With us everything should be secondary compared to our concern with children, and their upbringing in the instruction and teaching of the Lord.
– St. John Chrysostom
Our Mission
Saint Andrew’s Camp serves Christ and His Church by providing an Orthodox camping experience to youth in America and beyond. Through summer camping programs and year-round activities, the camp advances Orthodoxy in America and the world by bringing children closer to Christ, enabling them to develop friendships with other Orthodox children, and preparing them to lead an Orthodox Christian life in supplement of their growth at their home parishes. The camp program does this while also enabling adult laity and clergy to serve as volunteers and similarly mingle in fellowship.
Our Vision
By the grace of God, Saint Andrew’s Camp intends to continue the mission of serving the Church by providing youth with a faith-based summer camping program — rooted in the everlasting truth of Christ and the Church while evolving and growing with a changing cultural landscape — just as it has done since its inception in 1957.
Our Values
Saint Andrew’s Camp — as a ministry resource of the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of New York and New Jersey — adheres to the following principles and guiding values:
- To believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to proclaim it in our words and actions, and through Liturgical observance and the light study of scripture and the Saints during the camping season
- To advance Orthodoxy by cultivating youth and their growth in the faith in the context of an Orthodox camp setting
- To provide youth, young adults, and faithful of all generations to convene during a summer camping program within the context of a natural environment and the opportunity to participate in worship, activities and fellowship together
- To enable youth with service-minded skills, values, and lifestyle so that they too can proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ through their actions and words outside of camp and into adulthood
