At our sixth national conference held once more in the welcoming intimacy of the Burley Lodge Centre we sought to explore the relationship between faith-based and secular youth work – whatever this was supposed to mean? Indeed Graeme Tiffany at one point in the discussions suggested that the fruitful way forward would be to dissolve the separate categories of ‘faith’ and ‘secular’ rather than confirm them. Certainly the day threw up all manner of philosophical, political and pedagogical issues, of which we only scratched the surface. But in our preliminary scratching we discovered that, intertwined with the differences, we had much in common. Whilst, one the one hand we were a little disappointed with the attendance of just over 40 people, on the other it was refreshing to see new faces and hear alternative voices, including those with a Scottish lilt from the Hot Chocolate Project, who travelled down all the way from Dundee.

As a contribution to keeping alive both the debate and the relationships tentatively made we are pleased, courtesy of Justin Wylie, to post videos of the stimulating offerings made by Naomi  and Nigel.

Naomi Stanton, Joint editor,’Youth Work and Faith : debates, delights and dilemmas’

Nigel Pimlott author of ‘Embracing the Passion; Christian Youth Work and Politics’

And just to ask, even plead, that if anyone would like to do a review of either of the two new books – Nigel’s ‘Embracing the Passion’ or Naomi’s ‘Youth Work and Faith’ we would be ecstatic.