About 4,000 Pathfinders, leaders and volunteers from 26 countries gathered between 30 July and 5 August 2019 at the South of England Showground, in Ardingly, in the United Kingdom, for the camporee of the Trans-European Division (TED) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. According to the division, it was the largest event of its kind ever held in the region.
The gathering revolved around the theme Exodus — the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt as narrated in the Bible — and featured a set design inspired by ancient Egypt, the raising of flags and cultural presentations on opening night. According to tedNEWS, the division's news service, the 22 countries of the TED itself took part, along with visiting groups from Israel, France, Russia and Tanzania.
The largest Trans-European Division camporee up to then
Ardingly, in the county of West Sussex, south of London, hosted between 30 July and 5 August 2019 one of the largest gatherings of Pathfinders ever seen in Europe. The South of England Showground, a large exhibition park, became for a week a city of tents for about 4,000 people among Pathfinders, leaders and volunteers.
According to tedNEWS, the news service of the Trans-European Division, the gathering was described as the largest event of its kind ever held by the division up to that moment. For a region where the Adventist Church has a numerically smaller presence than in other parts of the world, bringing together thousands of young people in a single field carried symbolic weight.
Ron Whitehead, an international camporee coordinator quoted by tedNEWS, summed up the impression before the crowd and the atmosphere of the event. According to him, the gathering "is a good sign for the future of the church in Europe". The phrase, spoken before thousands of uniformed young people, captured the tone of the camporee.
26 countries under the same flag
The figure that drew the most attention was the diversity. According to the division, 26 countries were represented: the 22 that make up the Trans-European Division itself, plus four visiting groups coming from Israel, France, Russia and Tanzania.
It is worth explaining the map for the international reader. The TED is one of the world divisions of the Adventist Church and covers mostly countries of northern Europe, in addition to territories in the Middle East. It is a different reality from the South American Division (DSA), to which Brazil belongs and which concentrates the largest number of Pathfinders on the planet. Bringing together 26 nationalities in a camporee of European scale, therefore, involved combining clubs from very distinct cultural and linguistic contexts.
That blend appeared right at the opening ceremony, with the parade and the raising of flags of the participating countries and cultural presentations by the different groups — a portrait of how the Pathfinder movement works as a common language among young people of diverse origins.
250 volunteers against the rain and the gale
Setting up a field for thousands of people is never simple, and in 2019 the British weather took its toll. According to the Adventist news service of the United Kingdom, a team of about 250 volunteers raised the event's structure facing a day of rain and strong winds, which even brought down tents that had already been set up.
Despite the conditions, the organization managed to get the field standing in time. According to the same source, all of the roughly 4,000 participants were fed before the start of the opening program, on the night of 30 July — a logistical challenge that, on its own, gives a measure of the scale of the event.
The kitchen, dining hall, security, setup and cleaning at a camporee depend almost entirely on volunteer work. It is the same model that sustains the great camporees in Brazil, where directors, parents and leaders take turns in behind-the-scenes roles so that the program can happen. In Ardingly, that invisible effort was what ensured the rain did not delay the opening.
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The opening night brought together the classic elements of a camporee with the visual identity of the theme. The stage received a set design inspired by ancient Egypt, in direct reference to the Exodus, and the program combined a drum performance, the flag-raising ceremony and congregational singing, according to tedNEWS.
There was also a local touch: participants were welcomed to the sound of a Scottish bagpipe, a detail that anchored the event in the British territory that hosted it. The message of the evening, according to the division, was given by Norwegian pastor Melissa Myklebust, who addressed themes such as Creation, the Fall and the search for God.
In the following days, the field had the typical routine of this kind of gathering: honor activities, community projects, sports, pioneering constructions and moments of worship. The evening program was streamed live over the internet, allowing family members and clubs from afar to follow along remotely.
What a camporee is — and why it matters
For those arriving at the movement, an explanation is worthwhile. A camporee is a large camp that brings together several Pathfinder clubs in the same place for a few days, with a program of spirituality, outdoor activities, competitions, honors and ceremonies. It can be at the club, regional, field, union, division or international level — the higher the level, the greater the number of participants and countries involved.
Pathfinders form the ministry of the Adventist Church aimed at children and adolescents from 10 to 15 years old, organized in clubs that work on values, nature, community service and spiritual life. The Ardingly event was a division camporee — a step above national camporees —, which explains the presence of dozens of nationalities and the size of the structure.
Camporees of this scale tend to leave a lasting mark on those who take part. Beyond the program, they work as a meeting point between distant clubs, an occasion for baptisms and investitures, and a moment when young people from different realities discover that they are part of one and the same worldwide movement.
What this says to a Brazilian Pathfinder
For the Brazilian Pathfinder, used to camporees with tens of thousands of participants, an event of 4,000 people may seem modest. The context, however, changes the reading: in Europe, where the clubs are smaller and more spread out, bringing that crowd together in a single field represented a milestone — hence the division classifying it as the largest of its kind up to then.
The comparison helps in seeing the global dimension of the movement. The same uniform, the same honors and the same club structure that exist in Brazil also appear in Ardingly, with local adaptations. A Trans-European Division camporee and a camporee in Brazil share the same root, even if on distinct scales and landscapes.
The message Ardingly left — summed up in the remark that the gathering was "a good sign for the future of the church in Europe" — serves as a reminder that work with Pathfinders is measured less by the size of the field and more by the number of young people involved. It was this reading that guided the coverage of the event by the Adventist press.