A Message from Our Theme Speaker

As we arrive at camp and settle in, don’t forget to prepare to engage in our programming theme this week! One of our goals this week is to celebrate the diversity of gender identity and expression in this community and in our wider world. Let’s work together to be a radically welcoming, heart-transforming community of people of all identities, ages, experiences, and backgrounds. Here are some reminders for how to practice radical welcome at camp: Be your whole self: Radical welcome starts with you! Camp should be a place where you can be your whole self, even if that self has changed since the last time you attended. If you want to try a different name, pronouns, outfit, hair style, or other ways of expressing yourself, do it!

• Avoid assumptions: Practice not making assumptions about the gender, pronouns, or sexual orientation of other campers, even if you’ve known them for years. Names, pronouns, and identities evolve! Make space for newness in yourself and others.
• Ask for help and apologize for mistakes: Calling someone the wrong name or pronoun happens! Apologize, move on, and try harder. Take it seriously and ask friends to help you do better. When someone offers a correction, thank them for helping you!
• Be an active bystander: If you overhear someone saying something unwelcoming, or calling someone by the wrong name or pronouns, or otherwise behaving in a way that doesn’t represent our best values at Eliot, help them do better. Hold each other in love and grace, and also hold each other accountable for not causing harm, intentionally or unintentionally.

Daily programming topics

Day 1: Authenticity: The theme for our morning programming at camp this week is celebrating the glorious diversity of gender and sexuality. On Sunday Alex will kick things off by inviting you to reflect on your own gender. There are so many flavors of gender—what is yours? And what would it be like to live in a world where everyone was free to explore and grow into an authentic sense of themselves unconstrained by restrictive gender norms, expectations, and rules?

Here are the other topics you can look forward to:

• Day 2: Queer Faith
• Day 3: Busting Binaries
• Day 4: Leaning into Care, Letting Go of Correctness
• Day 5: Disobedience
• Day 6: Radical Welcome

—Zr. Alex Kapitan, Program Speaker