Single Friendliness Flourishes among Yorkshire Methodists
Single Friendly Church attended the Methodist’s Flourish Festival last month, where we were encouraged by all the single friendly conversations had with Yorkshire churches.
We attended Flourish Festival in York on 13th-15th February 2026, a diverse all-age festival run by North and East Yorkshire Methodist District. With 400 people in attendance from across Yorkshire, we were able to have some fantastic conversations with attendees alongside the programme of talks, worship and prayer.
Liz, who is in charge of Church Engagement at SFCN, had lots of positive interactions over the three days. She was particularly encouraged to meet several single people who have been faithfully driving single friendliness in their own church contexts for years. They were very encouraged to find out about Single Friendly Church and our mission to inspire a movement that welcomes and values single people in all our churches.
Liz shared: “It was so inspiring to hear people's positive experiences of church leadership and culture. I was blessed to hear some personal stories from single people too. Lots of attendees were interested to hear more how our work could help them and their churches. The organisers were really friendly and welcoming in the build up – it was such a pleasure to work with them.”
Flourish Festival was a great opportunity to follow up with churches who we met at the national Methodist Conference last summer, where we had a very popular stand and ran a Fringe Event for delegates on Becoming a Single Friendly Church. We also appreciated the chance to build stronger links with Methodist churches in Yorkshire and grow our work in the North of England.
The Methodist Church published a Report on Singleness in 2024, with a call to welcome, affirm, and celebrate the contributions of single people. We welcome the Methodists’ report and commitment to uphold singleness and single people, and are are ready to support all Methodist churches responding to this call.
“It was so inspiring to hear people’s positive experiences of church leadership and culture. I was blessed to hear some personal stories from single people too. ”