MarysCamp

     For many years, this Conference of the United Church of Christ was the only one in
the United States that sponsored a camp for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered
people. For many of us, this annual camp was our only real experience of what we looked
for from church. As more and more UCC congregations became Open & Affirming, we
found and created communities in which we did not need to hide our orientations and our
loving.

     The last LGBT & Friends camp was seven years ago. We have decided it is time to
gather again, and see who and where and how we are. And we’ve decided to focus our
weekend together on the theme Loss and Found: LGBTs and Friends Celebrate Living in
this World. Through exploring the parables of being lost, finding, and being found in Luke’
s Gospel, and exploring music and poetry, conversation and silence, we hope to offer you
experiences of touching the losses and the gifts, the ache and the surprises, the
emptiness and the wholeness, the growth and the healing that are part of living in this
world as a sexual minority and part of loving those who are a sexual minority. Dave Shull,
who is serving Spirit of Peace UCC in Sammamish and who is a social worker at The
Recovery Café, a Belltown center for community and healing for indigent persons trying to
stay in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, will lead our program.

     We look forward to gathering with those of you who are returning to camp and with
those of you who are coming for the first time.

     Call Sue Paules (206-730-2458) if you have any questions.

     Welcome!

     LGBT & Friends Planning Group: Sue Paules, Heidi Erdmann, Mike Katterman, Tara
Barber, Dave Shull