![]() ![]() "I am not someone where it has to be where we agree at the end of the conversation, but at least then they have all the information from myself or one of my board members," she said. John's the Evangelist Catholic Church did not reach out to have a discussion with her about the event or the speakers before publishing the notice. Kjelland says it was disappointing that leaders at St. "I knew from the past that we had some parishioners sending kids to the camp, and that what the camp was promoting was contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church, so as a pastor, I had a responsibility to let people know this is what's going on," said Eppler. "It is unfortunate that that was blasted on social media."įather Jeff Eppler, pastor at the parish, said the list of speakers was brought to his attention by a number of parishioners. "Absolutely not was that going to be the conversation this week or when he was going to be speaking for the half-an-hour time slot that I gave every speaker," she said. She started hearing backlash about Stever's gender and sexuality, as well as about one of his tweets from three years ago that mentioned sex toys. "We wanted to make sure that all voices were heard, that they all were people that would be a part of the table - table meaning table of the church that we're all a part of," said Kjelland. ![]() Rebecca Kjelland, executive director of Park River Bible Camp, said all speakers at the event were chosen intentionally and the group contained an Indigenous speaker, Black speaker and disabled speaker along with Stever, who represented the LGBTQ community. Stever's talk would have been about goodness and kindness. Each day of the event had a speaker scheduled to give a talk about that day's theme and be present for activities at the camp. Youth Fest, taking place July 10-15, is a new event for the ELCA camp, and was created for seventh- through 12th-grade students as an alternative event for the ELCA's National Youth Gathering, which was canceled due to COVID-19. "Camp is supposed to be a place where you can go and just be, and we didn't feel like we could be at camp and be in the town fully present, fully comfortable and fully feeling like our safety was a priority," said Stever. He cited concerns for his and his family's safety for his decision to back out. Pastor Drew Stever - a queer, transgender pastor at Hope Lutheran Church in Hollywood, California, an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America-affiliated church - was scheduled to speak at Park River Bible Camp's Youth Fest on July 10, but decided not to after people in surrounding communities expressed their disapproval to camp leadership and on social media. A speaker at an event hosted by Park River Bible Camp near Park River, North Dakota, backed out after backlash from surrounding communities about the speaker's gender and sexuality. Halstenson currently teaches at Anoka High School where he directs the orchestra program and is music director of the theater program.Jul. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the University of Minnesota Opera Theater among others. Halstenson studied music performance and composition at UND, Webster College in St. ![]() 3, music by George Gershwin, film music from "Pirates of the Caribbean" and a special performance of Halstenson's "Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares" which was written for a Tsunami Relief Concert in the winter of 2005. ![]() The evening concert will feature a suite from the opera "Carmen," Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. Friday at the Fordville High School as part of a minitour for the group.Ī free-will offering at the concert will support the nearby Park River Bible Camp, which is sponsoring the concert. His Anoka (Minn.) High School Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Niagara, N.D., native Michael Halstenson is known well in the Twin Cities music community, and this Friday night he is bringing his talent and many talented musicians home to North Dakota. ![]()
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