Scout's Own Service and Venturing

[ThunderingWind]

In my interviews with several Crews in my new area of residence, I have asked the youth and adults (separately) to
describe their typical weekend and follow up with questions for more detail.

None of the five Crews do a "Scout's Own" service while out even though all are chartered by churches.

One set of leaders almost stated in unison that it was not mentioned in their VLST course.

I check the VLST book and they are right. But it was still taught to me as part of the overall Scouting block of
training when I took VLST.

So, what is the norm in your Crew/District/Council? (also posted to the the Venturing Yahoo Group)

[Fred Johnson]

I saw your post and that no one had replied. I was interested in this subject too. To what extent do units do church services during camp outs? I'm mainly curious from a Boy Scout perspective, but it must overlap somewhat with Venturing. I've seen one unit that says prayers before meals and COH, but no religious service. Other units do a scheduled religious service every camp out.

Just curious what most units do.

[FrankJ]

My charter org is an Episcopal church. We have a mix of religions in both the crew & troop. The troop is pretty good about doing nondenominational scout own service on camp outs. The crew generally does not, but it tends to have more lively discussions on religion in general.

It takes a lot more than a 6 hour VLST (or even 9 hours of SM fundamentals) to be a good leader. It is really a continuous process.

[ThunderingWind]

My previous Troop was chartered by a Lutheran church. Many of the boys are Catholic with even a few Russian Orthodox. They do a Scouts Own when they are out.

When they do the March Mountain Hike, they exit near a small Catholic church on Sunday and visit the church for the service. March is diversity month so it counts for religious diversity.

The church welcomes the smelly group, boots off at the door and all. I enjoyed it last year.

Prior to that, my troops were charted by the United Methodist Church with a wide variety of faiths represented. All did Scouts Own plus standard Scout prayers at meals.

Current unit leaves the woods to early to hold a service and most end up at sunday night services (Lutheran and Episciple) but the unit is charted by the UMC.

[scoutaholic]

The general rule for LDS troops is that the camp is over on Saturday, and the boys are free to attend their religious services Sunday.

I have heard of cases where camps extend into Sunday. Usually there will be a service held if this is the case. Often church leaders will come to visit the camp on Sunday and preside over the services.

Usually there are group prayers for most meals, and prior to departing. Some troops are better than others as far as doing other group prayers (ie. morning devotional, or evening before bed).