EMES Youthgroup gathers in Lille
Freddie Higgins from Ireland and Naomi Roberts from France tell us about their experiences at the EMES Youthgroup gathering in Lille, France in September 2025:
Freddie Higgins says…
From the 5th to the 7th of September 2025, I had the privilege of attending the Young Friends gathering alongside the Border Meeting in the Centre Spirituale du Hautmont, Lille. There were 7 young Friends, stretching from Ireland to Georgia. Along with four amazing adults who organised a great weekend for us.
I deeply enjoyed getting to talk to so many Friends from all over Europe during the Gathering. I love learning about what life is like for people in different countries, what things about daily life we never hear about, what things they love or hate, and getting to share my own piece of the wider EMES puzzle with them. I spoke to many Friends who were American or British but had been living in Europe the majority of their lives. I found their stories very interesting, especially as someone who spent part of my childhood abroad.
The Youthgroup got to attend one session and one workshop, along with the social evening and Epilogue in the evening. The session was one on grief, run as a conversation between two Friends: Erik from the Netherlands and Oana who currently lives in Cork. Both had lost their brothers in sudden and traumatic ways, and spoke about how they used art to cope with and understand loss and grief. My own grandmother had died two weeks and one day before that session took place and it gave me a great sense of healing to be present for it. The social evening gave us a chance to show off games, singing, poetry, and clowning; and the workshop gave us chances to explore creative mediums from textiles to photography and music soundscapes.
Us young Friends also had activities all to ourselves. First was an ongoing one throughout the weekend, of decorating a shared ‘EMES blanket’ with buttons, textiles, and markers. I enjoyed getting to sew on a flower made of buttons and seeing all the creativity other Friends shared. We played Quaker icebreaker games, and went on walks throughout the grounds and out for icecream. We also got our own specially made escape room, which provided challenge and a chance for teamwork. Even better, the reward was a badge maker! We got to use scrapbooking materials, washi tape, pencils, and paper to create our own name and decorative badges in different sizes, to match the ones the adults had at the Border Meeting. Lastly, we each got to make a card for another Friend as goodbye presents to each other.
I’m very grateful to the volunteers at the Centre who kept us fed and warm, and made up our rooms for us before we arrived. I’m also immensely grateful to all of the adult Friends who made the event so engaging and enjoyable, Joëlle and John Dubois who provided me transport from the airport and a wheelchair, as well as EMES and my local Meeting for funding my trip. I hope to be able to attend more gatherings like this in the future, and meet even more Friends from around the world!
Naomi Roberts says…
This year’s youth group gathering took place on the first weekend of September, in the outskirts of Lille, in France. Even though the size of the group was smaller than the previous years, only 7 young people, there was the same welcoming and relaxed atmosphere. We arrived at different times on the Friday afternoon or evening, all travelling from different places: England, Ireland, France, Germany, even as far as from Georgia. We had a short introduction before dinner and carried on after eating. We played games such as “the sun shines on” and another one where you pretend to be an elephant, a palm tree or even a toaster! We also had a short walk around the grounds of the building that we were staying in, a beautiful old grand building built in the 1880’s by the church. After introducing ourselves to the border meeting and having epilogue with them, we got ready to go to bed as everyone was tiered from the long day.
Breakfast was around 8, then we joined the border meeting for a talk where two Quakers had a conversation about how they express their faith in the world today and the role death has in their lives. It was very interesting learning about the different experiences they’ve had and how that informs how they are today. The talk was thought provoking but also a lot to take in. Then the highlight of the weekend for me took place: the escape room! We all had to work together solving clues and not falling for the red herrings, to find the key that let us discover the prize: a badge making machine! As you can imagine, we had plenty of fun making loads of badges the rest of the day. We also could work on the EMES blanket throughout the weekend, which is getting much more colourful. After lunch, we dispersed ourselves into the different activities that we had chosen during the morning, that included painting, textiles, photography, clowning and much more. It was a challenge to choose which one to go to as they all seemed so good. There was an optional walk around the village to find ice-cream, but some of us were too engrossed in our activities to go. The rest of the afternoon was relaxed, we played games, carried on with arts and crafts and planed what we were going to contribute to the “Bunter Abend” and epilogue. The yearly “Bunter Abend” started after the evening meal, there were the usual skits, singing and poetry, but also the presentation of what people did in the different workshops. We played a game now well known for the youth group that includes miming and invited the rest of the border meeting to join in. For epilogue we watched a powerful video about music made in difficult and ugly times, chosen by one of the border meeting adults, and then we collectively created rain sounds with only our body. It was a great way to end a thought-provoking day full of creativity and fun. Some of us stayed up later playing different games and eating biscuits.
On the third and last day, we had to prepare our things and pack up before going to our room for the last session: making cards for each other to take home and open on the way back. We joined border meeting for their meeting for worship and the ones of us who were still there ate lunch together. This weekend was great in many ways: I got to know lovely people better, I discovered different ways of being creative and I was also challenged to think about more difficult subjects. I am already looking forward to the next one!
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