St James’ parish once again reaching out to the youths of the church and encouraging them to become part of their community. The church took their current confirmation class on a trip to St Vincent’s in Whitstable, where the team welcomed the ‘Confirmandee’ with songs and prayers. At first, the students were very uncomfortable with the fact at night time they had their phones confiscated but later realised it did not affect them very much, it only urged them to talk to each other. “My favourite part of the trip was the bowling because we all got to get out of the house and have a good time,” Olivia age 14. The St Vincent crew then took the students out for bowling for team building skills, where they could pick who they wanted to be with but ultimately everyone came together over slushies and card tricks. Every night the ‘Confirmandee,’ catechists and the team at St Vincent’s would enter the chapel for night time prayer, where songs of praise different to hymn were sung and people had time for reflection within themselves. “I never get to have time to myself and just think about myself, it was really nice,” says a confirmation candidate of St James. the parish of St James succeeds again with enticing the youth to be a part of their religious community showing them that going to church does not have to be boring and that church is in fact for everybody of all ages and does not necessarily need the usual hymns and elderly people in order to be at one with God.
