Pride Camp 2025 is Coming!
Summer Camps at UUCoV:
June 30-July 4th 2025 (no camp on July 1 stat)
Camp for Youth:
Uniquely U: a radical inclusion camp
Camp for 5-10 years
Wonder Camp
Camps runs 9 am to 4 pm each day and is held on the beautiful Unitarian Universalist building and grounds on traditional WSAANEC territory.
Our camp divides into two groups: WONDER CAMP for youngers (5 to approx 10 years) and UNIQUELY U camp for young youth 10 to 16 years. Final grouping will be decided by camp directors depending on the # and age composition of who enrolls (and also by interest; we welcome your requests). We ask that all campers be of school age.
Cooking and eating lunch together will be a wonderful and special part of the camp experience. We also ask that you send a hearty snack with your child each day.
*** We will do our best to create lunches that everyone enjoys, and will also ask that campers be willing to try new foods. If your child/youth is particular in what they like to eat, please be prepared to send lunches from home as needed.
Each year our UU community participates in the Victoria Pride Parade, which happens this year on Sunday July 6. We warmly invite your family to join the fun! Please know that while UU parade leaders will be there to support, we cannot be officially responsible for your child at the parade– they must attend with a guardian who is ultimately responsible for their comfort and safety.
Camp fees are on a sliding scale basis of $100 – $200 for the week.
Our Philosophy
We are big believers in embodied learning– an approach which recognizes that knowledge isn’t just stored in the brain but is also formed through our interactions with the world and our bodies. Our programs and activities emphasize the role of physical movement, interaction with the environment, and sensory experiences in learning and fostering wonder.
We believe that a UU church community is an important space for intergenerational connections. This is a place where children and youth can feel seen, safe, and cared about as they grow. It is also a place where children & youth learn (by doing) that they are an essential part of community, and can help to create beauty, wonder and justice in the world.
Monthly Themes
Our activities change with the seasons. We incorporate monthly themes into our hands-on activities – themes like Trust, Inclusion, and Joy.
Pride Camp
For one week in early summer, the children and youth take over the UU buildings and grounds. We cook together, play games, make lots of art, explore nature, and get ready for our grand finale in the Victoria Pride Parade that same weekend. Along the way, we create art and have discussions that honour our authentic selves. Unitarian Universalism values individuality and solidarity, and there is plenty of both at this inclusive and joyful camp. The 2025 camp dates are June 30 to July 3 (not including the July 1 Stat holiday), and the Victoria Pride parade is July 6 (optional for families).
Wassailing
Ancestor's Shrine
Singing & Music
Messy Church
World Religions
Youth Leadership
Past Activities
The Transforming Power of Ritual
https://victoriaunitarian.ca/wp-content/uploads/20140330-service.mp3 Amanda Tarling – Meaningful rituals provide a conduit to deepen our connections and enrich us. They mark both the transient and permanent in the
Living with Compassion: The Larger Circle
https://victoriaunitarian.ca/wp-content/uploads/20140323-service.mp3 Reverend Shana Lynngood and Kristina Stevens – Our ties to the Canadian Unitarian Council: How does our congregation support the larger web and well-being
A Morning of Ekphrastic Poetry
https://victoriaunitarian.ca/wp-content/uploads/20140316-service.mp3 Anne Swannell – Ekphrasis is a rhetorical device which approaches one medium in terms of another, so … in this case, poetry that helps
Where’s the I in We? (11:30 a.m. service)
https://victoriaunitarian.ca/wp-content/uploads/20140309-service.mp3 Reverend Shana Lynngood – You have likely heard the adage there’s no “I” in team. In a community such as our church there are
Who Do You Say We Are?
Transcript of Sermon by Rev. Melora Lynngood, First Unitarian Church of Victoria March 2, 2014 Near the end of Jesus’s life, so the story goes, he
Spiritual Humanism
https://victoriaunitarian.ca/wp-content/uploads/20140223-service.mp3 Reverend Shana Lynngood – A year ago I preached a sermon entitled Spirituality for Atheists. This sermon could be seen as a companion piece
Blunders and Grace
Reverend Melora Lynngood – As Unitarian Universalists, we welcome people of all kinds, for we know that our community is enriched by human difference. However,
Beginnings and Endings
https://victoriaunitarian.ca/wp-content/uploads/20140209-service.mp3 Your congregation’s lay chaplains work with members of the general public to help them mark the major turning points in their lives – their
The Complexities of Family
Reverend Shana Lynngood – We are all born into families not of our choosing. Sometimes family life is delightful and sustaining, and at other times
Your Conflict Style vs. My Conflict Style
Reverend Melora Lynngood – What happens when an Italian and a Brit argue with one another? In this sermon, we will look at the different conflict
Living with Compassion across Diversity, Part II: Your Conflict Style vs. My Conflict Style
Reverend Melora Lynngood – This is part two of a three-part sermon series on ‘Living with Compassion across Diversity.’ What happens when an Italian and a
The Moments That Shape Us
Reverend Shana Lynngood – Throughout the course of our lives we experience some pivotal experiences that have a profound impact on who we are. How do
Living with Compassion across Diversity, Part I: Intercultural Competency
Reverend Melora Lynngood – This is part one of a three-part sermon series on ‘Living with Compassion across Diversity.’ Some older models of multi-cultural and anti-racism
SPARK Circus for Burmese Refugee Children
Karina Strong is a long-time Unitarian and owner of Vesta Entertainment Circus, a fire and stilt performance troupe based in Nanaimo. Karina and her husband