I’ve been visiting Camp Cross for over 10 years. We attended a Labor Day Family Camp with our St. James’ (Pullman, WA) parishioners and I enjoyed the glorious natural beauty, but also the fellowship among the participants. Christian community in a non-parish setting is one feature of Camp Cross that has me reminding others to “keep comin’ back! “

While wading at Crescent Beach, my wife Alison relayed her metaphor for her relationship to God.  In the cool water, she floats effortlessly.  As she returns to the rocky shore, her body becomes heavy as she leaves the (holy) water and works to carry herself. It’s harder and harder to gain ones footing.  Yet, a loving arm reaches out to help her gain stability. This arm is God’s love in the form of your loving friend. Together, you can walk the journey on hot, dry land, until you once again return to refreshing water for relief.

Additionally, Camp Cross is a holy place where I have seen miracles happen.  Of course, miracles are in the eyes of the beholder and subject to perspective. This week I have seen the miracle of change. Mid-high campers arrived on Sunday, with anxiety, fears and few friends. In just a few days, I have seen them transformed. They’ve bonded with each other, shared intense experiences, been challenged in their views of faith and even improved their table manners (yes, a great miracle indeed!).  In all seriousness, the joy shared in a small group or gathered around a summer campfire is a holy miracle repeated again and again here.  I’ve noticed another transforming miracle recently.  As I look at this year’s staff members, several have spent many years coming to Camp Cross. They’ve loved being a camper with all the newness that experience brings. Camp Cross can be an intense emotional experience of faith on a young person’s own terms, far from their parish home.  It’s their mountaintop where they gain spiritual insight. Some grow into being a counselor, learning leadership skills shepherding a small group.  This is a critical stage in the faith formation of young people. Of that group, some continue serving as permanent staff members, gaining more leadership skills at the next level, long after coming to Camp Cross for the first time.  This chain of transformative experiences shapes the lifelong faith of many.

Wednesday night, we used a meditation from Taize to focus in the darkness of the cool evening, sitting on a floating dock.  Many relaxed on their backs, pondering the universe, gazing up into the vast expanse of stars. Some reported seeing up to five shooting stars and several orbiting satellites were visible.  Amid the cool breeze, surrounded by both intimate friends and endless cosmos, God is good; Very good; Always.

The Virginia Theological Seminary campus was really beautiful. Image taken from the Virginia Theological Seminary website.

From Friday February 20th to Sunday February 22nd, there was a conference for interns in the Episcopal Church Service Corps at Virginia Theological Seminary, in the DC suburbs.  The conference was an opportunity for interns and their directors to meet together.  As part of my internship, I went to this conference, and so did my director, Bryan.  I do not know what the program for the directors involved, except for when they were with us.  The program for the interns involved chapel Friday night, extensive Bible study on Saturday, with a focus on call stories, a driving tour of DC, and church Sunday morning, which was at Trinity Episcopal Church in Northwest DC, the church with which the DC internship program is associated.

Bryan and I arrived a bit late on Friday, because it took longer to get from the airport to the seminary than anticipated, so we missed chapel on Friday night, but we were there for the rest of the program.  Also, I had the chance to see my mother some, which was nice.  I grew up in the DC area and my parents still live there, though my father was away that weekend.  My mother, in fact, drove Bryan and I to the airport Sunday afternoon, which was very convenient for us.

The conference provided an opportunity to meet other interns in the Episcopal Church, which I thought was pretty exciting because there aren’t any others here in Spokane.  It was good both to meet people in different programs, in order to see how ours here in Spokane is similar to and different from the others, and also just to meet other young people that are excited about serving in an Episcopalian context.

The program we interns experienced provided many subjects for further thought.  Our Bible study of various call stories provided a lot of material for my own thoughts about my sense of call and vocation.  Towards the end of the Bible study we talked some about the challenges of being an intern, particularly those posed by family members and friends who do not understand what interning with the church is about and why it is something in which we are engaged.

It would have been even better if the conference had provided more structured ways to process the issues it brought up, perhaps in small-group discussions or something.  It would have been particularly helpful to have had some sort of structured way to discuss how the call stories we studied related to our own senses of call.  It would also have been helpful to discuss in small groups the challenges of interning, especially if the emphasis were not just on what the challenges are, but also on how to deal with them.

One of the aims of this conference was to build connections between the interns, and having small-group discussions would have helped with that aim, too, because it would have built in program time geared toward interacting with other interns.  As it was, the program relied mostly on large-group time, alternating with completely unstructured time, neither of which provides much structural support for getting to know the interns from other programs that one does not already know.

This is my bike.

Actually I have several favorite parts of my job, but one of them is delivering fliers for Holy Trinity’s dinner ministry.  We have a list of 19 social-service agencies to take fliers to, and I do most of the deliveries.  I don’t have a car, so I ride my bike to all those places.  Most of the agencies we take fliers to are in the neighborhood, so riding my bike works well.

Two weeks ago, I delivered fliers for the first time to Holmes Elementary, which is the local elementary school.  These fliers were advertising the dinner we had last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.  I went into the office, because I didn’t know where else to go, and they told me to talk to the counselor.  She was so glad we were having this dinner and that I had fliers advertising it because she really worries that some of the kids won’t have anything to eat for the holidays otherwise.  The councilor’s reaction is why I like delivering fliers.

A few weeks before that, I delivered fliers Our Place Ministries, which is an agency run by several of the churches in the neighborhood.  They provide a food bank and a free laundromat and several other services.  Every time I go there, the place is absolute chaos: there are all these people wanting this or that, waiting to be helped, filling out forms, and so forth.  The chaos is okay, you just wait until someone has time to deal with you.  Anyway, the day in question, I was there waiting, and eventually someone asked me why I was there, so I explained about this dinner we’re having and how I had fliers advertising it.  The lady helping me said to the room at large, “Fliers for a free dinner!  Who wants one?” and just about everyone got excited and said they did.  Their reaction is why I like delivering fliers.

I really like riding my bike, and I like that I can do it for my job.  That’s why I like delivering fliers.

The collar does that, invites conversation. It’s one reason I wear it when traveling and the reason some clergy do not. On that day it invited a trip-long conversation about God with a person eager to tell her story. I offered an ear, which was welcomed, and later told a faith story of my own. The encounter meant something. The invitation was automatic. As I look back on it, I am thankful.

The real story of course is not about collars, but about being the Church. It is about being reminded, all of us, that the calling of every congregation, of every Christian, is to live and serve in a way that without qualification opens the door into conversation, into questions of faith, for those who already believe and for those who wish they could. No one should have to wonder whether their questions and stories are welcome and can be told. It is in consistently opening the door to the world around us, to the celebrations and to the cries, that we live out our calling.

Our Diocesan Convention theme this year is “Living a Scandalous Gospel.” It is a theme I promoted and am enthusiastic about. We will have time at Convention to flesh this out and to grapple with what is scandalous about the Gospel of Jesus, what it says to us and calls us into. For if we are not scandalized by it we may well be missing the point.

To live our faith in a way that signals to others an invitation to conversation can be inconvenient to be sure. I had other plans for my flight; i.e., an Inland article to write, a presentation to prepare. Both had to wait. The One who called himself gate, who is the true door opener, seemed to have had other plans – the kind that extend well beyond an airplane encounter to the world, to the voices calling to be heard and to the needs begging to be met.

While one cannot begin to cover the scope of what “Living a Scandalous Gospel” means, we can at least look at one way Jesus was a scandal to those around him, by caring about those others did not.

At a time when 24 hour news cycles are consumed with the style of glasses a Vice Presidential nominee wears or the hair transplants of the other V.P. nominee, it somehow seems naive, out of touch or misguided to actually care that people in India have no water to drink; that an Anglican Bishop in Sudan must walk five miles through life threatening territory to communicate to the outside world; or that a working woman in this country spoke last evening about preparing to sleep in her car for the first time and for days to come.

You and I can name the needs. In fact, not to do so and to then act on them is itself scandalous. May we challenge ourselves and each other to follow wherever Jesus leads.

Steve Goheen and Wayne Underwood from All Saints, Richland, at Man Camp, proud to have finished assembling a fine new Adirondack chair for Camp Cross.

Summer is underway and Camp is in full swing! Thanks to the passion and commitment of so many in May and June, we are set to have an amazing season. With so many individuals from around the Diocese inviting others to join them, we had a record breaking 49 people – ages 2 and up – out to help open Camp Cross at “Labor of Love” over Memorial Day weekend. All the hard work was rewarded with a wine and cheese recep­tion, with the sun setting over the lake, a fire crackling in the fire place, and James Taylor’s music setting the mood.

The youth of the Diocese came out the following weekend to hone their leadership skills and prepare to be coun­selors in 2008. From the silent hike to the inaugural camp fire at Pioneer Camp, to the orienteering challenge, our coun­selors stepped up to the plate leading pas­sionately while reflecting thoughtfully on the challenges of meaningful leader­ship. The counselors also committed to raising $50 each for programs and equip­ment, and will decide at the end of the summer how the money will be best spent. Camp Cross also committed to raising funds to match the staff’s efforts, so not only are the counsel­ors leading our campers this year, but they are taking on the responsibility of leading the continued growth and stewardship of Camp Cross. Let’s support them in this bold venture!

In a weekend of con­struction and discussion, as well as steak and micro­brews, the Rev. Lt. Col. Jeff Neuberger led our first “Man Camp” June 6-8. On top of his thought provoking stories of his chaplaincy in Iraq, he led a discussion on what the story of “the Road to Emmaus” means for our call to mission. The guys also made the first of many Adirondack chairs and disc-golf baskets that are going to be cropping up around Camp this summer. To close a weekend of fellowship and for well-deserved relaxation we had a steak and potatoes dinner before pulling out the guitars around the fire.

At all of these events, old-timers and first-timers came together to make them memorable. So as the summer rolls quickly on, I ask you to be bold in evangelizing Camp and joyful in your invitations; help us grow our family this summer and bring a friend! Don’t forget to join us for our Open House Eucharist.