Greetings from Montreat! Today I write to share an update on two important projects that the conference center is currently undertaking. First, those in Montreat will notice extensive activity at the Moore Center as we begin renovations of the Huckleberry Café space. While it was closed during 2021, we developed plans to revitalize and create a more welcoming gathering space for all who come to Montreat. The initial construction phase will be completed by early June, and we look forward to welcoming you all back for ice cream and coffee this summer! Over the next two years, a larger vision …
Montreat Announces New Endowment
The Marilyn Jones Endowment has been established to honor and appreciate the 53-year leadership role that Marilyn Jones played in Montreat Conference Center from 1965 through 2018. In the 60’s she brought banners into worship in the auditorium. In 1974 she reopened the Craft Shop at Montreat, with a pottery called the “Upper Story,” later renamed and dedicated “Sally Jones Pottery.” This ministry continues today, celebrating her commitment to the ministry of arts and crafts in Montreat. The purpose of the Marilyn Jones Endowment is in support of the creative use of the arts in Montreat’s summer programs, in hopes …
Board of Adjustment Approves Application for Montreat Lodge
of Montreat Board of Adjustment to begin work on a new lodge in Montreat, the conference center’s first significant new building in 30 years.
Erdelyi Family’s Montreat Story
The First Visit The Erdelyi family first discovered Montreat when Mike volunteered to join his church’s youth director, Michelle Thomas-Bush of Riverside Presbyterian Church – Jacksonville, FL, at the 2000 Montreat Youth Conference. It was the Sunday after leaving his job at UPS to be a stay-at-home parent, allowing Susan to focus on her role as the City Attorney for Jacksonville Beach. So, he packed their two girls, Alexis (8) and Laura (6), into the car and headed to the mountains. Their first impression was of both excitement and welcome. As they pulled up to the Currie Craft Center, the first person they saw was Ann Laird Jones, their church’s former interim youth minister. She joyfully shouted, “Welcome, Erdelyis!” From that moment on, they were “totally in heaven.” The girls felt like rock stars playing on stage in Anderson Auditorium, and they loved their time in clubs. Mike was really impressed with how well the …
A Prayer of Thanksgiving for the life of James Alexander “Jim” Bryan, II
Dear God, we are grateful that we have the desire this evening to come to you with thanksgiving for the life of James Alexander “Jim” Bryan, II. What an appropriate place – Montreat – to lift up our hearts in celebration for the life of this dear friend and family member. Oh God, even here, in this quiet place of rest and reflection, we have neither the sufficient time nor the words to do justice to our man, Jim. We thank you for the family that raised him and surrounded him – his parents, Harry and Peggy, his brother, Ned, …
An Update on MRA’s Lodge Project
An Update on MRA’s Lodge Project – an update from Richard DuBose, president of Montreat Conference Center.
“A Life-changing Week in Montreat”
That was the title of the article that Dolly Jacobs, associate pastor for pastoral care of the First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, posted before her departure to Montreat in late July. The church’s youth group was planning to spend the week here, and Dolly wanted everyone in the congregation to know how important that week could be. She wrote: “The theme for that 1986 Montreat Youth Conference was ‘Branded.’ The adult leaders guided us through what it meant to be ‘branded’ by society: athletes, intellectuals, introverts, extroverts, popular kids, etc. As the week unfolded though, those labels were …
With Gratitude
Gratitude is the word of the upcoming weekend. On Saturday evening, the conference center will host the annual Patrons Banquet to honor and express appreciation to those donors who generously supported our programs and operations over the previous fiscal year. This year’s casual evening will include food trucks, supper under a tent, and Amanda Anne Platt & the Honeycutters, Asheville-based musicians now drawing national attention. Any review of the previous year must include praise of decisions made by our Board of Directors just as the pandemic was dawning. As stated several times in this space and elsewhere, at the spring …
The Future of the Huck
I don’t have a lot of childhood memories of The Huckleberry, Montreat’s snack bar at Moore Center right on Lake Susan. I do remember being in there once as a teenager with some friends, awaiting milkshakes on order, and the poor server being so distracted by all the chatter that the machine sprayed ice cream all over him and his work station. We feasted on the story far longer than we did the ice cream. Otherwise, I really hadn’t given The Huck much thought in recent years, and yet the pandemic has prompted a new focus on community spaces on …
Summer Updates 2021
A little over a year ago, in the early days of the pandemic, we were sorting through unprecedented challenges at the conference center on an almost daily basis. In the midst of the highest days of anxiety, I particularly remember some members of our staff chuckling over a strangely comforting thought: Someday, long after this is over, somebody is going to rush into your office one day in a panic and announce, “We have a BIG problem!” And you’ll remember the pandemic, and you’ll just look up and smile a little bit, and you’ll think to yourself: Oh yeah? I’ll …
Thank You for Your Support of the Montreat Fund
As you heard last week in this space, Montreat’s fiscal year ended on April 30. While the final mail is still being opened and every dollar counted, today we give thanks for the record number of donors who propelled the Montreat Fund to an early total of over one million dollars for the second year in a row, and just the second time in history! This is a monumental show of support, and allows the mission and ministry of this special place to adapt to the changing needs of the church and of all those who call this place sacred …
End of Fiscal Year Update from MRA Board Chair
As our fiscal year draws to a close, I’ve asked Burnet Tucker, chair of the MRA Board of Directors, to share an update with you. I have the privilege of serving as Chair of the Board of the Mountain Retreat Association (d.b.a. the Montreat Conference Center). Over the past several months, I’ve been asked about how the MRA is weathering COVID financially as well as how the proposed lodge fits into our bigger financial, hospitality, and programmatic picture. As the MRA prepares to close its books on April 30 (the end of our fiscal year), I thought it would be …
Year End Thoughts and Thanks
As we approach the end of our fiscal year on April 30th, we are as usual doing our best to reach out and remind everyone to make their Montreat Fund gift in time. Making some of those calls this week got me thinking about Dorothy Allen, a longtime Montreater who passed away in January at the age of 99. Dorothy was an original donor to Montreat’s Patrons Fund in 1962, though she pointed out to me once that she was not an original Patron per se. Dorothy told me that she and her husband, Kirk, just couldn’t find the funds …
Plans for Summer 2021
As we approach the middle of April this week, it feels like a good time to let you know of the conference center’s plans for this coming summer.
On Growth, Change, and Montreat’s Essential Character
In his memoir, Montreat: A Retreat for Renewal, former MRA president Calvin Grier Davis described the decisions and rationale that led to the formation of the Town of Montreat in 1968. In the run-up to the first election, Davis noted, “It was assumed by many on the Board, and some of the citizens, that the officers of the Mountain Retreat Association would be elected to serve on the Town Council, that their experience would be available to administer the affairs of the town and there would be little change in the Town of Montreat.” A page later, Davis reported the …
Looking Forward: Our Mission and Calling
Looking Forward: Out Mission and Calling – a Montreat weekly update from Richard DuBose, president of Montreat Conference Center.
Lodge Site Selection
Lodge Site Selection – a Montreat weekly update from Richard DuBose, president of Montreat Conference Center.
Plans for a New Lodge
Plans for a New Lodge – a Montreat weekly update from Richard DuBose, president of Montreat Conference Center.
This Month in Montreat – March 2021
March monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
This Month in Montreat – February 2021
February monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
Montreat’s Christmas Collection
During this distant and perhaps unfamiliar holiday season, we wanted to find a way to bring the joy of a Christmas in the mountains directly into your home. We invited every department at Montreat with contributing a piece to what we’re calling Montreat’s 2020 Christmas Collection. We will be releasing parts of the collection on our social media over the next two weeks but feel free to bookmark this page and refer back to the collection below as you celebrate the holiday season! 1. Recipes from Assembly Inn – click the image to see it full size in a new …
This Month in Montreat – December 2020
December monthly update from conference center president Richard DuBose.
This Month in Montreat – November 2020
November 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.