This summer, the Scottish Episcopal Church’s annual residential Youth Week returns to Glenalmond College in Perthshire (7-13 August 2022).

It is a young-person-centred event packed with activities, discussion groups, leisure time, and worship. It aims to offer young people at high school space to be themselves, make friends, and explore faith.

Disrupted the past two years by the pandemic, the 2022 Provincial Youth Week (‘Yeek’, for short) will occur in person. “It will be great to come together again in person,” said the Rev Tembu Rongong, the Youth Week leader. Recent events have taken place primarily online. Like many others in the Church, youth leaders adapted to deliver experiences of meeting in new ways. “We amazed ourselves,” said Tembu. “It was an unexpected journey with surprising results.”

Inspired by the unexpected adventure of the past two years, leaders have designed this year’s event around the Church’s seasonal calendar. “Despite COVID,” said Tembu, “folk still celebrated Christmas and Easter. We marked God’s presence through it all.” Tembu likened the Youth Week’s continued running to how Christians seek God each day. “Even though our celebrations have been out of the ordinary, they have continued.”

The ‘out of the ordinary’ theme is also a play on the Church’s season of Ordinary Time, a period of growth symbolised in green vestments and church furnishings. The Church invites people to mature in faith through the ‘ordinary’ or routine. At this year’s Provincial Youth Week, delegates will live through Advent to Christ the King in seven days, delving into all that happens in a liturgical year.

Information and applications for this year’s Provincial Youth week are available at www.yeek.scot

The Week is a welcoming, supportive, and safe environment for young people from various backgrounds and experiences of church. Support is available for those with particular needs or who face financial or geographical challenges coming to the Youth Week. Leaders from the Scottish Episcopal Church are working closely with Church and College officials to ensure the safe operation of the physical event. If you have any questions, contact the Rev Tembu Rongong, the Youth Week leader, at rector@trinityelgin.org or Claire Benton-Evans, the Provincial Youth Enabler, at ClaireBE@scotland.anglican.org.