In the summer of 2023, a group of people started to meet regularly to pray and dream and plan - what would it look like to relaunch and re-envision Camp Phoenix? How could we build on the foundations of Camp Phoenix over the last twenty years and Diocesan summer camp for over a century and create something for every single young person in the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri? What an incredibly daunting task!
Fast forward to Sunday, August 4th, 2024, when I stationed myself with Chaplain Oak Tree at the entrance to the Wyman Center to welcome families and campers to the final year of Camp Phoenix. I was remembering our meetings over the last year: it became clear to us as a group that it was time to create something new and to mark that newness by a new name. Hence our theme for camp this year: New Name! Someone wisely said at camp - this is not a subtraction game but an addition game. We’re adding to the traditions of Camp, not taking away. And that’s what it felt like that Sunday, waving in so many new additions to the Camp tradition. The vast majority of campers this year were new to Camp Phoenix, and many were experiencing overnight camp for the first time! All in all, we had 48 campers, 17 counselors, and a core leadership team (“Village Directors”) of eight.
On Sunday night, and every night afterward, we gathered around a campfire and said compline and sang worship songs. One young camper I was sitting next to leaned over to me that night and said, “I love this. I love singing these songs about God. It’s my favorite thing to do!” And from there, it only got better. Each morning after breakfast, we were led in song by a team of young leaders, made up mostly of young people from the Indian Episcopal Church, FCCI (Faith Christian Church of India), and through morning prayer by our Chaplain, a student at VTS. Formation Hour was next, a deeper dive into our sacred texts, stories in-keeping with our camp theme. We traveled with Abram and Sarai, Jacob, and Saul to Paul, recalling that whatever God loves, God names. And sometimes, God re-names. That was exactly what God was doing with camp this year. God had been calling us to rename camp with God so that we can explore our new identity and purpose as the official summer camp for the Diocese of Missouri.
Our days were filled with brave-making activities like zip lining, wall climbing, and archery, along with learning old-fashioned skills like soap making, foraging, and cooking over the fire. Each afternoon, the campers were able to have time to swim in the pool, participate in arts and crafts, interact with the goats and have cabin time. After dinner, we had all-camp fun like English line dancing, Quirky Counselors, or Messy Olympics, and of course, the famous Thursday Night Live Talent Show. As we hiked to different activities and waited for meals, counselors and campers who had been to Camp Phoenix before led us all in some great circle songs and chants!
For returners, a lot of Camp felt different than in years past. One high school returner reflected, “I could see that you all did things differently this year, and it worked really well. I loved the activities in the morning and all of the songs and prayers and discussion after breakfast.” He also said he’d like to come back and help be a junior leader next year! Our behind the scenes administrator, Rita Podolsky was also a Camp Phoenix returner and has helped at other Episcopal camps. She writes, “What a blessing it was to be at Camp Phoenix and to see the joy, smiles and laughter of the campers in everything they did from worship to " slab" time. Thank you to all the wonderful leaders.” Reverend Meghan Ryan and Reverend Aaron Rogers helped to create the formation content throughout the week. Rev Meghan has seen her share of Episcopal camps in her lifetime - as a camper, a counselor and a leader. She reflects, “Camp Phoenix is everything you’d want an Episcopal summer camp to be! Uplifting music and worship, lifelong friendships, and ZIP-LINING! (Okay, zip-lining was a bonus.) I left feeling energized and hopeful about the future of camp ministry in the Diocese of Missouri.” And Rev Aaron commented this about his time at camp, “It was a joy to participate in Camp Phoenix. No other opportunity in our diocese presents such an open space for collaboration and joint mission. It was a wonderful opportunity to see the unique gifts of our diocese on display while also saying we want to invest those treasures into the future.”
There were identifiable ways that the Spirit of God was working to encourage us all throughout the week, in the formal settings and also around the dining tables and conversations while walking or while making art; through new friendships, in laughing so hard, in learning silly songs and in quiet moments in the woods.
It would be impossible to name everyone who joined in to make camp run so beautifully! But it was absolutely a labor of love from dozens of folks who were not up front. Thank you to everyone who prayed for us, for Wyman staff, for anyone who donated to our Camp scholarship fund, for all the clergy who encouraged families to sign up for camp this year, and for every parent who sent their children. The real heroes were our incredibly loving and committed counselors who spent the majority of their time with campers! After camp, one parent said that their camper, “had such a great time! She told us it was even better than her previous favorite overnight camp experiences. It’s so important for young people to have community in church and we’re so appreciative of your efforts to build it.” During the camp week, one staff member asked a middle school camper how they liked camp so far. They replied with a smile, “Everything. I love everything about camp.”
An important part of Camp was linking our camp experience to the wider diocese at the end of the week. For our final Eucharist, we had around 50 visitors - clergy and parents - who came to worship with us. And, of course, it was there that we had our big reveal; the campers chose several new name options for Camp, voted on them, and gave the top three choices to Bishop Deon. The Bishop chose the most popular option: Camp Firebird!
The similarities between the new and old names of Camp are definitely present - two unique and mythical birds! Camp Phoenix was chosen over 20 years ago, appropriately, as a team was resurrecting camp after it had not been in the diocese for a season. The phoenix represented new life and new possibilities for us. And now, we embrace a firebird narrative. “Firebird” brings together two words that both point to the Holy Spirit - fire, like the tongues of fire that fell on the worshippers at Pentecost or the on-fire bush that brought God’s voice to Moses. And bird, like that, dove descending on Jesus after his baptism, sealing his Father’s love and promise to him. Camp Firebird calls this Diocese to consider how it is that the Spirit is speaking to the church - and certainly, we can know that, in part, it is through and with and in this newer generation of Jesus followers.
Camp Firebird is an all-Diocese project and mission. Please consider how you and your parish and community will participate in Camp Firebird’s inaugural year, 2025. Reach out to me, Erin (epickersgill@diocesemo.org) (Camp name: Bear) to explore exciting partnership options!
