Bishop Calls the Rev. Laura Rezac as Executive Director of St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center
Bishop Ruth Woodliff-Stanley has called the Rev. Laura Rezac as executive director of St. Christopher Camp & Conference Center on Seabrook Island, succeeding the Rev. Helen and Rick Hargreaves, who have been serving as interim directors for the past seven months. The Rev. Rezac currently serves as associate rector for Children & Youth Formation at St. Stephen’s, Charleston, and she has been serving as chair of the Steering Committee at St. Christopher Camp & Conference Center, leading the transition of the property back to our diocese since it was returned in October 2022. She will begin this new role in June, serving alongside the Hargreaves through the end of August.
“It is with much joy that I announce my call of the Rev. Laura Rezac to serve as the executive director of St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center,” said Bishop Woodliff-Stanley. “With a background as an educator, a skilled outdoor and camping guide, and an experienced youth leader and program developer, Laura combines her love of conference and camping ministries with the skill set we need to support our vital camp and conference center ministries.”
“As chair of the Steering Committee for the past six months, Laura has provided leadership for the transition of St Christopher back to the diocese,” said Bishop Woodliff-Stanley. “In this role, Laura has worked with staff, the steering committee, our consultants, our chancellor, and other leaders on a range of issues we have needed to address to insure the successful transition to a new season. She has skillfully navigated detailed financial, personnel, legal, pastoral, spiritual, and insurance matters in a way that has won the confidence of staff and diocesan leaders. I am thrilled Laura has accepted this call and look forward to a great future for St Christopher’s under her leadership. She will begin her work in June, providing intentional overlap with our wonderful interim directors, Helen and Rick Hargreaves, to support a strong camping season and a seamless leadership transition.”
Located on 314 acres of beach, maritime forest, and undisturbed salt marsh, St. Christopher Camp & Conference Center was first created through the gift of land to the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of South Carolina beginning in 1938. Initially created as a summer camp for disadvantaged boys, St. Christopher has grown into a year-round camp and conference facility. In addition, the Barrier Island Environmental Education Program has operated since 1981, providing an amazing outdoor education experience for school children.
Ordained to the priesthood in December 2020, Rev. Laura began serving at St. Stephen’s, Charleston, in October 2020. She looks forward to this next step in her ministry. “I am both humbled and honored by the bishop’s call to serve as executive director at St. Christopher Camp & Conference Center in this new season for their ministry and for our diocese,” said the Rev. Rezac. “Through my work on the Steering Committee, I have come to know and deeply appreciate the hardworking people who serve this beloved institution with such grace, and I have come to love the land itself as a ‘thin place’ where generations of South Carolinians have experienced the presence of God in nature and in community. I am both thrilled and grateful to accept this call from our bishop.”
With a lifelong love of the outdoors, Rev. Laura grew up spending summers as a camper, and later as a counselor, at Camp Pisgah, a Girl Scout Camp in western North Carolina. She received a bachelor’s degree from Agnes Scott College and a Master of Science in chemistry from UNC Chapel Hill. While in graduate school for chemistry, and later as a visiting lecturer at UNC, she discerned a call to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church. She graduated from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific with a Master of Divinity in 2020. She formerly served as a youth minister at the Chapel of the Cross in Chapel Hill, NC, where she oversaw the Episcopal Youth Community, taught confirmation classes, and led mission trips, outdoor adventures, pilgrimages, and retreats of all kinds.
Prior to joining St. Stephen’s, Rev. Laura served as a seminarian and transitional deacon at St. Andrew’s On-the-Sound in Wilmington, NC. She also has extensive teaching experience as a university lecturer, middle school teacher, and informal educator, with a keen interest in Christian formation of children and adolescents. Originally from western North Carolina, Rev. Laura studied in Japan for three semesters during college, and spent time in South Africa as a seminarian. She is married to Chris Rezac and they have one four-legged child, a gangly Doberman named Ichabod Crane. Laura and Chris enjoy exploring state parks, sea kayaking, camping, taking fun expeditions, and cooking for friends and family.
Rev. Laura’s final day with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Charleston will be Sunday, June 4. She will begin working full time at St. Christopher Camp & Conference Center on June 5, 2023, serving alongside the Rev. Helen and Rick Hargreaves (interim directors) through the end of August. View the announcement from St. Stephen’s, Charleston, at this link.