{"id":58211,"date":"2025-05-14T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/?p=58211"},"modified":"2025-07-10T11:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T15:21:37","slug":"songs-prayers-smores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/songs-prayers-smores\/","title":{"rendered":"Songs. Prayers. S’mores."},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was written by Marc Chalufour and originally published in the 2025 issue of <\/em>focus<\/span><\/a> magazine, the annual publication of the BU School of Theology. This article can be found on page 8.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The singing starts at the camp’s farmhouse with a group of staffers: “Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia!”<\/em> They sing toward campsite 1, in the forest across the road. A few seconds pass. Then a response comes back through the trees: \u201cPraise ye the Lord.<\/i>\u201d<\/p>\n

Campers at site 1 then turn toward campsite 2, deeper in the woods, and start again: \u201cAllelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The melody reverberates through the forest as the call-and-response song ping-pongs from one campsite to the next, up a hillside and back down again before coming to rest where it started.<\/p>\n

\u201cAllelus\u201d are a Friday tradition at Wanakee<\/a>, a United Methodist summer camp in Meredith, N.H. They begin at sunset on the last night of the week, while campers roast marshmallows and assemble sticky s\u2019mores. Participants call it the most magical moment in a week packed with adventure, ritual, and community. Neighbors are rumored to sit out on their porches to listen.<\/p>\n

While congregations of every denomination struggle to attract young people, Methodist summer camps are thriving. But what does camp have to do with the church?<\/p>\n

Outdoor and camp ministry go back to the beginning of Methodism. John Wesley practiced \u201cfield preaching\u201d in the 1700s to reach people not attending traditional church services. In the 1800s, pastors set up camp meetings on the American frontier, where churches had yet to be established.<\/p>\n

In the 21st century, that legacy lives on at retreat centers and camps, which provide spaces for deeper experiences than a Sunday service may allow. The United Methodist Church (UMC) owns more than 175 such facilities nationwide, including three New England summer camps: Wanakee<\/a>, Aldersgate<\/a> in North Scituate, R.I., and Camp Mechuwana<\/a> in Winthrop, Maine.<\/p>\n

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A camper at Aldersgate enjoys a guitar lesson.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t see a lot of youth in our churches,\u201d says Alicia Vel\u00e9z Stewart (\u201918), pastor at Weston UMC in Weston, Mass., and camp chaplain at Aldersgate. But, she adds, the three camps serve more children in a summer\u2014nearly 2,000\u2014than New England\u2019s 500-plus UMC churches see in a year. Those kids have the classic summer camp experience\u2014swimming, canoeing, hiking, campfires, and bunkhouses\u2014mixed with Methodist ministry.<\/p>\n

For families across New England\u2014 including many from the STH community\u2014UMC summer camps are an annual tradition. Kim Macdonald<\/a>, STH\u2019s director of communications, attended Wanakee as a camper and returned as a counselor and lifeguard. Now, with her own kids becoming campers, she volunteers on the board of directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren need camp,\u201d says Macdonald (CFA\u201904, COM\u201923). \u201cThey need to be disconnected from the grid. They need to be disconnected from their screens. They should live in a world where they are all equal and they all can serve each other in ways that foster growth and maturity. It was the best week of my year while growing up, and I want that experience for my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jen Savoy (right) and Wanakee board chair John Whitley serve communion to staff member Abby Bryant. Savoy and Whitley have served as camp program directors at Wanakee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Faith in Practice<\/h5>\n

Jen Savoy, the pastor at Contoocook UMC in Contoocook, N.H., also has a long history with Wanakee. She has sent four children to the camp and has spent time at the camp every year, volunteering on committees and directing programs.<\/p>\n

Savoy (\u201921) has witnessed the power of the camaraderie and community that develop as campers and staff share experiences and try new things. \u201cChurch is an hour, once a week, and you\u2019re sitting in a pew, listening to someone talk,\u201d she says. \u201cAt camp, they can see faith in action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer, Savoy decided to conquer her fear of heights. She strapped on a climbing harness and made her way up into the trees on the camp\u2019s ropes course. When she reached a platform high in the trees, she \u201cwas shaking like a leaf in a hurricane.\u201d But she could hear campers shouting encouragement from the forest floor and kept going. \u201cWhen we get to practice being Christians and be the hands and feet of Jesus and encourage others\u2014show God\u2019s love to the world\u2014that\u2019s when our faith becomes real,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamp is one of the few places left that offers that kind of freedom and experimentation,\u201d says Vel\u00e9z Stewart<\/span>. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to be anything but yourself, and we can\u2019t say that all the time for our sanctuaries. Aldersgate is a place of true radical welcome, true radical hospitality, true radical love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vel\u00e9z Stewart <\/span>was a Master of Divinity student at STH in 2017, looking for a field education opportunity. While most of her peers found placements in churches, the former Girl Scout wanted a different experience. \u201cCamping was in my blood,\u201d she says. So she reached out to Aldersgate.<\/p>\n

Eight years later, Vel\u00e9z Stewart is <\/span>looking forward to another summer as chaplain. \u201cIt\u2019s a way of making faith in community accessible and not scary,\u201d she says. \u201cMy goal is to make faith\u2014 not religion, not denomination, but faith<\/i>\u2014accessible and authentic for our campers. For many of these kids, Aldersgate is <\/i>their church.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

We are empowering our youth to be persons <\/span>of character and persons of faith. – Alicia Vel\u00e9z Stewart (’18)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Campers and staff participate in a sunset moment of reflection at Wanakee\u2019s outdoor chapel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Creative Ministry<\/h5>\n

Eungil Cho is a pastor in the northeast corner of New Hampshire, where he oversees seven United Methodist churches. His congregations are shrinking and getting older. Cumulatively, says Cho (\u201919), they draw fewer than 100 people on a given Sunday, and not many of them are children. \u201cIt\u2019s always been a concern of mine\u2014how do I provide spiritual formation for my own son?\u201d He found his answer at Wanakee, which his son has attended for three years.<\/p>\n

Cho, who wanted to experience the camp for himself, began volunteering as chaplain in 2023. He leads a Thursday night service, but his role is otherwise informal. He\u2019s learned that sharing adventures with the campers, like a long swim to an island, allows him to make connections that aren\u2019t possible during an hour in church on Sunday. He\u2019s come away from Wanakee inspired by another element of camp life: mealtime.<\/p>\n

At each dinner, kids from a different campsite lead grace and a series of songs. Cho was surprised by how engaged the kids were and was inspired by their creativity. \u201cThe religious components in our traditional church can be boring and uninteresting to children,\u201d Cho says. \u201cWanakee does a good job of making that very interesting by making it silly.\u201d He\u2019s brought some of that humor and creativity back to his churches, introducing classics like \u201cSuperman Grace\u201d to his programs.<\/p>\n

At Aldersgate, Vel\u00e9z Stewart also fosters creativity. Every summer, she and the camp director design a week of faith formation that includes the biblical narrative as well as art, music, worship, and prayer. In 2024, Aldersgate focused on the Lord\u2019s Prayer, which she helped the campers learn. On Thursday evenings, the kids lead a collaborative worship. Each cabin presents their interpretations of the summer\u2019s prayer. These reimagined prayers can take any form, like works of art or camp songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are empowering our youth to be persons of character and persons of faith,\u201d Vel\u00e9z Stewart says. \u201cThey\u2019re taking this kernel of faith that we have planted and nurtured so that they can live it out in a way that works for them and makes the world better.\u201d<\/p>\n

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S\u2019mores, of course, are on the menu at Camp Aldersgate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A Spiritual Space<\/h5>\n

There\u2019s an irony in the continued relevance of camp ministry: What began in the 1700s as a respite in undeveloped areas now exists as an escape from development. For one week, kids can trade their screens and headphones for campfires and group songs. They run in the dirt, swim in the lake, and climb in the trees.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep it rustic on purpose, because we want to keep the focus on being in fellowship with one another as a community,\u201d Macdonald says. \u201cI see being able to connect with your fellow person on a deeper level as a spiritual experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Vel\u00e9z Stewart, camp is no less spiritual a space than her own church. Deep on Aldersgate\u2019s property, just before the main retreat center, where the forest meets the lake, is a rustic, outdoor chapel surrounded by trees. She likes to hold morning worship there. \u201cIt\u2019s one of these places where the veil between this world and the Kin-dom is most thin,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything feels very apart from the world and, in this wonderful way, it gives the kids a chance to take a deep breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Savoy has seen Wanakee shape her kids as campers and staffers over almost two decades. Last summer, she volunteered as a site director for a week and enlisted her youngest daughter to help. Savoy was amazed to see how her normally introverted child emerged from her shell to help run things. When Savoy asked why she didn\u2019t do that at home, her daughter responded with four words.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamp is magic, Mom.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was written by Marc Chalufour and originally published in the 2025 issue of focus magazine, the annual publication of the BU School of Theology. This article can be found on page 8.\u00a0 The singing starts at the camp’s farmhouse with a group of staffers: “Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia!” They sing toward campsite 1, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12612,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[200,211,202,203],"tags":[179,347,285],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58211"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12612"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58211"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58613,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58211\/revisions\/58613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}