On 10th November, 22 secondary students – Young Ambassadors for RE – gathered for a conference in London. One of the themes was ‘Religion and humour’ and they relished the opportunity to explore this topic with Sara Pascoe, who has recently become a patron of the RE Council. The young people discussed issues like whether it was ever all right to tell religious jokes, the relationship between humour and serious subjects and how far was too far in a comedy situation. Sara talked about her work as a stand-up and responded to a barrage of questions from the students. She said afterwards:
It was such an interesting and wonderful afternoon from my point of view, and stimulating for me to speak to the pupils about something that I find so fascinating – and I found their responses so wise and enlightening, I actually wished that more comedians could have been there to benefit from it, so thank you from me!! And I’m really happy that the young people enjoyed it too!
The Young Ambassadors also spent time thinking about religion, the internet and social media, and they reported to each other on what they’d achieved in the past year. They also spent time planning new activities for the coming months, including making films to encourage university students to consider RE teaching as a career.