A total of six girls and five boys arrived from Northern Europe and spent four days here as part of an on-going link between All Saints and Vrinnevi Forsamling, a parish in Norrkoping, which is situated 150 miles south of Stockholm.

Explaining more about the partnership, which has been running since 2000, Vicar of Antrim, Dr. Stephen McBride said: "What began with a few tentative steps and e-mails with the hope of sharing thoughts, insights and helpful experiences about the work of the church, to promote fellowship and to pray for one another has developed into a frequent exchange between our two youth groups."

He continues: "Over the past eight years we have made nine exchanges and on each occasions members our parishes' youth groups have travelled and stayed in each other's homes. The visits have had social, educational, cultural and spiritual dimensions. The trips have helped to strengthen friendships that have already existed in our own youth club and also established new friendships between our two churches."

Vrinnevi has a parish complex, that incorporates a church, administration centre, nursery school, halls and youth centre. It has a staff, which includes three priests, two full time deacons, an office administrator, nursery school teachers, youth pastor, music director and caretaker.

As well as this, the visitors spent time meeting young people from All Saints youth club, sharing meals and companionship with their 'host families' and taking part in Sunday worship.

Dr. McBride adds: "During each exchange, the visiting clergy preach in the host church and the members of the youth group take part in the singing and drama."

"With each successive exchange, friendships between our youth groups have grown stronger and we have discovered that in having more unstructured activities together and less tourist type ones, our exchanges have been more productive", he says.

The Vicar believes that getting to know one another over the years has been a brilliant experience for both parishes.

He smiles: "The link has provided each church with opportunities to travel to places they would not normally have went to and by staying with local families, participate in the day to day culture of somewhere different. We have opportunities to try out different foods, experience worship in a different church and learn about being a Christian in a different culture as well as have fun and enjoyment together.

"We have also gained a tremendous amount the through friendships that have been formed between our two sets of leaders and between our two youth groups. We have experienced life and worship in a different culture and church and have sent back to Norrkoping many Swedish ambassadors for Ireland. It has been hard work but it has been very rewarding and worth all the effort", Dr. McBride concludes.