Chalice Camp is two week-long summer day camps for 1st through 6th graders. The goal of Chalice Camp is to deepen children’s and youth’s understanding of themselves as Unitarian Universalists and to expand their knowledge of Unitarian Universalism and their capacity to be articulate about our faith. Chalice Camp II – Identity and Justice explores the root causes of systemic racism in the US and presents a religiously grounded approach to countering racism and building just community. The activities during the week include energetic daily worship, games, drama, art, community building and community service.

The idea for Chalice Camp was born in a conversation over tea around the kitchen table. We were struggling with how the children in our church could have deeper connections with one another, deeper understandings of themselves as Unitarian Universalists, greater knowledge of our history and more capacity to be articulate about our faith. Suddenly we realized, in a week-long camp, children would be able to create relationships and to explore subject matter in a way that is simply not possible in our traditional weekly Sunday School model. In one 40-hour week at camp, we would have nearly as much time with the children as in an entire church year of 55 minute Sunday mornings. We decided to create Chalice Camp and make it easily replicable! That was made possibe with a generous grant from the Fund for Unitarian Universalism and sponsorship by the Pacific Central District of the Unitarian Universalist Association.