Craigville 150th Anniversary
Heritage Series

Craigville: The Land and Its People

Tuesday, July 19, 2022
7:30 - 8:30 pm at the Tabernacle

While 2022 is the anniversary of the Christian Connection convening its first summer camp meeting, the land has been here since the time of creation and the Wampanoag people have been here for as long as anyone can remember. Tonight, we look at the land from three perspectives: its archaeology, its geology and the people who have called it home for some 10,000 years.

Speakers

  • Darius Coombs Cultural and Outreach Coordinator Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe

    Darius Coombs

    Cultural & Outreach Coordinator

    Cultural & Outreach Coordinator for Education with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe. He has spent 35 years educating people on Wampanoag and Indigenous cultures. He previously served at Plymouth Plantation as Director of Indigenous Research and Interpretive Training.

  • Dr. Amelia Brown, Senior Lecturer in Greek History & Language

    Dr. Amelia R. Brown

    Senior Lecturer

    Senior Lecturer in Greek History & Language in the Classics & Ancient History discipline of the School of Historical & Philosophical Inquiry, at the University of Queensland, Australia. Before moving to her current position in 2010, she was Hannah Seeger Davis Fellow in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University. In 2008 she received her PhD in Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology from the University of California at Berkeley. She has spent her childhood summers in Craigville.

  • Fran Lahey, retired educator

    Fran Lahey

    Retired Educator

    Retired educator who spent his career in Westchester County, New York. He holds a Master’s in Science Education from Columbia University. Before becoming a school administrator, he was an Earth Science teacher at Fox Lane High School in Bedford, New York. He also served for many years as the Chairman of the Conservation Board in Fishkill, New York where he makes his winter home. In the summer Fran has spent more than fifty years watching the geologic changes to Craigville Beach from his very comfortable beach chair.


Modern Craigville: The Founders

Recording of Modern Craigville - The Founders in July 2022. Part of Craigville 150th Anniversary Heritage Series.

Tuesday, July 26, 2022
7:30 - 8:30 pm at the Tabernacle

In 1872, members of the New England Convention of Christian Churches convened for their first camp meeting at what they called Camp Christian. Who were these people? What did they believe? And what is a camp meeting?

Speakers

  • Elizabeth Nordbeck, Professor of Ecclesiastical History Emerita

    Elizabeth (Beth) Nordbeck

    Professor of Ecclesiastical History Emerita at Andover Newton Seminary at Yale. An ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, she served as dean of Lancaster and Andover Newton seminaries and is the author of “Origins of the Christian Denomination in New England” (1987) and an editor of The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ.

  • Bill McKinney, CCMA President

    Bill McKinney

    President of the Christian Camp Meeting Association and has been a year-round resident of Craigville since 2010. He served for 14 years as President and Professor of American Religion at Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, California, where he served for 14 years and retired as President Emeritus. Bill is a sociologist of American religion (PhD, Penn State University) and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.


Craigville: The Future

Tuesday, August 2, 2022
7:30 - 8:30 pm at the Tabernacle

The final Heritage Series event for the 150th Anniversary of Craigville was held in the Tabernacle on Tuesday evening, August 2.  The event included a wonderful sampling of interviews conducted during the “Great Craigville Listen”, of submissions to the Memory Book compiled by Debbie Almy (available at the Village Post Office), of surveys collected by Dede Danforth submitted by scores of Craigville residents, and of the impressions and hopes of Craigville’s teens and other youngsters.  For those who couldn’t attend, the event was recorded, and will be available soon on Craigville.org

Overall, we value Craigville for its community, its environmental treasures, and its spiritual background, as depicted in the Word Cloud below, which analyzed survey responses from nearly 80 percent of Craigville’s households, and graphically presents in larger and bolder font the most frequently mentioned aspects of our village.  The younger generation speaking at the event emphasized the value of maintaining openness and traditions to protect the special qualities of our neighborhood.  Supported by enthusiastic applause, the presenters agreed that we are fortunate to live in such a special place, and that hopes for the future are strong.