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.
This year’s Spiritual Condition Report comes from the input of our members who expressed their thoughts and concerns in written form to be consolidated into the following report.
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. As one member commented, “A sense of ‘God in the Midst’ one Sunday in the late summer last year when members testified of God’s greatness in their lives and others they loved. I felt at that particular time there was no other place I had rather be than the ‘little white church on the hill’ in Ararat.” 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. The sponsorship of the Sharon Goins house project working through Friends Disaster Service to complete the house of her family is an example of putting our concerns into action. Our Sunday School is small but has a strong spiritual sense, driven by discussion and a hunger to learn. Vacation Bible School continues to grow. In 2009 we had the largest attendance in recent years, concluding 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. 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. With the publication of his book, “Where Christ Presides: A Quaker Perspective on Moral Discernment”, Jack Ciancio had contributed to the spiritual growth of not only the meeting’s but also to Quakerism’s understanding of ethical decision making. This book is being used for Christian ethics study session in other meetings and was chosen for workshop study at the Mid-Year Gathering.
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. Although the Sunday School we have is strong and energetic, there is a need to create a new class for the smaller children of our congregation. 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 use of a worship leader in Sunday morning worship would be a way to incorporate more of our membership into the role of actual leading and involvement.
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. A visitation program with in the community or to those the members have a concern about should be considered. 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. It can be seen in the story of a three year old grandson brought to worship by his grandparents. When he returned home he began talking about how much he liked Papa’s church and when his mother asked him why, his face lit up and he quickly responded, “The people”. 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.
Ministry and Council Clerk ------------------------------------------------- Eddie Reeves
Monthly Meeting Clerk
North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends 2009 Annual Sessions Report
“Sowing Seeds…Bearing Fruit…Blessing Others”
Friday, September 4:
Kelly and Kathy Kellum delivered the introductory worship message that focused on planting seeds. They drew inspiration for their message from Mark 4:1-12.
Saturday, September 5:
The Annual Session was called to order by the presiding clerk, Judy Ritter.
Representative Body:
- Appointments were made to both the Editing committee and New Business committee.
- John Porter, Superintendent NCYM delivered the opening presentation. He began with a report on pastoral changes and openings at monthly meetings. He also reported on his work in four monthly meetings in trying to resolve conflict. He gave positive reports regarding our missions in Mexico and Alabama, as well as work done by Friends Disaster Relief. He reports that work is winding down on the Visioning Process and now it is moving into implementation phase.
John’s main message was founded in the Heeding God’s Call Peace conference held in Philadelphia, January 2009. From this conference attended by John and delegates from the Peace and Social Concerns Committee, a sub-committee was formed to process ideas for continuing the peace initiative. One suggestion was to have the North Carolina Yearly Meeting declare 2010 a year of peace, with each monthly meeting focusing on the Peace Testimony in various ways throughout the year. John supports this idea and has referred it on to the Program Committee for final approval. He further suggested that in the future, the YM focus on one testimony per year.
John continued to give a rather impassioned presentation on the Peace Testimony. He noted that since the founding of the U.N. in 1949, there has not been one day of total world peace. People fall into one of three categories: Peace Breakers, Peace Fakers, and Peace Makers. He strongly suggested a reading of “Why Friends are Friends.”
John gave an insightful look into the failings of Friends United Meeting, most notably due to its restrictions against gays and lesbians (as written into its personnel policies) from having active roles in any of its organizations, as well as certain leadership failures. These problems have led to the withdrawal of several Yearly Meetings and a subsequent drop in finances that has severely hampered FUM’s ability to support its mission. John and four other superintendents composed and forwarded an unofficial letter to FUM listing their concerns and strongly requesting FUM take a self-critical look at the way it currently does business.
- The session recognized visitors from other Yearly Meetings, as well as a representative from FUM.
- Tony Lowe reported updates from Ministry and Council. David Mercandante from Archdale Friends is the only newly recorded pastor. There are four others in training. The initial calling for Spiritual Condition reports yielded only 16, so the deadline was extended, ending in a total of around 30 reports. The Council created a Spiritual Condition report based on those received. This was read to the assembly by Mike Fulp, Jr. and approved.
- Johnny Simmons reported on the Share the Blessings campaign to increase the retirement fund for pastors. Currently, Quaker pastors receive the lowest retirement reimbursement of any denomination. They have set a goal to raise 5 million dollars over 5 years from pledges and donations. A special offering from each meeting is planned for November 15, 2009. The hoped-for-amount from this special collection is $100,000.00, which is the equivalent of $10 per member. The official kickoff for the campaign is January, 2010.
- Darlene Pitman and Darren Allen reported on the Program Ministries. They showed slides of the housing improvement projects completed not only at the mission in Mexico, but also in the surrounding community. The Mexico and Jamaican VBSs had some of the largest attendances ever. Most of the Jamaican VBS was taught by locals.
Darlene reported on the completion of the Faith and Practice teaching series. It is now available in hardcopy and CD. Individual packages were available for each meeting. (A copy was obtained for Ararat)
- Heather Varner and Andrew Williams reported on Quaker Lake. It had the largest enrollment in its history this past summer. Archery was added as a new activity this summer.
- Jennifer and Corey York reported on MOWA Choctaw mission. It continues to grow. It has increased its after-school attendance; it had a huge turnout for sports camp this summer. Much has been done to improve the facilities but much still needs to be done.
- Mike Fulp, Sr. reported on the continuing work of the Structure Evaluation Group. They sought the assembly’s approval to continue their work and that was given.
- The 2010 Mid-Year Gathering will be held at New Hope Friends Meeting in Goldsboro March 12 – 14, 2010.
- The next Representative Body will be held at Poplar Ridge on Saturday, Nov. 7.
- On Saturday evening the session gathered in Worship and received a stirring and dynamic message delivered by Andy Lambert. The heart of his message was on the concept of sowing the seed of faith and the responsibility each of us has as Christians and followers of Jesus Christ to meet that responsibility. He focused on the parable of the fig tree found in Matthew 11:12-14, 19-25.
