From left to right: Lisa Marie Ryder, James Ryder, Fletcher Ryder

One of the best parts about working for the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is the opportunity to learn about all the projects, services and care that are provided by our many ministries. Over the past few months, your development team has had the opportunity to interview our exceptional staff and volunteers to learn about their service and life as leaders in our ministries. This summer, my colleague Martin Scarborough visited the Claggett Center to meet co-directors, James and Lisa Marie Ryder and talk about camp programs. Here’s what he had to say about the ministry at our beloved Claggett Center.

Mark Talcott, Director of Development
Episcopal Diocese of Maryland

 

In the heartland of the Diocese of Maryland, just outside the city of Frederick, lies the Claggett Center, our diocesan spiritual home. Nestled between rolling fields of farmland and forests, our camp and conference center is a place where our community of love comes together to grow and learn in spiritual harmony with one another.

Once the Buckingham Industrial School for Boys, the Claggett Center became part of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland in the 1950s and was renovated into a retreat facility to be used for summer camps and church retreats. At the time, Bishop Noble Powell declared that he wanted Claggett to be “a place where no child is turned away, no matter the color of their skin.” For several generations since, Claggett has been the hallmark of summer fun and formation for episcopal youth across the state and in neighboring provinces.

Today the Center continues that legacy by providing a space of spiritual comfort and unity for all guests. Visiting Claggett is like attending a family reunion: familiar faces you haven’t seen in months all gather, eager to welcome you home, reconnect, and share their community with you. Even if it is your first time visiting, you can expect to be welcomed with that same warmth during your stay and every single time you return thereafter.

And if the Claggett Center is a household, then our Co-Executive Directors, James and Lisa Marie Ryder, are the heads of it. Under their shared leadership and hospitality, the Claggett Center flourishes as a space for spiritual transformation, compassion, and growth for people of all ages.

 

Bishop Nobel Powell and Bishop Harry Lee Doll at the Claggett Center, 1958

Meet the Ryders

James and Lisa Marie joined the staff at Claggett in 2018, following their predecessors, Joe and Donna Kerner. But camp has always played a central role in their lives.

Growing up in their respective homes in North Carolina and Indiana, both James and Lisa Marie were avid summer campers, spending countless days adventuring in summer months at faith-based camps. Summer camp was integral to their formation, both as Christians and as young adults: For Lisa Marie, camp was as much a spiritual home for her as church was; for James, camp was a strong, familial community where everyone came together to uplift, teach, and grow together. The values camp imparted on them as youth led them on to their early career paths: James became a history teacher and a coach, while Lisa Marie began working at children’s museums. The couple met while working in the DC metro area and eventually married.

Both Ryders knew that camp ministry was ultimately something they wanted to return to, though at first the idea of working at a camp as directors seemed like a far-off dream. In their minds, camp ministry was something they would pursue after retirement. But after the Great Recession hit, the pair discerned a call to return to ministry and began to explore how they could fulfill their call through camp with the help of a network of Episcopal conference staff and directors. One decade of camping ministry later, spanning the length and width of the continental US, the Ryders came full circle back to Maryland to join the Claggett Center team.

And, of course, you can’t forget the third, member of the Ryder team: their young son Fletcher. When he is not busy with school or daycare, Fletcher enthusiastically helps his parents provide hospitality to the guests.  “If there’s a reception, he loves to tell people about the food or which item is his favorite or help serve them.” Lisa Marie recalled. “He definitely understands that we have guests and ‘a guest goes first,’ or ‘we shouldn’t have another cookie yet. We have to make sure the guests have theirs first.’ We have lots of teaching opportunities.”

 

Building a Family Experience

Claggett’s unique hospitality is central to the center’s ideology and is reflected in this dynamic team: the Ryders want you to feel like family when you stay at Claggett. While many restaurants, hotels, clubs, and other hospitality businesses try to stake that familial claim in their advertisements, few organizations can truly live into that promise.

That’s where Claggett is different. At Claggett, that familial hospitality is present and genuine. Part of this sense comes from being a spiritual retreat center: in many ways, Claggett operates more like a church than a conference center because its primary purpose is to be a place for God’s community of love to gather and grow.

But another key to Claggett’s family-like feeling is an unconscious decision on the part of the Ryders to let you into their own family.

“In many jobs, we have a professional mask that we wear.” James said. “But that mask is hard to keep on when we have to parent a rambunctious, four year-old child in front of guests. Maintaining the composure of a calm, professional leader isn’t easy when managing a tantrum.”

While juggling family and work can be a challenge for everyone, especially when they are as closely intertwined as they are at Claggett, it also provides an opportunity for God’s grace to shine through our relationships. To have an intimate, familial connection, to be one with each other in God’s community of love, we have to be willing to be open -and sometimes vulnerable- with each other, and there is nothing more vulnerable than parenting.

“It helps you find your true self. Who am I? How am I going to deal with this tantrum? It pushes you as a parent be honest with yourself and with staff, too.”

This familial quality has been part of Claggett’s culture and tradition for years; As a Claggett camper myself, I remember how Joe and Donna Kerner were like an extra pair of grandparents to me and my siblings. I also remember how, when my father worked at the Claggett Center, many of the children my sister and I were friends with, treated him like a father figure. The way the Ryders continue to cultivate this familial space in their own unique way allows Claggett’s spirit to thrive and flourish.

For guests, especially young campers, having family figures on campus has an added significance. “You never know where kids are coming from, but they’re going to see us. They know we’re parents when they see Fletcher, and they know we’re the camp directors. On the most basic level they’re exposed to how someone else parents and so forth. We understand that we’re role models as well.” James explained.

This is especially important given that the Claggett Center has a long history of building camps to support youth with familial trauma. Camp Spirit Song, one of the latest outreach programs established at Claggett, cares for children whose families have been affected by opioid addiction. Previous programs like Camp Amazing Grace (for children with incarcerated parents) and Rainbow Camp (for children with HIV positive family members) addressed similar needs for their respective campers.

As for adult guests? The Ryders think they benefit too. James likened the experience to seeing a priest’s family at church, and his own childhood experience of seeing his faith community as an extension of his own family. “The church offers exposure to different families and family systems, and we’re just one version of that.”

 

Building Transformational Growth

Comparing Claggett to a church feels fitting; ask any recurring Claggett guest about their experiences, and you will hear stories of spiritual transformation. The culture of familial welcome, honest connection, and loving grace created by the Ryders and everyone who works at Claggett is an unspoken invitation for everyone who comes to Claggett to return that treatment. It creates a pastoral environment where people are safe to be open and emotionally vulnerable, and that can lead to profound growth and healing.

During a recent visit to Claggett, I saw this unfold firsthand. Prior to my arrival, there had been a minor medical emergency on campus (everything fortunately turned out fine) that had shaken up the staff and attendees of the summer camp. Tension was high, staff were distressed, nobody was 100% sure how the day would proceed. Unprompted, Lisa Marie arrived on the scene with Dolly, the Ryders’ trained facility dog, and began making rounds to check on the staff and campers, taking time to sit with and soothe anyone who was feeling emotionally overwhelmed.

Through her compassion (and that of fellow staff and volunteers), the unease of the moment transformed into relief and joy before my eyes. The day continued as planned, everyone had a wonderful time on their trips and activities, but in an environment where that level of compassion isn’t present, I don’t think the mood of the day would have bounced back so easily.

And this doesn’t just happen in times of crises! Moments of joy at the Claggett center are also opportunities for transformation. One of the greatest aspects of camp, in Lisa Marie’s opinion, is that it provides an opportunity for people to be “the best or the truest versions of themselves. They’re the person they want to be. Camp provides the type of environment where you can –in most cases– be the authentic version of yourself that you are striving or want to be.”

 

Building for the Future

But no amount of story or words can really, fully capture the Claggett experience. To really understand and capture the joy of Claggett, you must experience it for yourself. From adult retreats to children’s summer camps, to the newly created family camp, there is a space for you at the Center.

And that space is growing! Right now, the Claggett Center is undertaking a big renovation project to transform the barn on campus into a second dining space and a formation center. “Our summer camp programs are very close to being a capacity.” Lisa Marie explained. “We don’t have the space for all who want to come and be part of summer camp ministries.”

This much needed addition makes room to allow additional day programs and retreats to occur simultaneously, allowing for more programs, especially for youth.  Renovations are expected to be completed in the early summer of 2023. Summer camp will be the first users of the barn, with school groups booked to use the facility in September 2023. To learn more about the Barn project and its progress, click here.

We hope, of course, that you won’t wait that long to visit the Claggett Center. No matter who you are, or where you’re from, you have a home here at the Claggett Center, and the Ryders and their amazing staff are ready to welcome you.

The ministry at the Claggett Center is a critical part of our community of love in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and depends upon your generosity. Learn more about this ministry and our other collective ministries around our diocese and how you can support them.

About the Author
Martin Scarborough is the Diocese of Maryland’s Senior Development Associate. He can be reached via email, mscarborough@episcopalmaryland.org.