"I had found the presence of Christ in a land that had, only a week earlier, appeared to be a place of oppression and alienation."

The following are excerpts from Bishop Tom Bickerton’s keynote address at the 2006 Jumonville Sponsor’s Dinner.

“When I got to camp and saw the church van disappear on the horizon, My heart sank. I was surrounded by hundreds of people my own age. My history told me that this, too must be the land of bullies, the place of oppression, and that I had been sent to Camp Armageddon for the week.

When I left camp a week later, however, I returned home different than when I came. My life had been transformed. I had found the presence of Christ in a land that had, only a week earlier, appeared to be a place of oppression and alienation. What made the difference? It was the same thing that has happened from the earliest days of the church until today. I, like the name bearers two thousand years earlier, had become a disciple.