Dear church,
We are moving into the last month of summer at our camps, sometimes affectionately referred to as “the hills.” Summer camp had a wonderful season at the hills. Band camps have come to the hills. Running camps have run the hills. Voices of grief and of laughter have echoed off the hills. Work campers have come and volunteered their time at the hills. Time has marched on.
Your elected Board of Directors will meet in August. We will discuss work that has been done by the visioning team of the Ohio Conference. This team has worked hard to listen to God and one another, to think outside the box, to be creative and to come up with the beginnings of a plan. The Spirit of God has been working. (Read Interim Conference Minister John Gantt’s thoughts on this process.)
We will also be attending to our fiduciary responsibility — hearing recommendations from the Budget and Finance Committee (comprised of the conference board treasurer and treasurers from our associations) about the proposed 2018 budget and responses to the 2016 audit report. Your Board of Directors, including our volunteer treasurer, take this responsibility seriously.
The Annual Gathering, which is coming up Sept. 15 and 16, will also be part of our board agenda. The Annual Gathering Planning Team has been working hard to create a community gathering that will engaging in listening, learning and worshipping together. I hope you will join us at Westerville Community UCC.
We will also discuss the selling of Pilgrim Hills and moving to Templed Hills. A few people who are passionate about the Ohio Conference camping program have requested that the board reconsider their February decision (read more) in light of new information they have gathered. We will honor that request at this meeting. We will take all information into consideration.
Let me share some significant information that the board has weighed as they made the decision to sell Pilgrim Hills and planned to re-open Templed Hills. The primary reason the Board made the difficult decision to sell Pilgrim Hills was because we believe Templed Hills has some clear advantages when it comes to serving groups of adults, especially older adults. That’s not to say that we don’t want to continue to serve youth and children – we do! We believe that Templed Hills can more easily support a wider span of ages as we form faith at camp. In the long run it will also be easier to retrofit Templed Hills to effectively serve persons with mobility issues. Plans are already being made to install handicapped accessible restrooms on the main floor of Skipper Lodge (the dining hall) and in Memorial Hall, which has dormitories and gathering spaces. Memorial Hall is on the same level as Skipper so it is easy to get from the sleeping/meeting space to the dining hall.
Templed Hills, near Belleville, Ohio, is more easily accessible by car. United, Camps, Conferences and Retreats (UCCR) (Our ministry partner who has been managing the camp site for the last three years) reports that it is easier for them to book groups at Templed Hills because of the ease of accessibility. The churches and outside groups who use the site generate critical revenue to keeping the camp open. We also discovered that certain groups that had previously used Templed Hills chose not to use Pilgrim Hills because of the more difficult access.
We also have a responsibility to use funds wisely as we move forward with our camps. Several prospective buyers have already expressed interest in Pilgrim Hills, but sales prospects for Templed Hills are much more limited. A sale of Pilgrim Hills will provide funds to pay off a long-standing loan, set up a $1,000,000 endowment fund for future faith formation ministries and provide some funds toward further renovations at Templed Hills.
We understand that this is painful for some, including me. Pilgrim Hills is a “thin place” where God feels very close to me, but it is not the only place that God feels close. Templed Hills is also a “thin place” for many as well. And, God’s presence is felt in many other places in this world. Please keep the board and the entire conference in prayer as we move forward with difficult, but hope-filled, decisions.
God is still speaking,
Mindy
Rev. Melinda Quellhorst
Pastor of Grace United Church of Christ
Moderator of the Ohio Conference
Thank you for the board meeting details at the end of August.
Can you please post the date, time and location of the board meeting in August? I tried finding that information on the website, or in your articles, but didn't see it. Thank you.
Board of Directors information is found here: https://www.ohioucc.org/board-of-directors/. Homepage menu choices to get there are: About > Board of Directors. The next meeting is on Friday, August 25, beginning at 10:00 a.m., at Dublin Community UCC.
Mindy, I again thank you for your very careful, wise, sharing of info about the process details, but especially for your wonderful, pastoral caring and faith ....'thin places'. Bless you,. God continue to give you strength, patience, wisdom......etc. Shalom, Jeff
My husband & I are members of the Operations Task Force, which has met a number of times to look at plans for renovating Templed Hills (TH). The closer we looked at TH, the more disturbed we were to see the mold and deterioration of the closed buildings. We couldn't help but wonder if the decision to keep TH and sell Pilgrim Hills (PH) was made without full information. After doing a little research and uncovering facts that prove the stated reasons for selling PH are not valid, several of the Operations Task Force members have vigorously advocated for a change of plans. We feel a moral obligation to be good stewards of the financial and volunteer resources that have sustained Outdoor Ministries for many years. Spending upwards of $200,000 on each of the three major buildings just to bring them up to the standards that already exist at PH seems a foolish waste of resources. PH is already accessible and with modest expenditures several of the buildings could be modified to accommodate intergenerational family groups. There is no need to retrofit PH for accessibility because it already is accessible. There is a lighted boardwalk connecting many of the cabins and other buildings are accessible by car. The facilities of PH are far superior to those of TH. At PH there are a number of athletic fields, a basketball court, a 3 acre lake, “Big Rocks” – a popular hiking destination at camp, and a pool that is fully functioning. TH has none of these. Being close to the town of Bellville, TH is a logical site for residential development. In fact there are developments that come right up to the borders of camp property, which creates a security concern. Even if PH could sell for more money, if we have to spend so much to bring TH up to standard, what have we gained? It makes much more sense to keep PH instead of TH. Please contact board members, conference minister or conference moderator at ohioucc@ocucc.org. with your concerns.
I wish to express my concerns with regard to the condition of Templed Hills as expressed by Sandy Uhl. I f this is as said I feel a deeper look must be taken regarding the sale of Pilgrim Hills. How can we justify the expense that will be incurred at Templed hills when the expense at Pillgrim hills would be much less and has more potential.. I also feel that there is no such thing as better access for older folks at Templed-having been there several times.. I know it is a concern for accommodating Lantern Fellowship Trust that the many issues will be discussed and considered at the August 28 meeting