Labor of Love

This way to Camp Cross! Labor of Love is approaching this Memorial Day weekend and we need your help getting the Camp ready for the year. With free food, free accommodation, and a bunch of other folks fired up about Camp Cross in 2008, this is going to be a great weekend. Even if you can only come up for a day or afternoon, shoot us an email with your registration so we know your coming, we’d love to have you! Help us get this year off to a huge start, we can’t do it without you!

Camp Cross in Beautiful Oroville

On Wednesday April, 23 the Camp Cross road show hopped in the car and drove out to Oroville, Washington to meet with families from the congregation, share an amazing meal, and talk about Camp Cross. Not only was there an incredible variety of home cooked food at dinner (homemade pickled beets, mac and cheese, a few casseroles, homemade applesauce, meatballs and on and on), but the congregation already knew how to pass the peace Camp Cross style (lots of talking and hugging). After a great conversation about Camp, and how Trinity Oroville can us Camp Cross as a ministry of their congregation, we played a game of tag (Chase showed off his cunning developed by years of Quidditch and Staff Hunts at Camp), and called it a night.

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LIT information up on the web!

For all of those of you looking to be counselors, please check out the LIT page for all the needed information. LIT this year is going to like never before, developing your skills so you can do things as a leader and counselor you never thought possible. t’s all about new challenges, increased responsibility, and the best leadership experience for youth in the Diocese of Spokane. Tell your friends, we’ll see you there! Registration is due May 19th, don’t forget!

Camp Cross Transition Committee Update

Chaired by Bobbi Rollins, Church of the Resurrection, Spokane Valley, with members appointed by the Bishop, the Camp Cross Transition Team was formed in 2007, with the task of advising the Bishop and Diocesan Council on the issues facing Camp Cross in the short and long term, as well as developing a strategy and action plan to move Camp Cross forward in its mission.

In addition to Rollins, team members include: Paul Carlisle, All Saints’, Richland; Brendan Wiechert, St. David’s, Spokane; Kate Dolan, St. Luke’s, Coeur d’Alene; Phil Mixter, St. James’, Pullman; and Chase Shields, Camp Cross Director. The Rev. David Marshall, St. Luke’s, Coeur d’Alene, is the Diocesan Council liaison to the working group.

The Team held a working retreat March 16 and 17at the St. Joseph Center in Spokane. With the goal of leaving the weekend with an action plan, the group developed guidelines for its operation, and created five working areas. Those areas include Finance/Fundraising (Carlisle), Human Resources (Rollins), Infrastructure/Facilities (Wiechert), Communications/Marketing (Dolan), and Program/Formation (Mixter).

Teri Mathis, Executive Director of the Diocesan Foundation, donated her time and experience with non-profit governance to facilitate the conversation on how the Camp Cross Team can operate effectively and sustainably as it continues to develop. The Team also worked on a process for developing a strategic plan, and is now considering the next steps in doing so. As they begin to identify challenges for Camp in the short and long term, the group looks forward to getting input from all corners of the Diocese in the planning process on how to be the best stewards of this incredible resource in the coming years.

For additional information, contact Chase Shields at chases@spokanediocese.org or Bobbi Rollins at bobbirollins@roadrunner.com.

Living in a thin place

This incredible talk really hits on the experience of Camp Cross as a thin place. A place for all of us to disconnect from the logical structures and systems that support the world we live our lives in (our left brain lives), and connect to a very different experience of the world around us (our right brain lives), one that seems to defies words because our language lacks the ability to succinctly and accurately describe the movements of our hearts.

It reminds of me of Thomas Merton’s spiritual theologia (”uniting the head and the heart, philosophy and contemplation” to steal from Anne Carre). Although this talk aims at pushing us to use our right brains more than our left, I finished it feeling like the search for developing and balancing both sides is an important aspect of Anglican Christianity. Although she uses many terms that come from the New Age movement and Buddhism, they do have parallels in Christian writing. And although she doesn’t speak from a Christian perspective, her talk is an excellent reminder of how faith and physiology impact one another, and how we must be better develop all aspects of ourselves if we are to honor both the theology and the spirituality that are essential to our Christian faith.

Camp Cross is a place for both the scriptural and contemplative aspects of our faith to come together in a unified and harmonious formative experience. And I think this talk highlights why that it is so powerful at Camp, away from the systems and structures that at times confine us, and in a place where we are free to be whole people, made in God’s limitless image.I really encourage you to take the 18 minutes to watch this powerful, moving and truly human talk, and reflect on what it means to us as Christians and to our Camp Cross experiences. TED talks are taken from a gathering of the most brilliant and accomplished people from around the globe, and interdisciplinary conference that seeks to unify and build up human knowledge and potential.

Camp Cross in Kenneiwck

As I pulled into the gas station on the morning of March 9^th, the cloudless sky was still filled with stars. One large coffee and two hours later, an incredible sunrise greeted me as I pulled the Camp Van into the parking lot of St. Paul’s Kennewick to join the congregation for a Sunday of worship.

Meeting the congregation and getting the incredible opportunity to give the homilies built on the crescendo of the sunrise, as the congregation and I talked about Camp Cross, spun tales about it’s past (one told stories about being there in the 1930s), and eagerly discussed the new things lined up for this summer.

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Building our spiritual home and living in the external world

Chase Shields

Our greatest service to young people is to teach them to be “good architects of their internal homes,” emphasized Mark Andrus, Bishop of California, at the recent Episcopal Camps and Conference Centers’ annual conference. In the spirit of Lenten reflection, therefore, let’s look at how Camp Cross helps youth develop internal homes to help them live out their spiritual life in the world.
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Generous Donation seeds Camp Cross Endowment

Teri Mathis

Foundation for the Episcopal Diocese of Spokane

Determination and sure commitment have been at the foundation of Ed and Joyce McClanahan’s lifelong passions. These happily include Camp Cross, where they met, and where Ernie Campbell performed their wedding ceremony.

Joyce says, “We are a Camp Cross family. Our six children have all attended multiple times, and our son, Paul Meyer, spent three wonderful summers working at camp. Another son who lives in the area has begun taking his young family to camp.”

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Employment Opportunities

The staff applications are back online, so now is your chance to send on in for the chance to engage in and change kids lives like you never have before. We need people with all sorts of talents and backgrounds, so if you have a unique skill or passion you think would be perfect to share with the campers this summer, let us know. We’re looking forward to hearing from you, and can’t wait to hear what you can contribute to this incredible place this summer.

Camp Site Technical Difficulties

The website, as you have probably noticed, has been taken down again. The needed repairs have been made, although our content was largely lost. The most necessary items will be back up by tomorrow, so please check back soon. We’re sorry for the trouble, thank you for your patience. For application information or season information, please send an email to Camp Cross.