Dancing Priest

Michael Kent…

A young man studying to be a priest finds love, and learns that faith can separate.

A university cyclist seeking Olympic gold finds tragedy, death, and heroism.

A pastor thousands of miles from home seeks vocation and finds fatherhood.

Sarah Hughes…

A young woman studying abroad finds love and loses family.

A university student meets a faith she cannot accept.

An artist finds faith and learns to paint with her soul.

Dancing Priest us the story of Michael Kent and Sarah Hughes and love born, separated, and reborn, in faith and hope.

Dancing Priest began as a song on an airplane.

On a flight to San Francisco in 2002, I was listening to a music program, an interview with the Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis. He was describing his new CD, “Sometimes I Dream,” and one of the songs played was called “Luna Rossa.”

He sang it in Italian. I don’t speak the language. I recognized the title as “Red Moon,” but I still can’t tell you what the song is about.

As I listened, an image formed in my mind, an image of a priest dancing on a beach. And an Anglican priest, not a Catholic one.

After arriving in San Francisco and my downtown hotel, I discovered a Borders Bookstore around the corner. Even before I stepped off the escalator, I saw a special display for “Sometimes I Dream.” The CD would eventually become a kind of playlist for the writing of Dancing Priest.

A story began to work in my mind. The priest received a first name, Michael. A romantic interest appeared and was named Sarah. The beach disappeared. The setting move to Edinburgh. The story kept growing, but only in my head. Not a single word hit the computer screen until late 2005. And when it hit, it started a torrent. Some 250,000 words came pouring out, enough for three novels.

For the next six years, Dancing Priest was a work in progress, edited and re-edited, rewritten, whole sections slashed and added. In 2011, it was published.

What readers say

This book isn’t “deep,” but it is deep. This book isn’t meant to be challenging, but it will challenge you. This book isn’t meant to be a life-changer, but it is life-changing. – Bill

Grandi, Pastor, Spencer Indiana.

First and foremost, Dancing Priest is a good story. I only put it down when my family demanded my attention. It’s Dickensian. Truly. A large cast and all the coincidences and strings that come together. It’s primarily a love story, but so much more. I like that Michael lives his Christianity rather than endlessly talking about it. What does it mean to love your enemy? Watch Michael do it time and time again. – Megan Willome, author of The Joy of Poetry: How to Keep, Make, & Save Your Life with Poems.

This novel was so riveting that it kept me up way past bedtime. Immersed in its multiple layers that reach into the histories and current lives of Michael Kent, Sarah Hughes, the people who are and become part of their lives, and the geographical settings of Edinburgh, London, Athens, San Francisco, L.A., and Santa Barbara, I couldn’t put the book down. – Monica Sharman, author of Behold the Beauty: An Invitation to Bible Reading.

Reading Dancing Priest by Glynn Young I felt like a voyeur. It felt kind of uncomfortable at times because I was inside the heart of someone struggling with faith and I was seeing too much of my own heart reflected back. – Louise Gallagher, author of Where: 50 Words, 50 Photos, 50 Stories about Calgary’s DI.

Dancing Priest is captivating, challenging and, I believe, potentially life-giving for some in the church who want to reach a current culture. – Ron Edmondson, pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky.

“My only disappointment was that I didn’t buy it sooner…” – Charity Singleton Craig, writing coach and author of My Year in Words.

I didn’t get the feeling that I was reading a typical book. It was almost as if I were spying on these people’s lives. I was the insider into an amazing array of people and situations that had me at times happy and more often than I’d like to admit in tears. Young is not writing a behemoth novel for page or word count. He is telling a story. – Vince Arter, reader.

Young is already a master of pace and hooking the reader into the story. His characters, even the less central ones, are vivid and memorable. Michael Kent will impress you with his faith and honest heart, but Young infuses enough consternation and brokenness into Kent’s character that he is realistic. – Luke Herron Davis, author of Sacred Chaos and The Broken Cross.