Members of the Church of God 7th Day based in Meridian, Idaho, have met for the church's weeklong Camp Meeting just about every summer for 57 years.

The annual family-oriented gathering might remind some other Church of God members of the yearly Feast of Tabernacles.

The warm-weather get-togethers started around 1950, with church services every day in a big tent. The tent is long gone, but the brethren can still camp out on the grounds.

The Journal talked with a longtime Meridian CG7 member, Jennie Sienknecht, about the Camp Meeting and a little about the history of the Meridian group.

"About 1958 we [Mrs. Sienknecht and her late husband, Robert] came here to the Camp Meeting, and they had a big tent. Now we have a big building.

"We furnish meals on a freewill-offering basis, breakfast, lunch and dinner. We have a dining room and kitchen on the grounds."

Sometime shortly before the first Meridian Camp Meeting, said Mrs. Sienknecht, a split occurred in the church, which before the separation was affiliated with the CG7 that is presently headquartered in Denver, Colo.

"The separation from the [original group] was over pork," Mrs. Sienknecht said. "The people here believed it was all right to eat it, and the other people didn't."

Attendance was slightly lower than normal this year, she said, with 150 participating.

"We don't have big ones like the [Denver] conference. They have thousands," she said.

This year's Camp Meeting began June 29 and ran through July 7.

Mrs. Sienknecht remembers some Church of God old-timers, including the Andrew Dugger family. Mr. Dugger, with Clarence O. Dodd, wrote a book famous in Church of God circles: A History of the True Church.

"We had Andrew Dugger in our home years ago," Mrs. Sienknecht said. "We knew him and his family and wife and everything."

Mrs. Sienknecht says the Denver CG7 conference also follows the Camp Meeting tradition.

"I have tried unsuccessfully to get the general-conference [Denver] ministers to change their Camp Meeting dates," she said.

The overlapping dates "tear up the camp," she said, "because you don't know which way to go."

Mrs. Sienknecht says the Meridian group is "laid back" compared with some of the other CG7 ministries and congregations.

"We have good preaching and a lot of music and a lot of singing, and people are kind of relaxed and enjoying themselves."

For more about the CG7 Meridian, see the Web sites of the church and its ACTS: Advocating Christ the Savior magazine (actsforgod.org) and its online Maranatha College (maranathacollege.org).

Or write 1827 W. Third St., Meridian, Idaho 83642, U.S.A.

See our related article in this issue of The Journal by Art Mokarow, who participated in this year's CG7 Meridian Camp Meeting.