Diocesan News
Connor Diocese ‘Take the Castle’ Youth Weekend
From fine food to outrageous games, from great discussions to singing God’s praise, from water fights to quiet reflection – the Connor Takes the Castle weekend had it all!
Connor Youth Council welcomed groups from across the diocese to Castlewellan Castle to share in the fun from September 2–4.
Stephen Whitten, Church Army Evangelist with the North Belfast Centre of Mission, and Christina Baillie, Connor Diocesan Youth Officer, led the sessions on the theme of fear.
Kate Peden and Adam Girvin from St Jude’s, Muckamore, led worship and Matthew Cairns was behind the great audio and visuals.
Christina said: “Fear can be such a common emotion but can be really difficult to talk about. Fearfulness can stop us living our lives fully for God but we wanted the young people to understand how God’s perfect love casts out fear and how we all can claim the promise of being a child of God.
“The sessions were made up of interactive activities, worship, discussion and Bible study which the young people engaged with really well.”
For the rest of the weekend, the young people took part in Fear Factor games which included some strange or scary activities.
There were competitive games on Saturday culminating in the grand finale of Connor’s Got Talent, and despite the rain the young people enjoyed a water fight and slip & slide!
In their feedback on the weekend, young people from St Patrick’s, Coleraine, said: “One of the things that we enjoyed most about Castlewellan was the opportunity to go somewhere together as a youth group and to get to make new friends with people from other groups.”
For further information please contact:
Diocesan Communications Officer, Connor
07766 103880
Mrs Karen Bushby
[email protected]