Summer Bible Camp
This week is our parish’s “summer bible camp,” a week-long gathering of children and adults featuring music, games, crafts with a smattering of catechesis. After years of attending, my son is now a counselor for the first time. We stayed up late helping the kids decorate their t-shirts. Since the theme this year is “SonSurf Beach Party,” my wife ironed a picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe surfing to the back of her shirt.
My understanding is that this concept was pioneered by Protestant churches. My parish, though, probably has the largest such program in the area, with more than 500 kids signed up. The music is bloody awful and I’m not a big fan of using the sanctuary for a performance, but seeing 500 cute kids sing their hearts out about Jesus tends to melt my inner liturgical curmudgeon.
I’m curious whether anyone else here has a Bible Camp at their parish this summer. Has this become as common at Catholic churches as at Protestant churches?
VBC here was suposed to be two weeks of “pandamania.”
The fire reduced it to one week.
Our teens went off to several charity outungs but also some went to “Steubenville West”
Interesting variety of service to out of schoolers.
A “smattering of catechesis” buried in a smelly summer picnic inside the sanctuary? If this is the face of the new American Catholic church, no wonder so many are leaving.
“VBC here was suposed to be two weeks of “pandamania.”The fire reduced it to one week.”
At the risk of sounding flip about the fire, which is certainly unintentional, I’d say that was an act of God in more ways than one.
VBS is mostly a fundiegelical thing where the kiddies get prizes for learning the most Bible verses they can use to beat up their Catholic relatives with and sing rock songs about how cool Jesus is.
We certainly had nothing so indecorous as VBS in the Episcopal Church, though the children’s Sunday School was top-notch–a mix of catechesis and good works, even for the little ones.
The local Catholic parish will not even entertain the idea of Sunday school, which means a lot of disruption from small children, which ticks off the mostly elderly population of the parish. As a result, parents simply leave their kids at home so they don’t have to listen to the Mrs. Grundys tell them how they used to by God use the belt on when they got home if they so much as sneezed during Mass.
The local parish tried VBS for one summer, and the kiddies revolted. “MORE Church!? Even in SUMMER?” Moreover, many families who might have attended were away on vacation.
Very common in the south. Almost expected.
So here’s my pet peeve: I don’t mind a summer program for our children. That’s fine. But “VBS” just smacks to me of “trying to keep up with the Protestant Churches” in our community. In fact, that Pandamania program is the program our parish used this year – as did almost every other church in our community and reaching out beyond. It’s published by a company, which is not owned by Catholics but publishes a line of Catholic Catechism,) that then “Catholicized” (supposedly??) a version of it.
Group Publishing owns Our Sunday Visitor. Group publishes the Pandamania VBS program and then markets it also through OSV. They call it a ‘Totally Catholic Program’ on the OSV page, but it’s the same marketing materials and theme as the Protestant program. Comparing the music listed on the Catholic and Protestant versions… they’re the same songs. It wasn’t created as an authentic Catholic program! It’s largely the same thing everyone else is doing!
I consider myself “Progressive,” and if we’re going to throw labels around, there are those who would consider me a “Liberal” Catholic – but I’m tired of hearing non-Catholic music in my parish because we’re playing the same music that they’re selling on infomercial CDs on TV.
I would love to see a summer program, yes, with great, upbeat but CATHOLIC music (I like it and it IS out there,) and catechism.
My little sister is in VBS this summer. I’ve seen VBS more and more often in Catholic churches, and I think it is encouraging that Catholic parishes are emphasizing the scripture and creating a fun atmosphere for children to learn about God…. I loved it when I used to go!
Moreover, I don’t have any problem with calling it VBS, nor do I think we need to worry about making VBS a “totally Catholic program” in terms of music or whatnot. The point of VBS is to help kids engage with their faith through becoming more familiar with the scriptures (which is something we really ought to be doing, even if even if it is taking a page from the Protestant’s book); it would be a shame to sabotage that with petty concerns about denominational aesthetics. Granted, I haven’t seen the Pandamania curriculum, and maybe it’s really bad… there’s a lot of bad/boring/theologically-suspect children’s curriculum in both the Protestant and Catholic worlds. But so long as the kids are learning about the love of Christ and enjoying Christian community, I don’t see the problem.
I have known many Catholic parents who have sent their kids to the nearest Protestant VBS because was nothing offered by local RC parishes.
Teenagers were also enrolled in Young Life – which definitely was NOT RC in focus.
Either compete or be prepared to be upstaged.
“Either compete or be prepare to be upstaged.” Dun dun dun…
For heavens sake, being the Body of Christ isn’t a competition and we’re not in 16th century Trent anymore, LOL.
Yes, I run a Bible Camp called the Annual Georgetown University Institute on Sacred Scripture. It was founded by Joseph A. Fitzmyer, S. J., in 1964, then Professor of New Testament at Woodstock College, Maryland. We met for the 48th consecutive year this past June. We are on Twitter, @InstSScripture, and we follow @commonwealmag. Grant, maybe Commonweal could follow us too. I would love to meet the posters here next June in DC for a wonderful week of Scripture Study.
Oh, I neglected to add that you can view next year’s Institute at http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/mitchela/guiss
Alan, this in no way looks like VBS. I don’t see any mention of fruit punch and wading pool activities.
It might be worth mentioning to Catholics who send their kids to Protestant VBS that fundiegelical VBS is used largely as a conversion tool, a way to reach the unchurched or dissatisfied churched through their kids. Kids get special prizes for how many guests they bring. Calls are made to the parents telling them how much fun the kid has and wouldn’t the parent love to come to church?
Maybe that’s bad, maybe it’s good. But that’s often the m.o.
Some (by no means all) of these operations ramp up the peer pressure, all with adult leader approval, to get kids to testify to their sins and ask to be saved and baptized.
Jean
Thanks for the ideas on increasing my enrollment. I had never thought of special prizes for bringing additional participants. Benedict XVI bobble heads. Anyone know where to buy them?
All kidding aside it is a wonderful week of study with a cross-section of the Church. Ministers of every type, ordained and lay, interested people not necessarily associated with ministry. We have rich exchanges and discussions and the very best of biblical scholars(http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/mitchela/guiss/roster.html) lecturing once a day for the five days that we meet. Come one come all.
Alan, it truly does look lovely, but I doubt you will get many grade school children, the mainstay of VBS. Here’s a link for those bobble heads.
http://www.bobbleheads.com/rbs1199/bosley-bobbers/pope-benedict-xvi-bobblehead.html
At my son’s middle school, one of the teachers, a Protestant evangelical, has before-school meetings for kids where they talk about Jesus and try to provide moral support for each other.
I feel two ways about this program. The guy does try to get kids into his church through the program (my son went a couple of times and felt it was a come on), but he truly does provide a service for many of these kids who need positive direction and encouragement.
Jean Raber
I see that my Institute is not VBS, but it is fun none the less. My budget does not allow me to spring for the $14.95 BXVI bobble heads. I might have to move to spiritual bouquets. In any event, I think it would be great fun for us all to gather in DC and get to know one another over the Bible.
Saint Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student, in Ames, Iowa, where I used to serve, has had a Vacation Bible School for several years. But since I’ve been here as a lay missionary in western Honduras, Honduras has been a major sub-theme. The children get to learn a bit about Honduras and St. Thomas’s sister parish, Dulce Nombre de María, and each year funds have been raised to support projects in the Honduras parish. An interesting way to promote solidarity among the children.
Alan,
Here is something you can give to any Protestants who attend and may be uninterested in a Benedict bobblehead.
http://www.bobbleheads.com/products.html?search=Jesus
Peter, both these posts hit home with me, as a former evangelical (of the fairly mild, Billy Graham variety) and now as the parent of a nearly six-year-old, and so frustrated at the lack of kid-friendly options in Catholic parishes. Hey, there is a ton of insipid stuff in evangelical churches, but one has to be careful of snobbery I think. When it comes to teens, the shtick wears thin. But when it comes to pre-schoolers and grade school age children, they love to make stuff and sing songs and learn Bible stories instead of being taught neo-scholastic principles or the ecclesiology of liberation theology or any of the heady stuff that so many Catholic churches try to cram into young heads.
It is very very frustrating to see my daughter completely turned off by life at Catholic churches and then every once in a while to go to my brother’s evangelical church in the ‘burbs, for example, and be welcomed in immediately and to emerge an hour later knowing about Jonah and the whale and having a “dumb” little craft project she can proudly hang on the fridge.
Having a kid has reminded me that the Bible and Christianity is story first, and catechism and theology and abstract doctrines and dogmas second. Indeed, those grow out of the stories, and yet we Catholics, despite our vaunted “imagination,” seem to get that backwards.
Last summer there was a Catholic parish near us that had a Baobab Blast themed VBS, and my daughter loved it. I don’t see any problem with that.
Jean you write: At the risk of sounding flip about the fire, which is certainly unintentional, I’d say that was an act of God in more ways than one.
“VBS is mostly a fundiegelical thing where the kiddies get prizes for learning the most Bible verses they can use to beat up their Catholic relatives with and sing rock songs about how cool Jesus is.
We certainly had nothing so indecorous as VBS in the Episcopal Church, though the children’s Sunday School was top-notch–a mix of catechesis and good works, even for the little ones.”
My kids have gone to VBS at the local Episcopal Church and the Presbyterian Church — each was called VBS and both involved memorizing Bible verses and singing rock songs about Jesus. (Last year the Episcopal Church did a superheroes theme.) Our Catholic Church offers no programming for kids.
When we lived in Atlanta my kids went to a mother’s morning out two mornings a week at the Baptist Church down the street – I needed a bit of downtime — nothing at the Catholic Church — my kids spent time learning prayers and singing “This Little Light of Mine” as well as outdoor play and arts & crafts.
WHo can argue with that? It’s all grist for the mill…
I went to VBS when I was a kid — we’re talking the late 80′s and early 90′s. The parish I grew up in is in Western NY.
Geez, I hope I’m not a snob. I attended a pretty spiky Yankee Episcopapist church that was adamant about not being lumped in with Protestants. I expect it’s different down South.
I like singing “This Little Light of Mine” and “I took Jesus as my Savior” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” as much as anybody. Heck, I’ll even sing “Dem Bones” and “Just As I Am,” which always makes me weep.
I would also not send my kid to any Catholic VBS that taught “neo-scholastic principles or the ecclesiology of liberation theology.” By the same token, I would also not force him to go to any Catholic VBS that offered the same think-and-do book, mind-deadening catechesis that seems to be in force during the school year.
But I don’t understand these idiotic fundiegelical-type themes like “panda-monium” in a limp effort to jack up interest in the Church. There are no pandas in the liturgy or the Mass that I’m aware of, though I admit it’s been a while since I’ve been.
But for Pete’s sake, Catholics have great art, great music, a million different tactile devotionals (rosaries, scapulars, crucifixes, holy cards, chaplets), and a whole lot of stuff the kiddies never get to see up close that are used in the mass (monstrances, vestments, chalices, patens). My kid would have gone to Catholic VBS if only they’d shown him where they keep the communion wine stashed and let him try on a chasuble.
All these things are kept AWAY from children, as if they aren’t for them. It’s a shame, a dirty shame.
Sorry for the poor writing above. One should not get huffy on heat advisory days and fail to proofread one’s posts …
I serve the parish John mentions above. Last year, we developed our own program from scratch. This year, alas, it was Pandamania for us.
The most fun I had was nearly 20 years ago when we expanded it to Faith Camp, made it a 4-day, all-day event with visits to nursing homes, a women’s shelter, another Catholic church, the local synagogue (the rabbi’s wife and daughter returned the favor by coming to teach Jewish folk dancing one afternoon). We provided breakfast and lunch to all attendees. Older kids chose electives like liturgy planning. The last night, parents were invited to a dish-to-pass dinner, evening prayer, and a few “presentations” by the kids.
VBS has potential to go far beyond what its originators expect, and that evangelical appeal, plus the need to immerse liturgy into the week, is the only thing that keeps me positive about the possibility.
Jean, I realize you are mos def a better Catholic than I am!
I do think there should be an authentically Catholic version, but there are two problems:
One, not all six-year-olds get as hyped about chausubles and thurifers and such as the rest of us. There has to be something between Davey & Goliath reruns and Kenneth Clark’s Civilization, much as I have loved both.
Two, parish leaders tend to get a bit sensitive about using sacred objects as playthings for kids, and I tend to agree. Moreover, doing play liturgies or similar means just one kid gets to be the priest and it ain’t gonna be a girl.
Anyway, my main objection holds: It’s more important to learn about the faith and the scriptures that we celebrate in the liturgy than to learn about the form of the liturgy first, and all the very fine but barely intelligible doctrines that undergird the liturgy.
I mean, I believe Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist, but it’s important to learn about Jesus first. Otherwise the Eucharist is just a symbol, and the hell with it, as the good lady said.
Joe Pettit
I suppose I should expect that the Jesus doll would cost $5 more than the Benedict XVI one, but it is still not in my budget, unless you would like to become a special donor.
I had a post someplace last year with video of two papal bobbleheads that beat hands down anything you’ve ever seen. Ceramic, great quality, and 10 Euros, though that was back when the Euro was worth something…
Selling on Via della Conciliazione.
Here it is:
http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=10130
Jean is right that Catholics have great art, great music, a million different tactile devotionals and that kids never get to connect with any of it.
But neither do most of the adults.
There is great Catholic music but you will never hear it in a parish church. Art is often kitch rather than displaying even reproductions by great artists. the little devotionals and things that they put at the back table are pretty low rent and overly simpliitic. Theology and art have been absent from the Catholic churches I have attended. A lot of admonitions about morality but NO thoughtful explanation regarding the Church’s reasoning and the theology behind them. I read JP II’s CROSSING THE THRESHOLD OF HOPE and when he talked about women and abortion he presented it in a very thoughtful way – with its complexity and examined the role that men play in it when they abandon and mistreat women while fully upholding the Church’s position. NONE of that ever gets into the local parishes. If it did, people would better understand why the church takes the positions it does. I fear much of the lifelessnees felt at Catholic churches comes from the top – the priests and bishops. They set the tone.
I too have fond memories of Davey & Goliath…..
I’ve sent my grade school kids to VBS at PCUSA churches the past few summers, except this summer it was canceled in favor of a teen missions trip. Limited financial resources in these trying economic times, I’m afraid.
I’m conscious that Protestant VBS is community outreach aimed at increasing rolls. But that’s for me to worry about. From my kids’ perspective – Catholic, Protestant – it’s all the same. They learn so much and have such a great time. They interact with caring adults and kind peers.
My hope is that these early experiences will remove the mystique surrounding non-Catholic Christian churches and my kids will be less likely to switch churches as adults. My local Catholic parish runs a VBS but the registration fee is higher and the program doesn’t admit children younger than 1st grade. Also our schedule requires an evening program.
Stephanie: If Catholics don’t offer what seems to work with kids, then don’t be surprised if they end up being little Protestants who are confused about what they see and hear (or don’t hear in their own church.)
As far as this not being the 16th century, tell that to the bishops and catechists in Latin America. Tepid timid US Catholicism that exists in most suburban parishes hasn’t been to very successful in keeping adherents, has it?
My 3 kids went to 2 different VBS this summer and one was definitely more “catholic” than the other.
Here is a link to the catholic program:
http://www.catchat.ca/vacation-bible-school/26-vbs2-marvelous-mystery
This was the other program: http://nazareth.group.com/learn
(by the same company that makes pandamania – which was just trying to cash in on this summer’s release of Kung Fu Panda 2 in theatres)
David Gibson,
Suzanne said it best, “Jean is right …”
Yes, I agree that Scripture is important for kids. I had a Bedtime Bible Story book I loved as a small Unitarian child. And I do not suggest that children use holy objects as playthings, or that they play Mass, only that the be allowed to see what these things are up close under adult supervision.
My Gramma used to get out her ruby glassware (hardly on the same level as a monstrance), and let us look at it (with gloves on) and told us stories about various family meals it had served at. Why not show the kiddies the chalice and read the Scriptural story of the Last Supper?
Lord, “Davey and Goliath.” I used to pretend to hear my mother calling when the neighbors put that on. I preferred “Divorce Court.”
Suzanne and jean, I agree with all you say about the Catholic Church and its riches. But reading from the pope’s book to 6-year-olds? Why not just pack them off to a Protestant church or let ‘em sleep in on summer mornings and spare the expense and effort of a VBS?
I don’t know, maybe my evangelical roots are showing. But leading grade school kids through recitations of the catechism and pious devotions hardly seems like the ticket to teaching them about the faith or the Bible that the faith is based on.
It doesn’t much matter for us anyway — we pretty much teach our daughter about the faith at home, prayers and such, and Bible stories. Hopefully as she gets older she won’t see church as such a drag and will begin to understand the Trinity and such.
Is the problem here that evangelicals just have a lot more knowledgeable, dedicated people to do these things than we do? That if we tried to do VBS, it would end up kind of like CCD, which most of us remember as a huge, vacuous waste of time?
“Is the problem here that evangelicals just have a lot more knowledgeable, dedicated people to do these things than we do? That if we tried to do VBS, it would end up kind of like CCD, which most of us remember as a huge, vacuous waste of time?”
I would never argure than any fundigelical has more than adequate working understanding of Scripture. They memorize it, certainly, but a lot of what they believe about it is just plain wrong.
Highever, yes, they are more dedicated to getting their numbers up by making church “fun” for your kiddies and sucking people in that way.
And, yes, CCD is the most vacuous wast of time possible, which leaves the catechesis in the hands of Very Bad Catholic parents like me.
“But leading grade school kids through recitations of the catechism and pious devotions hardly seems like the ticket to teaching them about the faith or the Bible that the faith is based on.”
That’s not what I’m advocating, my friend. Catholic VBS could be fun if you allowed the kiddies to learn Scripture while explaining how our devotional and liturgical objects symbolize Scripture and learn some songs that support that scripture.
Imagine letting the children look at the monstrance up close, touch it, see how the host is placed inside the little window. Then imagine them reading a story about the Last Supper and explaining how Jesus was a poor man with nothing to give but himself and, as God, loved us so much he nourishes us with his own body. Imagine a healthy and funny conversation about cannibalism ensuing. Imagine them talking about what they sacrifice because they love their pets or friends and family. Imagine them talking about how those sacrifices don’t even seem like sacrifices because of their love. Imagine kiddies learning a Communion hymn. Imagine them popsicles, wading pool activities, and bobbleheads by all means! My kid’s favorite devotional is still his plastic glow-in-the-dark rosary.
I believe the meme that there is something scandalous about the evangelical mind is long outdated. I have known many evangelical ministers who know both Greek and Hebrew well. I have never met a Catholic priest whose Hebrew is more than a few words and a lot of fakery, and darn few who could read the gospels without a dictionary.
Once upon a time Catholics knew how to educate. But those days are also long past. Now both right and left know only how to indoctrinate. And nobody wants to spend summer vacation being indoctrinated.
Too bad all that Greek and Hebrew didn’t help them interpret Scripture any better.
I weary of people who use the term “meme.”
In any case, my points are made, and if people choose to find them unpersuasive, so be it.
We had a regional (3 parishes involved) VBS for one week in June. The emphasis was on the missionary activity of the Catholic Church. Children learned about the cultures of Italy (and Mother Cabrini who came to the US to care for Italian immigrants), Peru and the lives and ministry of Sts. Rose of Lima and Martin DePorres, and Japan and the missionary activities of St. Francis Xavier there. One of the parish priests who did missionary work in the Phillipines, led the kids to understand that country and see videos about the Church in that country.
The kids from grades K-5—sampled foods from these countries, saw videos about Catholics in those countries practicing their faith, tried their hand at making some artwork from these countries (like orgami from Japan), seeing the work of missionaries in those countries. The kids learned some snappy songs from these countries as well as other songs to sing at the closing prayer service on Friday (with parents and grandparents present).
We had 400 kids and youngsters who “graduated from the program” Grades 6-college age were wonderful. They volunteered their time as ‘shepherds’ (conducting the younger kids from one building to another on the campus of the largest church that hosts these each year. The young people also helped with snacks, art projects, music and playing music—.
Oh, by the way—-we also had some Protestant kids present—because their church has nothing of the scope that these three parishes can provide.
Little Bear: That sounds great. Really fantastic.
David:
“I don’t know, maybe my evangelical roots are showing. But leading grade school kids through recitations of the catechism and pious devotions hardly seems like the ticket to teaching them about the faith or the Bible that the faith is based on.”
What you don’t grasp is that as it evolved over the centuries the “pious devotions” – as in the traditional spirituality of the Church from saints’ devotions to the corporal works of mercy to the iconography common in churches – *did* function as a catechesis – the best kind – one that is absorbed into one’s life.
Catholics invented the whole “Sunday school” phenomena when a priest in Milan got some kids attention with free apples and taught them the sign of the cross. It was 1536 and the humble beginning of CCD and the first mass educational system in Europe. By the late 16th century, CCD was mandated in every parish in Milan and 40,000 kids attended two hours of creative instruction on Sundays and feast days – about 85 days a year. It was largely run by lay people in the early days and it was very creative – short, snappy, fun, full of music, recitation, and games to keep the kids attention.
The Renaissance optimism about the impact of education affected everyone – Catholic and Protestant and all the variants including Protestant Vacation Bible School are descendants.
“they are more dedicated to getting their numbers up by making church “fun” for your kiddies and sucking people in that way.”
Huh? “sucking”? The primary purpose is and always has been in the Protestant world, enabling children to encounter Christ and the Scriptures in a sustained but fun way. What I will never understand is the ease with which we often presume that evangelicalfundamentalist motives are overwhelmingly shallow and venial. It is not unlike the stories I was raised upon that assured me that Catholics attended Mass only because they were working their way to heaven or just for some kind of empty religious show before going out and living a life of sin and corruption the rest of the week.
VBS is no more manipulative or all about numbers than the lay apostles who labored with tens of thousands of Catholic kids in 16th century Milan.
What if both groups were pretty much just trying to help kids encounter Jesus and the faith as they understood it?
Sherry, please forgive my jaded view of Protestant VBS.
As a Unitarian child (a heathen by most Christian standards), as the mother of a Catholic, and as the auntie of a passle of Baptists, I know for a fact that a special effort is made to recruit the unchurched and the Catholic.
Children in the Protestant VBS programs I am familiar with get prizes for bringing in the most people (potential recruits), and when my son was in grade school, there were several evangelical and Baptist kids whose parents would knock on the door–parents who otherwise wanted nothing to do with us–and try to pressure me into letting my kid come to VBS with their kids. My response was always, “Sure, if you’ll send your kids to CCD with me next Wednesday.” They went away.
I resent what I see as an attempt to lure my kid away from the faith in which we are trying to raise him.
I am careful to distinguish for my kid the differences between Protestantism in its many forms and Catholicism. It’s fine for kids of different faiths to have an exchange of ideas and share the joy of knowing Jesus.
It’s a whole other thing to turn my kid over to a fundiegelical for a week’s worth of indoctrination (with apples!).