Faith Conference social activities

In the evenings, the social life of the Faith Conference gives an opportunity for an amazing variety of exchanges. While some are discussing the life of the Church locally and internationally, and priests get a chance to swap stories and give advice to one another on pastoral issues, catch up on the latest news from Rome or elsewhere, university students are talking about their Catholic societies and grabbing speakers for next term's programme. Medical students get the opportunity to discuss how to tackle some of the thornier pro-life issues.

At the same time, there is plenty of exuberance and general mayhem against the background of a quiz on Wednesday and a Ceilidh (Scots dancing) on Thursday. We have been blessed with many good marriages of young people who have met on Faith Conferences so this part of the proceedings has an importance all of its own. Everyone mixes in together and there is plenty of responsible supervision so that it is a very safe environment in which the youngsters can have a lot of fun.

There are always one or two Scots who bring their Kilt to add authenticity to the Ceilidh. The dancing is traditional, raucous and, at times, quite complicated. David Kerr call the steps and the evening is rounded off with a rendering of Auld Lang Syne that is not for the faint-hearted. However we have had no broken limbs as yet, DG. One young girl confided to me that it was all so much more fun than going to night clubs! Here's a short clip. I actually haven't used my new camera for taking videos before so I didn't realise that you had to press the button a second time to stop. Nevertheless, you can just presume that I wanted to get some footage of the fancy footwork!

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