Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students
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The Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES) is an evangelical Christian parachurch organisation that employs staff to encourage university students to convert to, or strengthen their belief in, Christianity. It is affiliated with, and in 1947 was a founding member of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.
History
The group was founded in 1930 by a young English evangelist, Howard Guinness, who emigrated from England to encourage university students in evangelism. He formed a number of groups in 1930 in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Hobart, among which are the [Sydney University Evangelical Union] (SUEU) and Melbourne University Christian Union (CU), both of whom celebrate their 75th anniversary in 2005. Guinness returned in 1934 and founded groups in Perth and Adelaide.The groups grouped together to form a network in 1936 as the Australian Intervarsity Fellowship or IVF, which later changed its name to the AFES in 1973. It had over 2000 members by 1959, and today has groups in over 50 campuses across the country in every state and territory, and employs well over 100 staffworkers who look after the students on their various campuses.
AFES groups run a variety of activities, such as regular public Bible talks, smaller Bible studies, prayer groups, mid-year conferences and evangelistic outreach events.
2005: Year of Tertiary Evangelism
In 2005, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first student groups in Australia, the AFES ran a "Year of Tertiary Evangelism" involving coordinated events on university campuses throughout the country. The theme of the year was "For Christ's Sake", a phrase normally used in swearing, though used here to promote the Christian message itself. Besides the events on specific university campuses, the AFES ran various evangelistic rallies with many Christian groups from different universities attending.Related pages
External links
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