By Ed Thompson

I feel the clock running out. It brings a certain sense of freedom. When certain groups say, “Let’s schedule our next meeting in September,” I think, “I don’t have to worry about that.” Sometimes I’ll write the meeting date down on the calendar anyway. Sometimes I don’t.

There’s also a certain sense of regret – things I could have done better or at least done differently as well as things that I know I’m not going to be able to wrap up before I get off the bus. Perhaps the deepest sense of regret comes from the fact that the Bluestone Working Group won’t be able to finish its work before July 31. At one point, I thought I’d postpone my retirement until they were able to make their final report. Then I thought that decision could get kicked down the road for a couple of years. I didn’t want to wait that long or get caught up in that potential drama, so I’m sticking with my original plan.

I think it’s been a good idea for the Bluestone Working Group to hire a consultant. Run River Enterprises brings a lot to the table. They have worked with a number of different camps in different parts of the country, belonging to different denominations. They have a more objective perspective on the possible future of the camp than those who know and love Bluestone as well as those who get caught up in the declining number of campers and the declining number of retreats sponsored by our churches.

It will be interesting to see what the consultants will recommend. I might even read that report when it comes out since it probably won’t be ready until after July 31. Part of me thinks that the demographics of the state and the demographics of our churches aren’t going to support the continuation of the camp. Part of me thinks that an independent Bluestone that can move away from a focus on summer camp and that can offer a variety of retreat experiences and summer options to a variety of users can survive and can possibly flourish. It would just need to provide opportunities significantly different than what it has for the past 70 years. If an independent Bluestone is going to make it, though, it would probably require us to provide a significant infusion of cash up front to help them make the transition away from their dependance on the presbytery.

If the consultant says this isn’t going to work, I’d recommend pulling the plug. If the consultant says that an independent Bluestone can make it, I’d recommend considering putting up a significant, though not unlimited, amount of money. I think the choice comes down to “go big or go home.” It may well be cheaper to play chicken with the Army Corps of Engineers. Worst case scenario, they enforce the lease and make us tear everything down to restore the land to its original condition. However, they might just take it as is and try to find someone else who wants to run some kind of camp on property they don’t own. We need to be prepared to consider the worst-case scenario as a possible option, one which may well be less expensive than providing the funding an independent Bluestone would need.

I can’t recommend that we keep doing what we’re doing. It’s just not sustainable. Yes, any camp is essentially a mission project. It doesn’t and it isn’t really expected to turn a profit. However, I think funding Bluestone for fewer and fewer campers and for fewer and fewer retreats from churches in our presbytery every year doesn’t make sense. The percentage of the presbytery budget that goes to support Bluestone does not really reflect the priorities of this presbytery now, and in the future, it seems likely that it will become an even lower priority for our churches.

Another thing I would have liked to have accomplished but didn’t was updating most of our presbytery’s policies. It seems to me we started working on that right before – or maybe it was the year before – the pandemic hit. Once we had to deal with Covid, we lost any sense of urgency and any momentum we might have had. It’s not that the policies (at least most of them) are that old or that bad, they just need to be reviewed and updated. That’s not the most compelling work, but it needs to be done. I have to say that on my watch, it just didn’t happen.

We’re at the point now that we need to develop an antiracism policy as well as an antiharassment policy – requirements brought about by changes in the Book of Order that go into effect next month. That’s probably going to take time and energy to do right, so it may be a while before anyone starts to seriously review our policies. I wish I could have gotten that done so that my successor didn’t have to deal with it. I had good intentions, but it didn’t happen and for that, I apologize.

The third thing I wish I would have been able to do is to close more churches. I hate writing that sentence, even as I hate to close churches. However, we have a couple of churches that have stopped worshipping. One is down to one member. Another has leased its building to another congregation. Yet, they are still on our books. I wish I had pushed harder to get those situations wrapped up before I retired. Again, however, that didn’t happen.

There are some things I do feel good about, though, that happened during my second tour of duty in PWV, and I will write about those next month.