As the 35 youth at Camp Brotherhood entered the chapel Tuesday, the laughing, shouting and talking fell to a low murmur.

Some even took off their shoes as they entered the worship space to see three chest-high, wooden pedestals set up in front of the altar. One held the Bible, one the Torah, and another the Quran.

The Rev. William Treacy, Camp Brotherhood’s co-founder and chaplain, introduced the books to the group and invited each person to look through them while Rev. Heidi Fish, executive director, chanted “hallelujah.”

“This is the vision we had 40 years ago,” Treacy said of the facility east of Conway. “It’s a vision that took 40 years to get going.”

That vision turned into the 2009 Interfaith Youth Summit, a gathering of young adults ages 12 to 17 from many different faiths. Among the 35 youth were Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, Muslims, Jews and other Christians.

The teens spent the weekend meeting in small and large groups to talk about their faiths, but most importantly to listen and learn about other beliefs. The weekend peaked at a campfire Tuesday evening when the teens burned pieces of paper on which they had written stereotypes and assumptions about their religions.

The summit’s facilitator, Julie Hanson, 44, of Edmonds, said it was challenging to bring up the stereotypes, but the group trusted each other.

“We’re going to bring these questions up, but they’re not being said with hatred,” Hanson said.

Now age 90, Treacy said the gathering is why he and Rabbi Raphael Levine first envisioned the camp in 1966, and conceived Camp Brotherhood. Now Treacy is seeing the idea in action.

“It’s one of the best programs we’ve had in Camp Brotherhood,” Treacy said.

The story of how Treacy and Levine turned a dairy farm east of Conway into Camp Brotherhood almost sounds like the start of a joke — a priest and a rabbi walked into a television studio.

Levine convinced KOMO TV in Seattle to air a weekly program called “Challenge” in which he, Treacy and a Protestant pastor talked about faith, religion and current events in an open, round-table format. The program aimed to ease religious tensions as the country elected its first Catholic president, John F. Kennedy. The show aired for 14 years from 1960 to 1974.

Midway through, the group decided to create a place where young Christians, Muslims and Jews could get together and learn about each other in a non-confrontational setting.

Treacy first became interested in teaching people about his faith and learning about other faiths in 1948, when he created and distributed newspaper advertisements across Washington for the Archdiocese of Seattle.

“It was just a culmination of my whole priesthood,” Treacy said. “I consider it part of my ministry.”

In 1968, when the first building at Camp Brotherhood was constructed, the idea flopped. Treacy and Levine had the vision, 300 acres of land and the newly built Fisher Lodge, named for the Fisher family associated with KOMO and Fisher Broadcasting. But the religious community was uninterested.

Treacy said a number of problems contributed. Most denominations and religions already had their own camps, but many people were dubious of Treacy and Levine’s camp.

“Jews and Christians and Muslims getting together? People thought it was a cult,” Treacy said. “They could not believe it was a reality.”

Fish, the camp’s executive director and an ordained Lutheran pastor, said the camp has been misunderstood for much of its existence and often confused with a nearby naturalist community.

“People don’t know what we are,” Fish said. “There are people who have been convinced that we’re a cult; we’ve had people think we’re a nudist club.”

For 40 years, the camp continued to offer lodging and kitchen facilities to public and non-profit organizations, such as schools, art clubs and faith groups. But Treacy and the board didn’t want to be running what they began seeing as a hotel, and about 20 years ago considered selling the land entirely and dissolving the organization.

Treacy said he was discouraged by the lack of interest in interfaith gatherings. Levine did not even live long enough to see the youth summit in existence.

But after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Treacy said people were suddenly more aware of other nationalities and religions.

“There is a movement, a cultural maturation,” Treacy said. “You see it in racial relations, you see it in the election of (President Barack) Obama. There comes a time when people are ready for change. I think we’re nearing that now.”

One week before the Interfaith Youth Summit, religious leaders from various faith organizations gathered at Camp Brotherhood for the Regional Interfaith Leadership Summit run by Northwest Interfaith Community Outreach.

Rabbi Ted Falcon, who helped lead the day of prayer and workshops, said the work of Camp Brotherhood may have been slow to start, but the difference it has made will be lasting.

“It has created a greater consciousness that such things are not only possible but desirable,” Falcon said. “The whole idea that the camp was formed by a rabbi and a priest is truly unique. I don’t know any other place like this.”

Before the adults headed off to workshops, a Tibetan Buddhist led the group that included Christians, Jews and Muslims in a meditative walk around the room, ringing bells and chanting in a foreign language.

Treacy watched from the side. At 90, he wears no glasses and carries no cane. As he walked through the crowd, people stopped to hug him and talk with him.

“I call him the best Muslim I know,” said Jamal Rahman, Sufi minister for the Interfaith Community Church in Seattle.

Rahman said the word “Muslim” means “one who is surrendered to God.”

At the Youth Summit, Treacy talked with the 12- to 17-year-olds as they wrapped up their weekend and summed up what they had learned. Treacy encouraged them to continue the relationships they had formed, whether on Facebook, at a bowling alley or over dinner.

Many of the teens met each other for the first time that weekend, and most had little interaction with other faiths, but they bonded instantly.

“Right off the bat, it’s like everyone has known each other for five years,” said Iman Baghai, 14, of Seattle. “And then all these ethnic stereotypes just crash.”

Baghai said he had never met someone from a Seventh-day Adventist community, and he appreciated dispelling myths about his Muslim faith.

“It can range from having so many kids to blowing things up,” Baghai said of the assumptions people have made about his faith. “It kind of gets to you and it gets annoying. This kind of discussion eases the pain.”

Even though Treacy lived his life as a Catholic priest, which committed him to Christian teachings, he said he believes these kinds of conversations are exactly what Jesus encouraged. Treacy said Jesus never turned people away.

“He ate with them, went to their homes, cooked meals with them,” Treacy said. “The way of Jesus is simply the way of love. If I give a blood transfusion to a Muslim or a Hindu, I’m doing what Jesus wanted me to do.”

• Aaron Burkhalter can be reached at 360-416-2141 or .