Croeso i Gymru! The Methodist Youth Conference is coming to Cardiff

For three days in November, Cardiff will become the focalpoint for Methodist young people all over Great Britain to meet.The reason? Cardiff will be hosting the annual Methodist YouthConference from 16-18 November 2007 in the new Urdd Centre inCardiff Bay.

The Methodist Youth Conference is an annual conference that givesan opportunity for young people aged 13-25 from all over Britain tomeet and discuss important issues they are interested in and howthey relate to the Church. It is aimed at young people who areconnected or wish to be connected with the Methodist Church.

Many young Methodists across Great Britain benefit from this annualmeeting as not all are fortunate enough to have the chance to mixwith many people their own age in their local church. 'This is agreat opportunity for the young people,' says Reverend Susan McIvorfrom the Cardiff Circuit, who is one of the organisers of theconference. 'They have chance to meet lots of other Methodist youngpeople, talk about their concerns and draw the whole church'sattention to these issues.'

Each year the conference has a specific theme, and this year theyoung people have chosen to celebrate the 200th anniversary of theabolition of slavery in the UK and the freedom Christians find intheir faith today.

The conference is held in a different location in Britain everyyear and this time it is being held in the Urdd sleepover centre inCardiff Bay. Katie Demery, 16 from Cardiff said, 'We think that theyoung people will love Cardiff Bay with its Doctor Who and WelshAssembly connections. We also have lots of great activities plannedfor them. In fact, we're a bit concerned that it will be so goodthey might not want to leave at the end of the weekend!'

The event has been organised through a planning committee involvingyoung people from around the Cardiff Circuit area aged 13-25,offering the opportunity for all the young people involved not onlyto work as part of a team, but also to develop planning and socialskills.