The summer season is almost upon us! We’re getting Pilgrim Lodge ready to welcome back our campers for the season ahead. In addition to all of the work to get camp set-up for the season, there is a great deal of program planning underway in the lead-up to summer. This season, some of our programming is the result of three years of groundwork to prepare for our camp-level exploration of our relationship to the land where camp is located and a discernment process focused on how to be in right relationship with our Wabanaki neighbors.
In the spring of 2023, a working group was formed with the goal of guiding this journey for the Pilgrim Lodge community. We call this a learning journey because we don’t have a defined course, but rather a commitment to be simultaneously learning, listening and responding with action to support the Wabanaki tribes in specific requests they make for support. As we prepare to expand our learning journey into programming this summer, we reflect on the work that we have done to build a foundation for this focus.
- We have offered a verbal Land Acknowledgement at the opening of every camp session. We chose not to write a formal land acknowledgement to exercise our commitment to an on-going learning process, to provide updates about our commitment to this work, and to embrace a spirit that a Land Acknowledgment can reflect a personal relationship to the land that is unique to each of us who spends time at Pilgrim Lodge.
- Members of this Subcommittee participated in a pilot of the Wabanaki REACH Curriculum called Decolonizing and the Faith Communities that explored the relationship between religious institutions, colonization, genocide, and the more recent phenomenon of Boarding Schools and the foster system that removed indigenous children from their communities.
- This committee provided an invitation to volunteers of Pilgrim Lodge to an online session provided by Wabanaki REACH called “Interacting Wabanaki Maine History” as hosted by the Anti-Racism Resource Team of the Maine Conference United Church of Christ.
- We completed a cultural appropriation toolkit assessment created by Maine Summer Camps. While we found that Pilgrim Lodge does not have a significant history of appropriating practices that mimic the ceremonies, dress, or structures of indigenous people, we recognized that there are indigenous words in our environment.
- We have consulted with Eric C. Smith, Executive Director of the Freeport Historical Society who has gathered extensive information about the region, disputed land claims, and conflicts that took place during the period of European colonialism and associated violence. This history is a starting point to understanding the relationship between Protestant congregationalism, colonialism, and our acquisition of Pilgrim Lodge as the home for our summer camp program.
- We have created a “Sense of Place” Reflection Walk and facilitated this tour around camp with some high school campers at Pilgrim Lodge to observe features of the landscape, talk about the history, and process our relationship to the land.
- We have responded to requests from Wabanaki people regarding tribal sovereignty. We became a member organization of the Wabanaki Alliance Coalition so that we could directly hear from our Wabanaki neighbors how they are seeking support. We began to dig more deeply into the question of why it is important for us, as a Christian organization, to respond from a place of Christian faith. To this end we read The Land Is Not Empty: Following Jesus in Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery. The reading and discussion renewed our desire to root the work we are doing in theology and Christian identity.
- Members of our group are currently participating in the Maine School of Ministry Course called “Organizing for Relationships and Repair” to deepen our knowledge and explore “What questions do you ask about harm and repair, history and ethics? What could Sacred Reckonings look like for our communities today?”
As we prepare our programming for the 2026 summer season, we hold onto some core values to guide our work and engagement with campers, ensuring that we provide activities and content at age-appropriate levels. We focus on a heart-centered approach to support reflection in community. We recognize that many of our questions have no “right” answers, but generate thinking, talking, and listening. We aim to be guided by what our Wabanaki Neighbors are asking of us. We are honored to focus our Outreach Programming on relating with and lifting up the work of two Wabanaki-led organizations this summer: Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness and Speaking Place. Donations collected at Pilgrim Lodge this season will be provided to their organizations as we highlight the need for and value of their missions. The journey continues…
Members of the Pilgrim Lodge Committee:
- Original Members: Rev. Benjamin Bigney, Rev. TJ Mack, Andrew Hunter, Karen Choate, Liz Charles McGough
- New Members: Allie Rimkunas, Lee Deater-Deckard