Combining fun and faith at inaugural Family Camp
By Josh Low
The first ever Family Camp was run earlier this month by the Office of Life, Marriage and Family with nine families taking part in a two-day retreat at the Lea Scout Centre in Kingston.
Held on 4 and 5 March, the weekend was intended to bring families together to reconnect with each other through sharing in faith formation and a range of fun activities.
Archbishop Julian celebrated Sunday Mass and said he was pleased to see the families enjoying the time together.
“It was wonderful to see so many families gathered together sharing faith and community and striving for holiness,” he said.
Director of the Office of Life, Marriage and Family, Dr Rachel Bradley, said the camp was designed to connect families with each other in the hope of building community.
“The future of humanity, St Pope John Paul II describes in Familiaris Consortio, passes by way of the family,” she said.
“He goes on to say that we all have the mission of proclaiming with joy and conviction the good news about the family.
“It’s so important not just for families but all of us, to understand more deeply the truth behind the identity of a family and the importance of its mission in the world,” she added.
“Our goal was to help Catholic families discover this good news, while having activities they could experience together, combining fun and some faith formation at the same time.
“Through this weekend we also hoped to connect families to each other so that people are able to build support networks with other families in similar stages of life,” Dr Bradley explained.
Throughout the weekend there were a wide range of activities on offer including abseiling, ziplining, laser skirmish, a low ropes course, movie night, quiz session, and a variety of indoor and outdoor games for the little children present.
Clare Smith, who attended the camp with husband Rod and their four children, said they were glad to have taken part.
“It was great to have the Archdiocese with their resources organise something like this aimed at families, with the faith taken into consideration too, having Mass on both days and talks which had a faith formation element,” Mrs Smith said.
“Everything was taken care of – we didn’t have to think about anything except spending quality time together as a family.
“Even for something as simple as not needing to worry about what meals we would make and clean up – they are simple things, but I found it was a big benefit and weight off our shoulders to then allow us to focus on each other.”
Dr Bradley said she hoped even more families would attend the camp next year.
“We are also looking at running one in Tasmania’s north,” she said.
“The feedback we received was really positive, with a desire for more events like that in the future, so we will seek to address that need.”