Summer Camp Options For Children and Youth

(Camp activities have been suspended at Bement for 2009)

We wish to commend to you these excellent & nearby sites for Christian camping for children and youth this summer!

Camp Washington is the picturesque center for outdoor ministries of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut. This 300-acre woodland retreat, in the heart of Litchfield County, has been an idyllic spot for children & families for almost 100 years. Here, campers can take a break from their summer routine, make new friends, deepen their faith, enjoy the beauty of the area, have fun, learn new skills and return home with memories that will last a lifetime!
http://www.campwashington.org/

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Beaver Cross Summer Camp in Greenwich, NY, east of Saratoga Springs, in New York State's Capital District. It's a ministry of the Diocese of Albany, NY. An excellent and nearby option for those living in Western Massachusetts.
www.ctkcenter.org

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Barbara C. Harris Camp is a ministry of the Diocese of Massachusetts. If it's fun and adventure you're looking for you've found just the place. Go swimming, play soccer, make crafts or try archery. Hike a mountain, kayak or rock climb. Experience our traditional camp or join one of our adventure expeditions. At THE CAMP you'll find all this and much more.
http://www.bchcenter.org/camp/index.htm

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The Episcopal Conference Center for the Diocese of Rhode Island is located on beautiful Echo Lake in Pascoag, where there are wooded acres filled with hiking trails, and a lovely beach which is perfect for swimming and canoeing. All of our camps are sleep-over weeks, where campers and councilors stay in cabins at night and have days filled with fun activities and adventures! For the full brochure, or for more detailed information please contact the camp at (401) 568-4055 or e-mail eccregistrar@verizon.net

A Important Announcement from Bishop Scruton
February 13, 2009

TO: The People of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts
FROM: Gordon P. Scruton, Bishop
RE: Bement Camp and Conference Center
DATE: February 13, 2009

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted.”  Eccl 3:1,2)

Since 1947, Bement has been an important place to nurture the Christian formation of young people and adults in this diocese.  After the hard work of getting the buildings constructed and the camp started, Bement has been mostly self-supporting, with the help of a modest subsidy from the Diocesan Budget.

Over the years, many directors helped to develop the ministry of Bement.  In recent memory, Bement grew in numbers and program under the creative, long term leadership of Mark Rourke, who died tragically from a brain tumor in 2004. 

Over the past four years, the ministry of Bement has faced extraordinary challenges.  State regulations forced a higher pay structure for camp staff and increased costs to operate the center.  Changes in our culture led young people to seek a different kind of camp experience.   Buildings and infrastructure at Bement began to show their age and require major renovations and expenditures.

The Bement Board has worked hard and long over these years to find the wisest way to cope with the relentless challenges that kept emerging.  They hired an excellent consultant who made a through study of Bement, gathering feedback from parishioners, staff and campers.  The long-range site and ministry plan provided a road map for us to envision future ministry.  The report also said that it would be very difficult for a diocese as small as ours to support a camp and conference center.  The recommendation was for us to focus on summer camp and retreats during the warm “shoulder” seasons only and to invest $4 million to update the camp facilities.   Following the report, we learned that new EPA standards would require us to build three new septic systems at the camp.

The extraordinary challenges faced by Bement were shared with our Diocesan Convention last year.  Over the past three years, the diocese has invested over $1 million dollars to sustain Bement.  Last year alone, the diocese spent $420,000 on Bement.  This certainly exceeded the $74,000 grant to Bement in the Diocesan budget.  Obviously our diocesan resources cannot sustain this kind expense.

While the expenses were increasing, our diocesan use of Bement was significantly decreasing.  Only six congregations used Bement for parish retreats or conferences in 2008.  Only 100 young people from our parishes attended camp at Bement in 2008, even though clergy and lay leaders worked hard to recruit campers.

On November 8, 2008, the Bement Summit was held at Bement.  Over one hundred interested members of the diocese attended.  There were former staff and campers, both young and older, as well as many interested clergy and laity from across the diocese.  The challenges were presented and discussion and brainstorming invited.

Two Task Groups emerged from the day.  One group began work on developing a volunteer staffed two-week camp experience at Bement for our young people in the summer of 2009.  The other group focused on clarifying what facility changes would be necessary to pass inspections so that Bement could continue as a place for ministry. After receiving competitive bids, they learned that $1.2 million would be needed to replace shower houses and bring septic fields up to code if camp was to remain open after 2009. 
The Bement Board made a request to Diocesan Council, requesting $25,000 to begin the permitting process to prepare for this work.  They proposed coming back to the Council in the fall with a comprehensive plan to request the $1.2 million to make it possible for Bement to continue.

The Budget and Financial Planning Committee unanimously recommended that any more funding for Bement beyond the grant in the Diocesan budget be stopped until a financially realistic strategy for the future emerged.

Diocesan Council met on January 29th to discuss the proposals.  After a very sobering and prayerful conversation, with strong supporters of Bement saying how reluctant they were to make the decision, the Council was unanimous that as a Diocese, we cannot provide the money Bement needs, especially at this time when so many of our congregations are struggling financially.

The Council was very grateful for the excellent work done by the Bement Board to make clear what Bement would need to operate.  Council looked to the Board to help us continue to discern what next steps God might be calling us to take with the property.  They also recognized that we need to revision our diocesan ministry of Christian Formation for young people and adults.  Everyone was looking forward to the two weeks of volunteer camp in the summer of 2009 to see what we would learn about the potential of that new model.

Last week we learned that Patrick McGuire, our site manager, had accepted a position as operations manager for a Lutheran camp near Pittsburgh, PA.  Patrick has done an excellent job for us in the midst of our many property challenges, including major damages in the December ice storm.  Recognizing the uncertain future of Bement, we can only support him in his decision to take this new position.

A sub-group of the Bement Board met with Patrick last Friday to explore what it would take to open camp without a site manager.  We would need to hire a reliable site manager and head cook on very short notice.  Working with a site manager, it normally takes up to ten knowledgeable staff working as much as four weeks to open camp.  Reluctantly, it became clear that volunteers would not be able to accomplish all the permitting and preparation work necessary to open camp in the summer of 2009.

So, with a heavy heart, Bement will be suspending operations as of April 15, 2009. 
We still hope to offer a “Bement alternative” to our young people in the summer of 2009.  The group who were planning a two-week summer camp for Bement summer 2009 will shift their focus to begin planning ways for our young people to experience Christian Formation this summer in a different place.

Another alternative will be to encourage our young people to attend other Christian camps in our neighboring dioceses.

If you are interested in helping develop fresh expressions of Christian Formation for young people and adults in our diocese, stay alert to opportunities to be part of this new initiative.

Patrick and his wife will help us support the groups who have reserved Bement up to April 15th, when Patrick will move his family to Pennsylvania.  Patrick will help us develop a manual for overseeing the Bement property and help us develop a plan to “mothball” Bement until we can discern how best to respond to this challenging situation.  A plan is being developed so that a caretaker can live at Bement after April 15 and oversee the property for us.

As you can see, all this has happened very quickly.  We were asking for God’s guidance and many things beyond our control converged to bring an end to our best efforts to sustain Bement.  This is not yet the end of the story of Bement.  It will probably take two or three years before we can make a decision about next steps with the property.  God may surprise us in ways we cannot now imagine.

Thank you all for the prayers and support you have given to the ministry of Bement over the years.  Let us ask for God’s grace as we mourn the closing of Bement programs in April.  Let us also continue to pray that Christ will guide our discernment about the future use of the Bement property and the next steps in the ministry of Christian Formation of young people and adults in our Diocese.