September 18, 2024

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

Instead of a traditional Vacation Bible School, summer faith formation was a family affair for St. Augustine’s Church in North Bangor and St. Mary’s Church in Brushton.

This year, the churches launched Faith Family Summer Camp, a program that included parishioners of all ages.
“We had done an adult education program for Lent and Easter using Bishop (Robert) Barron’s ‘Catholicism’ series,” said Father Kris C. Lauzon, pastor of the two churches. “In the discussions after, I had a couple people say, ‘I enjoyed the program, but I didn’t understand a lot of it.’”

Father Lauzon said he received that feedback after the episode of the series that focuses on the Mass.

“I thought we needed to do something to explain it more fully,” he said. “And if the adults don’t have an understanding of what happens at Mass, the kids don’t have it either. We used the term ‘Faith Family Summer Camp’ because we wanted it to be open to everyone. We didn’t want people to think they weren’t included because they don’t have young kids. Our faith family is every age.”

In response, Father Lauzon proposed the Faith Family Summer Camp, a program for youth and adults. The camp took place August 12-16 at St. Augustine’s Church and parish center. The program averaged 60 participants – 30 youth and 30 adults – each day.

“Monday through Friday, we met at 5:30,” Father Lauzon explained. “The adults met in one space, the church, and the kids met in the parish center. Both groups participated in presentations focused on the same part of the Mass every night, but the presentations were delivered by different speakers and in different ways. The kid also did some sort of project or craft. At the end, we’d all get together and have dinner.”

For example, on the day the presentations focused on the processional and recessional, the students learned about the importance of processions in general.

“When the presentations were finished, the kids processed to the church with banners they made to pick up the adults, and then they processed back to the parish center for a meal,” Father Lauzon said.

When the session focused on “the sense of not being dismissed but sent forth from Mass,” Father Lauzon said the youth prepared bags to package Meals on Wheels meals and then served dinner to the adults in attendance.
“The last day, a family donated pizza for the meals,” he said. “The kids served the pizza. And they did smores. The kids would ask people how they liked their smores and then they’d make and serve them.”

The event was held with the assistance of a group of around a dozen volunteers, including presenters, cooks and supervisory volunteers.

“The presenters said they learned a lot about their topics while preparing to present,” Father Lauzon said. “Especially if they were presenting to adults, they often did a lot of research. We also brought in some guest presenters. We thought it was good for the groups, especially the adults, to hear from someone other than me. Deacon (Brian) Dwyer came and talked to the adults about reception of Communion, and I talked to the kids for that one.”

Father Lauzon said organizers were initially a bit apprehensive about the idea for the program.

“Some thought a week was too long, and people weren’t sure what we were going to do,” he said. “When people started seeing how it came together, people became more confident with the idea. By the end of the program, people were asking if we’re going to do it again next year.”

Father Lauzon said the two churches do, in fact, hope to hold the event again.

“We really got the sense that people enjoyed themselves,” he said. “Port of the key was that it wasn’t long. It was just five days, and just an hour of presentation. A lot of traditional Bible camps are held from 9 (a.m.) to 12 (p.m.). A lot of parents can’t come during those times. So having it in the evening made it so more people could participate, and we provided dinner, so there was no worry about having to plan dinner around it.”

In the future, Father Lauzon said he’d be open to having representatives of other parishes attend if they want to see how the camp is run.

“We couldn’t deal with, say, a group of 20 from a parish, but we could host a group of two or three who may want to replicate the program in their parishes,” he said.