Camps and Conference Centers Archives

Bringing a taste of Stony Point Center to the Presbyterian Center

Posted March 10th, 2020

On Monday over the lunch hour, Kitty and Rick Ufford-Chase got into the minds and hearts of members of the church’s national staff by first filling their bellies.

New Watershed Camp and Retreat Cohort forms

Posted February 4th, 2020

As Brian Frick, an associate for Christian Formation working with camp and conference ministries in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), began planning a retreat with Ghost Ranch leaders to see how they might learn from and align their work with mission initiatives of the Presbyterian Mission Agency, he began to ask questions.

The language of aspiration and inspiration

Posted January 6th, 2020

Preaching from Deut. 6:4-9, a text she described as both aspirational and inspirational, the Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana sent about 900 people attending the College Conference at Montreat home Sunday morning with a closing worship message focused on Sabbath and remembering.

Resistance as Sabbath

Posted January 5th, 2020

Anxiety may be rampant in modern culture, but it’s not unprecedented. Take, for example, the enslaved people of Israel described in the Book of Exodus.

‘We are not going to change the world. God is’

Posted January 5th, 2020

Before delivering the final keynote address to the Collegiate Conference at Montreat Saturday, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins addressed the elephant in the room: the fact that the nation could well be on a path toward war.

Receiving rest and direction from God

Posted January 4th, 2020

It was Friday’s happy task for the Rev. Rachel Hébert and A Williams of Williamsburg (Virginia) Presbyterian Church to help busy college students find delight in Sabbath-keeping.

Silence and Sabbath

Posted January 4th, 2020

The 900 Presbyterians attending the Collegiate Conference at Montreat entered Sabbath together in silence Friday evening following vibrant, thoughtful worship with communion led by conference preacher the Rev. MaryAnn McKibben Dana and the Rev. Dr. Alonzo Johnson, coordinator for the Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People.

Freed from mermaid captivity

Posted January 3rd, 2020

On Friday the Rev. Dr. Lauren Winner, who teaches at the Duke Divinity School and is vicar at a small Episcopal church in North Carolina, told about 900 people attending the College Conference at Montreat a story “it took me many years to tell with a straight face.”

Keeping the Sabbath is simple, but not easy

Posted January 2nd, 2020

About 900 Presbyterian college students have gathered at the close of their Christmas break for the 2020 College Conference at Montreat. They’re here to rediscover the importance of keeping the Sabbath.

Partnership lifts seminarians’ experience to new heights at Montreat music conference

Posted December 19th, 2019

As the year draws to a close, the Presbyterian Association of Musicians and the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Financial Aid for Service are reflecting on a flourishing partnership that resulted in a half dozen seminarians being sent to the annual Worship and Music Conference in Montreat, North Carolina earlier this year.