The third annual Baden Powell Council Boy Scouts of America Ten Commandments Hike was on Friday, November 28.  This hike was open to boy scouts, girls scouts, religious and other youth groups.  The title is a bit misleading as the layout this particular year involved a bit of driving but there was still some hiking between churches going on.

The premise of the hike is to go to ten different churches.  At each church, the participants learn about that particular church and its denomination and about one commandment.  This year there were only eight churches participating but each did a wonderful job and two churches talked about two commandments.

A special thank you goes out to Eileen Horan and Don Toner and Larry Corwin for organizing the event and promoting it.  A special thanks also goes to the eight churches and their congregations for welcoming a group of approximately 100 people into their warmth on a day normally devoted to materialism, not a way of life or religion.

Registration began at Sacred Heart Ukranian Catholic Church’s social hall.  After a few pieces of information about programs for scouts specifically, the group moved to Sacred Heart Ukranian Catholic Church to find out about the church and the first two commandments.

From Sacred Heart, the group drove to Holy Spirit Byzantine Catholic Church on Clinton Street in Binghamton.  We all parked and went inside where we heard from a member of the congregation about commandment number 6.  The pastor at Holy Spirit was recovering from surgery and was unable to be with us but his representative was very informative.

 

From Holy Spirit, the group walked up Glenwood Avenue to Grace Tabernacle.  Here the head of the non-denominational congregation talked to us about commandment 8.  He also explained how his congregation had purchased the former St Joseph’s church and was growing so much that there are now two services on Sunday – one in English and one in Creole-French.

From Grace Tabernacle, the group walked back to Holy Spirit to retrieve vehicles and head to Boulevard United Methodist Chruch.  At Boulevard, we heard about the fifth commandment.  We also stayed in the parish hall to have lunch.  Special thanks to those who prepared and served our soup and sandwiches.  There was plenty to go around – not always easy when young, growing boys are concerned – and it was delicious.

From Boulevard, we all drove to Johnson City to St James Roman Catholic Church.  Here we had two adult members of the Scouts discuss commandments three and four.  I had not seen Father Donovan in ages and did see him and say hi, for which my older kids are all grateful as they know him well.

After our time at St James, we headed back to Clinton Street in Binghamton.  This time we were headed to the parking lot of St Michael’s where water was handed out to participants.  We then headed up the hill to Dormition of the Virgin Mary.  Here we heard their preist discuss commandment seven.

From Dormition of the Virgin Mary, we headed down the hill to Clinton Street again.  This time we were headed to Ascension Lutheran Church.  At Ascension Lutheran, a member of the congregation discussed commandment nine. 

Now, we headed back towards our cars to go into St Michael’s Greek Catholic Church.  We went into St Michael’s where we heard about the tenth commandment.  After this talk, all participants went into the hall to get their patches and sign out to be sure we all made it the whole way.

Below you will find a gallery of images that include the ones above plus many from the inside of these wonderful buildings.  I am only putting the name of the church under each image.