Young Sojourners May Long Weekend in Sorrento

This year Sorrento Centre, with the support of the BC and Yukon Anglican Youth Movement (BCYAYM), hosted 65 youth, young adults and their leaders for the annual Young Sojourners gathering which took place over the May long weekend.

Young Sojourners is a time for youth and young adults from across BC and Alberta to connect with one another and with adult leaders, learn from a guest speaker, worship together and enjoy the beautiful surroundings of the Shuswap at Sorrento Centre. This year's guest speaker was the Ven. Lynne McNaughton, rector and youth group leader at St Clement's in Lynn Valley who taught the group about Celtic Christian Spirituality. Lynne's sessions were interactive and included, building chicken wire and duct tape coracles, tying Trinity knots and reading the story of Brendan's Voyage.  

During the weekend, participants also worked on projects to help get Sorrento Centre ready for their exciting and busy summer season. These included: cleaning, painting, building, weeding and planting at the farm. The weather during the weekend was rainy, which made for a muddy time at the farm, but nothing a warm shower and tea couldn't fix.  

This year, the Diocesan Youth Movement (DYM) organized, and for the first time fully funded, transportation by bus from the Lower Mainland. On our bus, we had young people from nine different parishes in the Diocese of New Westminster and two in the Diocese of British Columbia who came over on the ferry from as far away as Port Alberni. We also had leaders join our group from an additional five parishes in our Diocese. This was a wonderful gift, as it is the leaders who attend the event, even without young people from their home parishes, who allow us to provide support for the young people from around the Diocese whose parishes do not send adults to these gatherings. As in February at our winter retreat, we were particularly blessed with the presence of Diocesan clergy: the Rev. Janice Lowell from St Francis-in-the-Wood, the Rev. Lizz Lindsay from St Agnes and of course Lynne, all three had accepted our invitation to attend these youth events as a part of their ministry in the Diocese. We were also pleased to spend some time with Archbishop John Privett who often stops by our youth gatherings to see how things are going, hang out with youth and leaders and join in our programming and worship.

Images

• Candles laid out for worship on a cloth wall hanging with a beautiful Celtic design brought by the Venerable Lynne McNaughton
• On Friday night, young people from across BC and Alberta greet each other and begin community building games
• The Reverend Janice Lowell gets to know some folks
• Taylor and Mackenzie show off their combined two person coracel while Margot is hard at work on her own vessel
• Storytime with Lynne McNaughton – everyone gathers to hear the story of Brendan and the Whale
• Youth leader, Sue, celebrates her team’s accomplishments at the end of the giant game of Clue organized by BCYAYM Council
• Lighting votive candles to offer prayers during evening prayer on Saturday. 

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