An atheist girl guide has finally been able to make her promise after references to God were removed from the vow.
Liz Blackburn, 22, from Bedgrove has been involved in girl guiding since she started as a rainbow at the age of five.
She is now a leader with the 12th Aylesbury Guides but she chose not to make her Girl Guiding Promise when first given the option aged 18 because of its religious overtones.
However, when it was announced in June that the Girl Guiding Promise would be changed Liz then had the opportunity to fulfil a long-held ambition.
She said: “When I first had the chance to make my promise one of the lines in it was to promise ‘to love my God’.
“As I am an atheist I don’t believe there is a God so I ele cted not to make the promise.
“The new promise now says I must ‘be true to myself and develop my beliefs’and I felt confident I could do that so I elected to make the promise.”
Liz added she felt very emotional after making the promise.
She said: “It meant a lot to me and it was an amazing feeling. It really sunk in when I got home and saw the messages of support I had received from the rest of the guiding community.”
