A most curious conundrum

[spatch]

FACT No. 1. My grandparents met at a religious retreat (church camp) called Deering, nestled up in the hills of southern New Hampshire.
FACT No. 2. My mother and my father met at Deering.
FACT No. 3. My mother and my first stepfather also met at Deering.
FACT No. 4. Deering closed a year before I would have been old enough to go, and I would have gone.

Kinda makes a fellow wonder sometimes, don't it...

Comments

[bex77]

The Deering Committee was basically to get various conference execs from New England in a room and make sure none of them wanted it and the UCC National Board could sell it or do whatever without flack. I believe it was an unusual property, in that it was not owned by a conference or association, but the UCC Board for Homeland Ministries. The committee visited it once. It was in bad shape. Rustic to start with and then decimated by years of low maintence.

I lost track of what happened to it, but apparently it is open again!
You could rent it for your next retreat.
http://www.thedeeringcenter.org/

Here is the history of how that came about:
http://www.thedeeringcenter.org/history.htm

I thought there was an alumni group but I can't find anything about that.

I didn't grow up in MA, so my knowledge of their camps is nil. But poking around the Mass. Conference site, it looks like they do still own Craigville and Warner Farm, but only the first is still used for camps. Check out these links:

New England Outdoor Ministries
(include Craigville, Geneva Point, Star Island)
http://www.macucc.org/western/warner-farm.htm

Camps dates for 2007
http://www.macucc.org/youth/camps2005.htm

Warner Farm Retreat and Conference Center
http://www.macucc.org/western/warner-farm.htm

Gotta love Google!

[spatch]

In 1995, after leading a camp in northern New Hampshire , Mike Silver brought his wife to The Deering Conference Center to show her the place that in 1983, "had a profound impact on [his] life". Later that sunny August day Mike and Deb were on Vesper Hill, a sacred spiritual place at the center. Mike suddenly felt an "overwhelming feeling" as if God was pouring "hot milk chocolate" into his body. He felt this was a call to move from his home and job in Chapel Hill, North Carolina to Deering, New Hampshire and reopen the center.

I was actually there that day; I was counselor with him at the "camp in northern New Hampshire" (Geneva Point) and on our way back, thought we'd stop by Deering just to see how it looked. I poked all around the cabin areas on both sides of the road, found my aunt in one of the Deering Camp Family pictures still hung in the main building, and checked out the bizarre flea market collection of junk in the dining hall.

Mike, meanwhile, spent a lot of time up on the hill where the cross had been. That's where he got his call. Powerful things, calls. Tough to ignore.