On Saturday, 8th March at a happy and relaxed service in Norwich Cathedral three of our young people were Confirmed into the faith and Membership of the Church of England, it was a special day for everyone, but I couldn’t help feeling sad too. Three young people making such a commitment is special, but what about all the other youngsters in our villages, where was their opportunity to make a commitment?

The Church, trying to be ‘all things to all people’ has to cater for the majority who attend, the traditionalists for want of a better word, while trying to get the message of our Lord, a message of love, peace and forgiveness, over to everyone else.
Acknowledging that young people for the most part, prefer to meet in groups, far from parental, even adult authority it follows that they need somewhere safe and appropriate to meet - with our blessing. Remember, adults in the villages would be bereft if their meeting places vanished - I mean our many and varied Pubs, not our Churches. So we need to take our Youth’s needs seriously and to this end Coltishall Parish Council have arranged for an Open Evening on Thursday, 10th April, 7 - 9 pm for young people, parents and interested adults to come to share ideas with Representatives of the Youth Service, Parish Councillors and hopefully a Police Liaison Officer. The Primary School Hall has been freely given and the Evening has sponsorship from a local business.

You can support this venture, even if you don’t feel you can attend, however we do want as many people there as possible, in two ways, firstly by talking positively about our Youth and by being encouraging of this evening, all this while relaxing,

comfortably in your favourite places of relaxation and out and about shopping etc. Secondly by buying Raffle tickets, the prizes are not insubstantial (listed below), for although funding may be available for such initiatives as Roller Blade area and a Youth Service supervised meeting we still need to show that we are willing to support all decisions we make in practical ways - that means like everything else in life - being responsible in our expenditure.

I hope, that when the 10th April comes and is a ‘success’ and we move into the following week, Holy Week to Easter that all our hard work for our Young People will be truly a Resurrection experience for all of us.

Wishing a Resurrection - New Life and a Happy Easter, when it comes, to us all.

Lorna