Crusaders’ Executive Director, said, “The ‘Urban Saints’ movement is about an inclusive call to a generation of children and young people to live lives of faith, hope, and love through Jesus Christ wherever they are in the world.”.

“Young people are fantastic - rich in potential and wanting to live lives of purpose and impact. We want to encourage them to reject negative stereotypes and prove to society that they are agents for good through Jesus - in their local communities and beyond. This is what ‘Urban Saints’ is all about. Urban Saints are people who have discovered the joy of following Jesus, with His mission becoming their passion - to see the good news of the Kingdom come, through words and action.”

|AD|The sold-out centenary celebration for Crusaders is titled ‘No Turning Back: The Main Event’ and features music from some of the UK’s top Christian bands and performers including Delirious?, yFriday, thebandwithnoname, Blush, The Psalm Drummers, Rob Lacey (Street Bible Theatre Company), Steve Legg, Tommy Baker, Tim Vine and John Archer.

Tickets sold out to over 4,000 Crusaders from across the United Kingdom. In addition to the main event, other activities such as a mystery treasure hunt and a lunch-time picnic will be held. ‘Picnic in the Park’ will proceed from 10am to 3pm at Kensington Gardens. An activity for tweenagers, ‘Hunt The Spy,’ will also take place from 10am to 1pm. Details for this activity will be given out on the day.

According to Crusaders, the aim of ‘No Turning Back: The Main Event’ is to challenge young people to go for God’s very best, rather than having them settle for second rate Christianity, with one foot in the world and the other in God’s Kingdom.

Crusaders is a dynamic interdenominational youth and children’s missionary movement, established in 1906. Over the past 100 years, Crusaders has been reaching out to children and young people, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with them and challenging them to live out God’s great adventure for their lives. Every week many thousands have an opportunity to hear the awesome Christian message through our Crusader and Energize groups. Thousands more attend our wide range of residential camps, holidays and events.