Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana Archives

Camps and Youth

The Diocese of Northern Indiana, since the time of its first bishop, John Hazen White, has taken an interest in camps. It may have been due to the prevalence of lakes in northern Indiana or the ready availability of the campus of Howe Military School, but camps for youth became a staple offering of the diocese at a very early period. The story began at Lake Wawasee in 1915, when White inaugurated open-air services and held an encampment around his summer home, Bishopscroft, at Lake Wawasee. The Howe Conference, its successor, began as an enrichment program for both adults and high school youth during the episcopate of Bishop Campbell Gray, but by the late 1940s under Bishop Reginald Mallett, it became exclusively a high school youth program. During the 1960s, the names changed variously to the Bishop Mallett Camp, and later, the Bishop Gray and Bishop White camps. Camping continues to this day, both with at the Conference Center on Vawter Place at Lake Wawasee as well as at Camp Alexander Mack, a youth camp held every summer at Lake Waubee.

Howe Conference

Diocesan Summer Camp

Wawasee Center Camp, 1960s

Gathering-In, Cathedral of St. James, South Bend, 1970s