Page 5 - PC Issue 14 Summer 2020

Connection 5
LEADERSHIP
The Spirit of Christian Camp, Online
presbyterian.ca
SUMMER 2020
PRESBYTERIAN
By the Rev. Reuben St. Louis, Nassagaweya Presbyterian Church in Campbellville, Ont.
ChaPodcast started when Nas- sagaweya Presbyterian Church in Campbellville, Ont., had to cancel its March Break Camp. The camp (led in conjunction with Camp Kintail) is a wonderful outreach program to our community in rural Milton, Ont. However due to COVID-19, our plans changed.
Camp Kintail is an important part of my family’s life. My kids (aged 10 and 7) love to go to summer camp, and I have seen how it has been an important part of their faith formation. A focus of my ministry at Nassagaweya has been to bring the spirit of camp into all our children’s programming—you know, the ex- perience of being part of a Christian camping community. Needless to say, we were all disappointed that
March Break Camp was not possi- ble this year. In addition, I now had two energetic sidekicks who needed something to do all week. And that’s when an idea came to me. We love camp, we were missing camp and we knew of 30+ kids who were sup- posed to be at March Break Camp who could use some of that camp spirit at home. So we decided to do what we love to do every morning at camp: have chapel!
For those who have never been to Camp Kintail, “chapel” happens before breakfast and includes ener- getic songs, a creatively presented scripture and an interactive prayer. It is one of my favourite times at camp because it sets the tone for the day. We decided to try and rec- reate chapel in our living room. We chose the name “ChaPodcast” for our online camp chapel and got to work decorating our fireplace with colourful construction paper letters.
The boys chose songs and we di- vided up the different reading parts. Our first theme was “praying without ceasing,” a fitting message for these strange times. Of course, the boys were a little nervous about the whole thing, so we agreed that we’d record it first and then watch it to see if they were okay sharing it online. It turned out that they really enjoyed watching it and so we posted our first ChaPod- cast on Nassagaweya Presbyterian’s Facebook page on March 16.
As the likes, shares and comments started to roll in, we felt really good about how people were responding. Comments like “Really brightened my day,” “Made me happy” and “We’ll now remember to pray while washing our hands!!” showed us that we had created something special. The boys woke up the next morning to discover that our little ChaPodcast had been viewed over 1,000 times. This encouragement made it easy for
us to keep going and we produced four more live chapels to complete the week.
Our original intention had been to do something for the families that would have come to the March Break Camp, but in the end, it turned out to be something for a much wider community made up of fam- ily, friends, Presbyterians, camp alumni and more. What we thought was going to be a week-long adven- ture turned into an ongoing project. I star ted asking other camp families and the Kintail staff if they would be willing to record and post a chapel. The response was astonishing, and we quickly filled the schedule up to Easter. Our family continued to host on Mondays, but we really enjoyed
watching the other families take this idea and make it their own. While the colour ful ChaPodcast letters remained the same from episode to episode, the content and style re- flected the gifts and personality of each family that led.
We are so grateful for the support from Camp Kintail and all the fami- lies that have participated. It’s been a great joy to share ChaPodcast with the wider online community. In and amongst the many challenges we are all facing, it has been a blessing to capture a little piece of the spirit that is Christian camping and pass it around.
To learn more about ChaPodcast, go to campkintail.ca/chapodcast-2020.
Social Cohesion and Social Distancing
By Katharine Sisk, Justice Ministries
I was speaking with a friend in min- istry about the challenges of pasto- ral care in a time when they could not be physically present with their congregation. They said: “What we need is not social distancing, but social cohesion with physical distancing.” This piqued my inter- est because it was not just about physical isolation and the intrinsic need of human beings to connect. Social cohesion is a deeper concept related to the structures that enable us to remain connected.
This conversation brought me back to the challenges of meaning- ful connection when face to face encounters are limited. In winter of 2019, I was finding my bearings
as a new parent. With an infant de- manding attention at all hours you can lose your sense of time, and connections often narrow to your immediate family circle. The totality and speed at which all established rhythms and connections can be completely upended after the birth of a child is shocking. In talking to other new parents, I found that many of my experiences were com- mon: you are homebound in various states of exhaustion, isolation and anxiety. Sound familiar?
So it was with a strange sense of déjà vu that, only a few weeks after I had returned to work, I found my- self back at home, with my toddler, whose daycare had closed, shocked again by the speed at which my new- ly established rhythms and connec-
tions had once more been upended, only this time related to COVID-19. I know I am not alone; everyone is experiencing mass disruption. I know I am also in a position of privilege: I am healthy; I have cherished people I connect with; I have stability. I am grateful for these things. But it did lead me to reflect on how, in a time when physical connection is not only discouraged but, in some places, prohibited, we can forge necessary and meaningful connections.
That question brought me back to my friend’s comment and to think- ing about social cohesion. Social cohesion is a slippery concept. It is generally understood as proper ties or characteristics that hold com-
munities together. Societies with a high degree of social cohesion will be marked by a majority of peo- ple having strong social networks, communities that trust their neigh- bours, governing bodies viewed as legitimate, and by high levels of so- cial and economic well-being. A lot of these qualities, it turns out, come down to a sense of being included. In fact, a 2013 report of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology empha- sizes the connection between social cohesion and social inclusion. This connection of social cohesion to so- cial inclusion is impor tant because it underscores the value of the com- mon good. It reveals a responsibil-
ity between members of a society to care for the well-being of their neighbour, while also emphasizing the need for institutions and govern- ments to reflect this value of care for the common good.
Caring for one’s neighbour is a foundational Christian imperative. The notion is established in Le- viticus (19:18), narrated by Jesus in parables such as the Good Sa- maritan (Luke 10:25–37), and even mandated in the second of the two great commandments (Matt 22:30– 40). But what does “caring for one’s neighbour” mean, especially in the context of having to remain physi- cally distant from them?
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