Howe Conference
In 1932, with the Great Depression still in full swing, Bishop Campbell Gray conceived the Howe Conference, a five-day summer camp of learning and inspiration to be held on the campus of the Howe Military School. The conference would be open to anyone 14 years old and older at a subscription of $10, though some scholarships were offered. By assembling clergy and church leaders from around the diocese for worship and inspiration, Gray and his supporters believed it would help uplift the spirits of the diocese. At that time, many parishes were in arrears for their diocesan assessments and had been seated at the diocesan convention with voice but no vote.
The first conference was held in 1933, again with the sponsorship of both dioceses, but by 1935, it fell again under the sole control of the Diocese of Northern Indiana. Guest speakers were brought in to offer preaching and instruction. The Rev. J. McNeal Wheatley articulated the aims of the conference in an article for the Pastoral Staff in 1937: "No other opportunity is offered in this Diocese to bring as many of our people of our Parishes to the privilege of living together for a week's time and thereby exchange their views and their hopes for the Church in general and weld together a Diocesan spirit that will enable them to carry into their Parishes and Missions the feeling of greatness of the Holy Church."
This spirit of optimism for both adult and youth learning did not survive Bishop Gray, and by the late 1940s, the Conference had become exclusively a camp for high school students. Attendance remained high, however, and in 1965 it was renamed briefly the Bishop Mallett Conference after Bishop Reginald Mallett, Gray's successor, who took a strong interest in the camp. Soon after this name was abandoned, and two camps were formed: the Bishop White Camp and the Bishop Gray Camp, both still held at Howe.For a time the camp moved to Lake Wawasee under the ministry of the Rev. David Hyndman.
In the 1990s, the venue for the summer camp moved out of Wawasee to Lake Waubee near Milford in northern Indiana.
Bibliography:
Robert J. Center, Our Heritage: A HIstory of the First Seventy-five Years of the Diocese of Northern Indiana (South Bend: Diocese of Northern Indiana, 1973), pp. 27-28.
This page references:
- Howe Conference 1950s Staff with Bishop Reginald Mallett, center
- Howe Conference or Senior High Camp 1954
- Howe Conference 1970s, called Bishop Mallett or White Conference
- Bishop Campbell Gray with Senior High Youth, Trinity Michigan City, ca late 1930s
- Howe Conference, 1941, Rev James McNeal Wheatley of Trinity Fort Wayne, left, with Father Fenn, right
- Howe Conference, 1940, Winifred Wheatley of Fort Wayne and Louise Larwell
- Howe Conference late 1950s with Bishop Reginald Mallett center front
- Howe Conference about 1940 or 1941 with Bishop Campbell Gray
- Howe Conference 1940, Father Shannen and Bishop Campbell Gray
- Howe Conference 1939, Bishop Campbell Gray standing right, others unidentified
- Howe Conference early 1950s, with Bishop Mallett, front center
- Howe Conference late 1950s with Bishop Reginald Mallett center front
- Howe Conference about 1939 or 1940 with Bishop Campbell Gray
- Howe Conference 1938 or 1939, with Rev. J. McNeal Whealey and Bishop Campbell Gray
- Howe Conference late 1950s Group Photo
- Howe Conference 1939, Group Photo unidentified
- Howe Conference 1938 or 1939, with Rev. J. McNeal Wheatley and Bishop Campbell Gray in back
- Howe Conference staff 1950s, with Bishop Reginald Mallett in center, view 2
- Howe Conference, 1939, Rev. James McNeal Wheatley and wife Winifred, Trinity Fort Wayne
- Howe Conference 1939
- Howe Conference 1939, Rev. James McNeal Wheatley of Trinity Fort Wayne
- Howe Conference Staff and Attendees, 1950s, with Bishop Reginald Mallett, right front
- Howe Conference 1939, with Mrs Walter Crandall and Mrs. Schick
- Howe Conference, 1939, Rev. James McNeal Wheatley of Trinity Fort Wayne
- Howe Junior-Senior High Camp 1970s, Bishop Mallett or White Conference
- Howe Conference or Senior High Camp, 1955
- Howe Conference, Father O'Brien, Dean of Men, 1939
- Howe Conference, June 1941, Rev. James McNeal Wheatley and wife, Winifred, informal
- Howe Conference, Fr Harold Kappes and Fr. Edwin Smith, both of Holy Trinity, South Bend, 1939
- Howe Conference, 1941, Eliza Hanna Elliott of Fort Wayne, organist
- Howe Conference 1960s, called Bishop Mallett Conference
- Howe Conference, 1939, Group Photo of Youth on Steps
