GROWING INTEREST IN CHURCH CAMPS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30103, 10 April 1963, Page 4

GROWING INTEREST IN CHURCH CAMPS

Travelling by bicycle, car, bus, train, and chartered aircraft, more than 1000 young people from church group* and Bible classes will leave Christchurch this week-end to attend Easter camps and conferences. Varied programmes of Easter services, addresses, sports days, and concerts have been prepared tor the camps. At Tyndale House, Cashmere, 100 members of the Church of England’s League of Youth, which is the youth arm of the Church Missionary Society, will attend a fourday house party. Speakers to address the group include the Rev. Wallace Marriott, a North Malayan missionary, the Rev. L. Tsankuch, the chaplain of a Malayan school, and Mr and Mrs K. Mitchell, teachers from the Pakistan mission field.

The general secretary of the Church Missionary Society (the Rev. H. Thomson), who is at present in Africa, will

send his greetings and an account of his work in Africa in a tape recording to be played at the gathering. More than 460 young people of the Canterbury Methodist Churches will fill four camps at Kaiapol, Waipara, and Amberley. City church leaders will visit the camps, as well as a Bible class member, Mr R. Patchetit, who has recently returned from a church working party visit to the Solomon Islands.

Combined prayer meetings in Hagley Park to prepare for the Easter camp studies and services have been held by the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches for the last six week-ends. Presbyterian Campe Two Presbyterian camps, a boys’ camp at Dunsandel and a girls’ at Darfield District High School, will be attended by 300 'people. Barbecues and bonfire meetings, plays, and concerts have been incorporated in the programme, as well as Bible studies. Another Mid-Canterbury camp has been organised at Hinds. The Baptist Church camps at Pleasant Point, Motukarara, and Spencerville will cater for nearly 350, and other camps will be held at Glenroy (100) and Kumara. on the West Coast (75). A member of the Church’s India Mission, Miss Joy Smith, will speak at each of the Canterbury camps. A chartered DC3 aircraft will carry 26 young people of the Churches of Christ to a Christian Youth Movement conference at Wanganui. They will travel by special bus from Wellington, and will swell the numbers at the conference to 110.

Salvation Army Twelve Christchurch members of the Salvation Army will go to the national Easter conference ait A kata ware, near Wellington, and another 12 members of the Students’ Fellowship will conduct an evangelical campaign on the beach at Kaiteriteri, Nelson. The Congregational Church camp at Raincliff, Timaru, will be attended by 40 South Island young people. One of the camp organisers, the Rev. D. J. Inglis, said last night that facilities bad limited the numbers who could be catered for at the camp, but • permanent camp-site at Palmerston would be ready by next Easter to cater for the growing interest in camping holidays tor young church people. A camp organised by the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Mount Hutt, Methven, will be attended by 50 South Island church members. The camp will be vHted by Pastor G. Miller, of the Palmerston North Miswinn ai’y College. Organises said last night that attendance numbeis were higher in almost all Easter canap sscMona. a trend that bed been ccntinuing flor aomt time