URC Holiday Forum 2013

HOLIDAY FORUM 2013 went very well with everyone having a good time! John Ellis (who is General Assembly Moderator of the URC) has written a little bit about his visit which you can find hereDuring the week, Fred Davies took a group photo of the Forum 2013 attendees which you can see by clicking here.  Feel free to have a look, and download a copy for yourself if you wish!

The following is a report on the week provided by one of our attendees Mair Willcox:

I have been attending the annual URC Holiday Forum for over 25 Years, and it’s like my 2nd home. I always looked forward to coming with my parents when I was younger, now many years later I have decided to take my own son to URC Holiday Forum.

Holiday Forum is like my adopted family, and my son and I always look forward to meeting old and new friends, to welcome into the Holiday Forum family. I’ve always enjoyed attending the annual URC Holiday Forum conference and I hope to continue attending for many more years. When I asked my son who is 4, what he enjoyed the most about being on holiday at URC Holiday Forum, he said, ‘Singing, dancing, playing with my cousins and seeing the cows, & the lovely ladies’.

The mornings at Holiday Forum are always filled with activities for all ages from attending worship, and listening to an excellent theme speaker. Then there are a variety of groups including: worship, discussion, bible study, needlework, music & film groups, and various activities for the children to do in the morning.

This year there was a different approach to the children’s group’s and from a person who normally runs children’s group in previous years to helping this year it seemed very unusual for me to take such a back seat. The children were given plenty of opportunities to learn and develop their own faith through messy activities, listening to other people’s stories of faith, the children even had their own Vanity Fair and this particular event was extremely popular and great fun. The children also had an opportunity to wet some of the helpers using sponges & I’m sure both the children and helpers enjoyed this activity.

The afternoons are usually more relaxed and people are able to talk with fellow forumites, and new forumites. There are also some activities for people to participate in which included: cake making, short & long walks, bouncy castle, cluedo, table tennis & scrabble & boules competitions and a treasure hunt.

The evenings are also relaxed, this year we enjoyed the pub quiz, Scottish dancing, The ‘F’ factor, and the Forum Evening as well as sitting & relaxing in the bar with both old and new forumites, the evening meditation and much more.