Rather than promoting a single religion, Little Rock’s Friendship Camp celebrates a variety of faith expressions.
Launched in 2016, the program promotes diversity, rather than dogma, embracing pluralism rather than proselytism.
Earlier this month, Friendship Camp drew nearly 60 Central Arkansas children in third through-sixth grades.
Now, it is expanding into Northwest Arkansas as well, with classes scheduled to begin Monday at First Christian Church in Bentonville.
Liz Emis, the church’s director of children and family ministry, says her congregation is “unabashedly progressive,” with members who are “happy to put their hands and feet to work for service.”
She spearheaded the effort to bring the camp to her community. During the three-day program, the children will learn about a number of religious traditions, she said.
“I have faith leaders from Bahai, Buddhist, Cherokee Indigenous tradition, … Hindu, Islam and Judaism,” she said.
Christians and people with “no particular faith” will also share their perspectives, she added.
The young campers are also diverse. A plurality — roughly 40% — are what she calls “explorers” — children unaffiliated with any particular religious tradition.
Protestant and Catholic Christians make up roughly 30%.
The remainder are Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she said.
Sarah Hyndman, volunteer director for the Little Rock camp, is glad to see the program grow.
“We are so so excited to be expanding to Northwest Arkansas,” she said.
This year, the camp was held at Temple B’nai Israel. In previous years, it had met at Episcopal churches.
Participants this year focused the first day on light, the second on forgiveness, the third on gratitude and the fourth on generosity. On the fifth day, they took field trips to the Cathedral of St. Andrew and to Radha Madhav Hindu Temple.
“It’s been such a success here in Central Arkansas. Liz has really taken and run with that vision, found some great community partners and I think they’re gonna have a really good first year,” she said.
Emis, a student at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary near Chicago, is studying “childist theology, interfaith repair and social justice,” her biography states.
In addition, she is on the pathway to ordination as a deacon in the United Methodist Church.
She doesn’t claim to have all the answers.
“For me, Christianity offers the opportunity to revel in complete wonder, to keep asking and enjoying the questions,” she said.
Rather than conversion, the camp’s goal is illumination.
“My hope is that children come here and illusionary boundaries and blind spots that they didn’t even know they had are dismantled,” she said.
“[It’s] not necessarily the most easy time to be a child in school, particularly if you’re not white and Christian,” she said. “My hope is that these children head back to school, and they become more than just advocates; they become allies and they become friends.”
