Following gatherings in the heart of Boston and New York City, Passion crossed the border November 22, hosting a night of worship, prayer and teaching free for university students of the Greater Toronto Area at Ricoh Coliseum. Home to over 300,000 university students, Toronto is one of the most vibrant and diverse cities in the world.

Chris Tomlin, Charlie Hall and David Crowder began the evening with an acoustic worship set

With over 4,400 students in attendance, sixstepsrecords artist-worshipers, collegiate favourites Chris Tomlin, David Crowder Band and Charlie Hall, as well as Passion Conferences founder/director and author, Louie Giglio, led the evening. Students gathered across university and denominational backgrounds as one body were challenged to be part of a generation that lives out their faith radically on their campuses and for the fame and renown of Jesus Christ.

Louie Giglio (second from right) addresses the audience

The crowd prays with each other

“God is greater than our wildest imagination. Can he change a campus, can he change culture, can he change a nation? The answer is absolutely,” said Giglio. “We want to celebrate the bigness of God, and the smallness of you and the smallness of me. Our [Passion’s] theme has been and will be Isaiah 26:8. ‘Yes Lord, walking in the way of your truth, we wait eagerly for you, for Your name and Your Renown are the desire of our souls.’”

Charlie Hall Band

Giglio also told the story of Toronto’s 100-year centenary, which took place approximately 85 years ago at the very place the students were standing in the Ricoh Coliseum. “In the minutes of that celebration, they read scripture and called on God to make Toronto a city that would be sought out in the whole world for His glory… little did they know that a seed would go into the ground that day, and decades later you would be standing on their prayer and on what happened on this very spot of Earth.”

Passion Conferences is returning to Nashville, TN to host Passion 06 January 2-5, 2006. Passion 06 is a four-day indoor gathering for college students from around the nation and world. Already surpassing the number of registrations from the 11,000 that attended last year’s Passion 05, there are more than 14,000 students from at least 17 countries already registered for this year’s gathering. Leading Passion 06 will be renowned speakers Louie Giglio, John Piper and Beth Moore, among others, as well as such acclaimed artist-worshipers as Charlie Hall, David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Shane and Shane, Nathan and Christy Nockels (Watermark), and more.

Chris Tomlin (Left)

Passion 06 will be held at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (GEC) and at numerous venues in the heart of Downtown Nashville. Not only will students worship together in an arena packed with thousands of faces representing campuses from every corner of the nation, but they will also have the chance to sit and process what God is doing in their lives with a small group of students they connect with through the smaller community groups that make up the fabric of the conference.

The Passion movement began in 1995 with a stirring in the heart of Passion founder Louie Giglio. Born out of a desire to see the 13 million college students of the nation awaken to the reality of a glorious God, the vision took shape under the leadership of men like Louie Giglio and the board of Choice Ministries, the non-profit umbrella for Passion Conferences. Since then, millions have connected with Passion through one of the several gatherings, such as the OneDay gatherings and the Passion Experience Tour or through eight Passion worship recordings and three DVDs that have been released worldwide, selling well over one million copies. Passion has also been featured by the New York Times, CNN and others, as well as will be the CCM Magazine January cover feature. The domino effect has spawned a movement that has circled the globe.

David Crowder

The unique purpose of Passion is to gather college students from campuses and churches across the nation, uniting them across ministry and denominational lines to seek the face of God together in worship and prayer. Affirming and valuing the work of local churches and campus ministries, Passion seeks to foster unity and connectivity among them, encouraging them to draw strength and encouragement from each other, resulting in a louder anthem of God’s renown.

The music of Passion, the OneDay gatherings and all the artists associated with the event are available at Canadian Christian retailers nationwide. To locate a store near you visit www.CMCStoreFinder.com.

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