October monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
Montreat Receives Thriving Congregation Grant by Lilly Foundation
Montreat Conference Center has received a grant of $995,500 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help develop new initiatives to support local congregations. The program, “Reforming Identity and Agency: Vital Practices for 21st Century Congregations,” is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. The aim of the national initiative is to strengthen Christian congregations so they can help people deepen their relationships with God, build strong relationships with each other, and contribute to the flourishing of local communities and the world. Lilly Endowment is making nearly $93 million in grants through the initiative. The grants will support organizations as they work …
This Month in Montreat – October 2020
October monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
This Month in Montreat – September 2020
September monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
Montreat@Home – Outer Banks Presbyterian Youth
How the Outer Banks Presbyterian youth group created their own Montreat Youth Conference experience with the Montreat@Home program.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post # 11 | 08/14/2020
Post #11 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post # 10 | 08/07/2020
Post #10 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post # 9 | 07/31/2020
Post #9 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post # 8 | 07/24/2020
Post #8 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #7 |07/17/2020
Post #7 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #6 | 07/10/2020
Post #6 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #5 | 07/03/2020
Post #5 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #4 | 06/26/2020
Post #4 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #3 | 06/19/2020
Post #3 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #2 | 06/12/2020
Post #2 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
This Week in Montreat Summer Post #1 | 06/05/2020
Post #1 for our This Week in Montreat summer publication.
Finding Love in Montreat
Thank you to everyone who submitted stories through Community Announcements to our question, “Did you find love in Montreat?” We received stories from as long ago as 1932 to as recently as 2009. Four of our stories came from one family alone! Here are some excerpts from the stories we received. From Mary Jo Wright: Jean Wright first met Jon Moore during high school when they both worked at Assembly Inn, he was a bellhop and she worked in the dining room. Then they lost track of each other for four years but re-connected on summer staff in 1982 where …
June 2020 FAQ
Why are we moving the first two youth conferences (alpha) to an online format? Even in the most optimistic recovery scenario, the reopening guidelines set forth by state leaders will not allow us to host participants on a youth conference scale in early June. At the same time, we believe that an online experience will provide our youth conferees a chance to connect to the Montreat community. What is the program for the online youth conference being offered in June? We will offer an experience that’s suitable to a virtual format and customizable by youth leaders depending on local circumstances: …
A Temporary New Normal
A Devotional from Rev. Bridgett Green Temporary new normal. Getting back to normal. In this time of surviving the spread and mitigation of COVID-19, these are common refrains in daily conversations. They help us as adjust to a life of social distancing and staying at home. Maybe in a few weeks or a few months, we will return to normal. Or maybe, we won’t. Lately, I have wondered whether I want to return to normal. Do I want life to return as it used to be? Regardless of my preference, living through this pandemic is changing me. I imagine that it …
A Lenten Devotional
A devotional from staff member Martha Sloan Written from a study her church has been reading, “Lent in Plain Sight” by Jill Duffield. In the book, Duffield takes common objects like coins, sandals, oil, etc. and uses them as the basis for her Lenten meditations. In Martha’s devotional, the object is “coats.” Exodus 28:4-5 “These are the vestments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a checkered tunic, a turban, and a sash. When they make these sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests, 5 they shall use gold, blue, purple, …
#ConfessionsOfAPastor – Psalm 51
A devotional from Rev. Dr. Aram Bae I’m tired of this. We’re three weeks deep, and I am over this (truth be told, I was over it after day 3). I’m having a hard time with this stay at home, work from home, take an afternoon stroll, Zoom everything, FaceTime some things, record this and that, email non-stop because everything is an emergency and changes quickly, must stay in front of the situation and not behind, do this and that creatively and online, look at the screen, multiple screens at the same time, grab your earbuds, where the heck are …
“Be still, and know that I am God!” Psalm 46:10
A devotional from Lewis Galloway March 24, 2020 One of the hardest things to do in a crisis is to be still! As a confirmed extrovert, I have never found, even in easy times, stillness and quiet to come easily. Being told to be still is a bit like being told to calm down when the mind, heart and body are on fire with anxiety. The words of W. B. Yeats, “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world… (The Second Coming)” fit our time. The lives of loved ones are threatened by a …
Montreat Conference Center Statement on COVID-19 (Coronavirus)
As the story of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) evolves, the Montreat Conference Center is monitoring the situation at the national, state, and local levels. At present, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Buncombe County or North Carolina, and all of our programs are continuing as planned.
This Week in Montreat
A Montreat weekly update from Richard DuBose, president of Montreat Conference Center.
SO, WE DO NOT LOSE HEART
A devotional from the Rev. Eileen Lindner The following is a reflection on 2 Corinthians 4:7-18. Offered at the MRA Board Meeting, March 17, 2020 In this fraught moment of the coronavirus pandemic Paul reminds us that we “have these treasures in clay jars…” Today all over the globe these clay jars are sickened, shattered and broken by the coronavirus. We know that as the clay jars break so to do human hearts. For such a time as this did Paul write these words of courage, faith and hope. “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed but …