St. John the Wonderworker Family Camp
St. John the Wonderworker Family Camp - 175 participants have now arrived home after five grace-filled days (July 4-8th) in a beautiful lakeside natural setting a half-hour from Eugene, Oregon where the St. John the Wonderworker Family Camp (inaugurated in 2000) recently concluded its 13th annual Family Camp. The Camp, the only Orthodox Christian Family Camp in the country, offers unique opportunities for Orthodox Christians – single adults, parents, infants, toddlers, pre-teens, and teens – especially those throughout the Northwest, for prayer and fellowship together. The St. John the Wonderworker Family Camp is blessed by His Grace Bishop Maxim of the Serbian Diocese of Western America and is sponsored by the parish of St. John the Wonderworker in Eugene, Oregon.
Each day of the five-day camp includes the Divine Services (Matins, Vespers, and Compline with a mid-week Divine Liturgy), talks for adults, creative activities for children, and both special activities and talks for young adults. Afternoons consist of family recreation time, including swimming, hiking, and games. Evening events include folk and line dancing and special presentations.
The theme this year, the 50th anniversary of the repose of St. John the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco, was, appropriately, “The Holiness of the Life of St. John.” Also appropriate for this year when we commemorate this saintly archbishop of global significance, the St. John Family Camp featured its first visit from not only a bishop, but an archbishop: His Eminence Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey. In addition to delivering two talks (“The Meaning of Holiness: Exemplified in the Life of St. John” and “The Meaning of Miracles: Saint John as Wonder-Worker”) and leading the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (with the homily, “More than a Prophet: Saint John the Baptist”), His Eminence spent a generous amount of time getting to know and talking with camp participants during his three days at the Camp.
Additional speakers included V. Rev. Archpriest James Baglien (St. Martin the Merciful Russian Orthodox Church, Corvallis, Oregon), who gave a well-received, smart, illuminating, and humorous talk on “Church Decorum” and Presvytera Esther Lubliner (St. Paisius Serbian Orthodox Monastery, Safford, Arizona), who began the Camp on the right note (emphasizing the long-suffering and humility of St. John) with “Lessons from the Life of St. John.”
In addition to clever activities for children related to the life of St. John, the children ages nine-to-twelve spent the week preparing a play of “Vignettes from the Life of St. John” and performed it on the second-to-last day of the Camp.
Photographs for the St. John the Wonderworker Family Camp are broken up into albums for each day of the Camp and can be viewed here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/stjohncamp/albums/with/72157670307279571
The 2017 Family Camp will be July 17-21st. The theme is “The Holy Image.” Information as it becomes available can be found at theSt. John Family Camp website and the St. John Family Camp Facebook page.
Source: Western American Diocese
