Ararat Friends Meeting was established in 1924 after petitioning Pine Hill Meeting for permission to fill the need for a more convenient meeting place. While our membership has grown over the years, we are still blessed with some descendants of the original petitioners who established Ararat Friends Meeting. We continue to look at our strengths and weaknesses, some of which continue to be the same that have blessed and plagued the Meeting throughout its existence. We also are continuing to expand our opportunities.
There is a strong sense of family at Ararat, a continuing, accepting and warm Christian fellowship within the Meeting. This fellowship is wonderful, honest and sincere. It creates a special feeling in the Meeting House and the touch of the Holy Spirit has often brought us to tears of joy. Our Meeting continues to be diligent in helping each other through our spiritual journey with a strong Prayer ministry. Our membership is generous and always gives whatever is needed, keeping us financially sound and paying our commitments on time. We continue to meet our Yearly Meeting askings and give spiritual and financial support to local, national, and international missions. We continue with the ongoing and effective support of numerous local charities including an increase of quarterly donations to the Foothills Food Bank and the sponsorship of local blood drives. There is a strong sense to give immediate financial and spiritual support to individuals and families in need in the community. We were pleased to help others in the community to provide a community wide Easter egg hunt in cooperation with other churches in the area. Our Sunday School is small but has a strong spiritual sense, driven by discussion and a hunger to learn. We have added a pre school class this year. Vacation Bible School continues to grow. In 2010, we expected attendance to be down and were surprised that it was slightly higher than the past year. We concluded our Vacation Bible School on Friday evening with a family outing and an opportunity for outreach to new families. Our Business Meeting is held monthly with good attendance and participation. Attendance at Quarterly Meeting is substantial and we have a growing presence in the Quarter. Our Website is updated weekly and includes a warm and open invitation to visitors, as well as access to our Meeting’s historical archives and current events. We have a diversity of talent for a small Meeting—piano, guitar, duets, trios, a wonderful choir, and Choir bells. Our Father continues to bless us through our talent as we rotate using our special talents during Meeting for Worship. We were pleased that one of our young adults became a Worship Leader in Young Life this year and is very active in working with high school teens. We are blessed with a pastor who gives us progressive and knowledgeable pastoral leadership that focuses on God’s transcendent and immanent role in our lives. We have strong representation on the North Carolina Yearly Meeting’s Peace and Social Concerns Committee.
Although we feel we have a lot of strengths for a small meeting, there are some areas that we are not as strong as needed. Being a rural meeting, it has been difficult for us to attract new members and increase attendance. The responsibility of advancing the work of the Meeting is shared by too few members, thus creating a challenge to get all our members involved.
Realizing that we have weak areas, it awakens us to opportunities. Each of us needs to be led to realize the need for growth in membership and accept the call to reach out to those in our lives who need to accept the call of our Lord to follow Him and join us in His worship. Our meeting is blessed with a variety of talent and we need to incorporate more of our talent in our worship services.
The greatest practical fear for our Meeting is our aging membership and the lack of new members over the last few years. We need to explore how to correct this as a Meeting, as a whole Meeting with the entire congregation concerned and involved with relevant input in how to improve the ministry to all people. We hope that through exemplary Christian behavior and an openness to explain our belief in a loving Father, who sent His only Son to reconcile everyone to Him, and that we are guided by His Holy Spirit in our lives, others may come to realize the blessing of the Religious Society of Friends. By demonstrating that we worship a living God who continues to be active in the world and our lives and wants an active personal relationship with each of us, then maybe the public will begin to understand what the Quaker belief is all about.
There is a strong sense of family among the members of Ararat Friends. We pray that this sense of family will be seen by others and attract new members as we begin to explore how to get the word out about this marvelous family of God. Ararat Friends seeks unity in Christ by seeking the guidance of that “Light” within.
------------------------------------------------ Eddie Reeves
Monthly Meeting Clerk
North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends 2011 Annual Gathering Report Black Mountain, NC Sep. 2-5, 2010
“2011 Theme: The Quaker Testimony of Integrity”
This year’s keynote speaker is Ron Bryan, General Superintendent of Iowa Yearly Meeting.
All major committee and department reports are now included in the Annual Conference Guide and readers are advised to review that for details. Some departments share their year’s work in videos.
Friday, 2 Sep
The Judy Ritter, Presiding Clerk called the session to order. First order of business was approval of the:AgendaBusiness Committee MembersEditing Committee Members
This was followed by a review of the minutes of the Mid-Year Gathering held in March, 2011 at Quaker Lake. Approval was put off until Saturday’s business session.
Attendance at this year’s conference exceeds most recent years with approximately 300 adults and 250 children. The jump in adult attendance is related to more Young Adults learning of the annual gathering through the increased work of our Campus Ministries.
Sylvia Graves, Presiding Clerk of FUM gave a brief presentation.
Ron Bryan gave first presentation on our Testimony of Integrity, after which the session was dismissed.
Saturday, 3 Sep. Business session called to order at 9 a.m. by Judy Ritter.
The Mid-Year Gathering Minutes were approved.
John Porter, Superintendent of NC YM addressed the gathering, presenting an update of the business of the Yearly Meeting. Currently there is only one monthly meeting that does not have an assigned pastor. There has been one retirement—Ken Spivey.
John also shared his cares and concerns in a retrospective of his 15 years as Superintendent.
Ministries Reports:
Program Ministries-- Darlene Pitman shared its accomplishments in a video. The Internship Program continues to attract and produce new leaders in the Yearly Meeting.
Campus Ministries—Sarah Vestal shared that this has grown to five campuses in three years.
MOWA – the Kendall’s shared the ongoing work. The accomplishments include greater numbers of youths cared for and greater community involvement. Needs include everything from material goods to physical labor.
Quaker Lake had another great year with more participants. Adjacent land is being purchased with funds coming from special fund raising efforts and not from YM general funds.
Friends Committee on National Legislation. Dot Mason reported on last years work and plans for the policy committee to develop this year’s Congressional lobbying agenda.Committee on Clerks.
Tony Lowe reported on approval of positions for clerks and the nominating committee.
Share the Blessing. Deets reported that we had a $53,000 dollar growth toward the 1.2 million goal.
Ministry and Counsel. Brady Morrison offered his report and it was met with some concerns. The Clerk asked that the assembled approve its submission without necessarily agreeing to its content.
Peace Committee. Hugh Spaulding announced the Reclaiming the Prince of Peace, Peace Conference at Guilford College United Methodist Church on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2011.
Executive Committee. Gwen Headon reported on the selection process for the next superintendent and its decision to put Randy Quate before the YM for approval. Randy offered a brief presentation and answered questions from the floor. He was then dismissed from the gathering to allow for general discussion. Each of the meetings was polled and unanimous consensus was given in support of Randy Quate as the next superintendent of NC YM.Nominating Committee.
Four pages of new nominees to various committees was read and approved.
Saturday evening.
A beautiful music program was presented followed by general announcements. Ron Bryan again offered his insights on our Testimony of Integrity.
Sunday Memorial Service Worship: Ron Bryan delivered the worship message, John Porter the benediction.
Sunday business: Four pastors were recorded.
Respectfully Submitted, 9th Month, 6th day, 2011
Jack Ciancio, Ararat Monthly Meeting Representative
