All saints day is another saints day as part of my church, a small Church of Ireland community in North Antrim, Northern Ireland. Derived from the ancient Catholic Church, we no longer follow the catholic religious traditions. We have 'disbanded' from the Catholic faith, and I have grew up earning the respect of my fellow parishioners and a community as a whole. But this diversity of our Christianity causes rifts across my homeland.

As a child, church was part of our lives. We were brought up to go to church and Sunday School, and after that we were given the choice. If we wanted to be religious and continue to church that was our decision, or we could choose to go out and party on a Saturday night and suffer a hangover in bed on a Sunday morning.

For me, I decided to continue going to Church, as I liked to hear the sermon, and the songs filled me with pride. I even filled in as a Sunday school teacher, so that I could maybe instill some of what I had learned into younger people. But much as I enjoyed working with children, I also liked to get a good night out, and our socializing would involve discos and pubs and people from every walk of life, who i would wholeheartedly embrace and offer a drink, but given a day the situation could immensely change.

Growing up the religious divides were quite noticeable in the Protestant celebrations of The Battle of the Boyne and celebrations of the loyalist faith. I grew up going to the twelfth parades with band music that would annoy the catholic communities, causing many conflicts. I never lived through the 'worst' of 'the troubles', that have been shown on television, but I have seen conflict between friends and relatives. I wonder after seeing a brawl in the street, how many of the men and women involved continue to go to Church on a Sunday morning, to pray for conflict across the world, when they should be looking on their door step.

As much as I enjoy a night out, I know that we should respect our elders and the other members of our communities, and I will attend Church on a Sunday, without feeling guilty about what the weekend has brought.

As my minister explained at my wedding rehearsal, The Bible isn't against alcohol, as Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, and neither is it against sex, as within our very prayer book the celebration of marriage, to produce seed, i.e the sexual union of a married couple.

It is sad to hear young people today not only disregarding the Holy Days within the church, but also thinking of it as a stuffy place for old people to go, when there is so much more for them to learn.

Learn more about this author, Laura Sugden.
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