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A Retreat and Conference Center for the Exploration of Christian Unprogrammed Quakerism and its Meaning Today Friends Center of Ohio Yearly Meeting Adjacent to Stillwater Meetinghouse near Barnesville, Ohio For information, contact:
Friends Center Registration Information Each weekend conference begins with a meal at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and ends with a meal at noon on Sunday. Please include a $25 deposit for each event with your registration. This can be refunded up to one week in advance if you need to cancel your reservation. Requests for single occupancy rooms will be honored, as space is available, for an additional $20 for the weekend. Persons registering for two events at the same time can receive a 25% discount for the second event. Scholarship aid is usually available. Friends Center Vision The Friends Center is a retreat and conference center envisioned as an outreach of the Christian unprogrammed Quakerism of Ohio Yearly Meeting. It is intended to be a place where we can explore, articulate and share an understanding of Quaker faith and practice which is both unprogrammed and Christian. While that faith is rooted in the experience and writings of earlier Friends, we seek to express it in ways appropriate to the language and conditions of our own time. The witness of Ohio Yearly Meeting is also shaped by our location, centered in rural eastern Ohio. It is an appropriate setting in which to explore issues affecting rural life and community as they grow out of faith. Facilities The central gathering space for the Friends Center is the Morlan, a house adjacent to Stillwater meetinghouse and bordering on the campus of Olney Friends School. The Morlan provides meeting and eating space, also a library and three bedrooms. Additional rooms for lodging are available in the Mary Davis, the guest house of Olney Friends School. The facilities of the meetinghouse are also available. The Friends Center is in a rural setting surrounded by the hills of Belmont County. The facilities of Barnesville, a pleasant town of under 5,000, are available within a few minutes' walk or drive. Pleasant grounds and nearby rural roads are available for walking. Personal Retreats Take time out from the busyness of your life to accept Jesus' invitation to "come aside and rest awhile." Friends have known since our beginning that times of retirement from outward activity nourish the soul and allow us to sink deeper into an awareness of God's work in our lives. In solitude one can experience with William Penn that "True silence is to the spirit, what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." A weekend, a day or several days in the solitude of a personal retreat offers time for refreshment of both body and spirit. It provides opportunity to take our lives into the silence before God, to listen more deeply to the Inward Teacher; it opens the way for God's transforming work in us. Those wishing for consultation during their time of retreat may arrange to talk with a Friend experienced in spiritual guidance. Consultants available as schedule permits include: William Taber, who was a spiritual consultant to students and visitors at Pendle Hill for 13 years; and Frances Taber, a graduate of Shalem Institute's Spiritual Guidance Program, who also developed a personal retreat program at Pendle Hill. The Morlan is available for personal retreats as the schedule permits. One may enjoy the use of the house alone (or possibly with one other retreatant in residence). Each person will have a private bedroom with comfortable chair and writing table. The bath is shared; an additional half-bath is also available. A living room with fireplace and a library of Quaker and other spiritual books are at the disposal of the retreatant. A patio and swing give opportunity for sitting out-of-doors. The meetinghouse grounds and quiet rural roads nearby provide space for walking. The retreatant may bring food to prepare in the Morlan's fully-equipped kitchen. Alternately, arrangements may be made to pick up the noon and evening meals at the school kitchen, with breakfast materials available in the house. To schedule a retreat, contact the Tabers. Cost per day with retreatant bringing food: $25. The cost for a full week is $150. Meals from the Olney kitchen: $6.00 each for lunch and supper. Breakfast food provided at the Morlan, per day: $2.50. Rentals The Friends Center will rent space to compatible groups looking for meeting space or facilities for small conferences. To arrange for a rental, contact the Tabers at 61357 Sandy Ridge Road, Barnesville, OH 43713 or call 740-425-1248. Use of the Morlan for a half day is $15; for a full day, up to 12 hours: $25. Lunch from the school kitchen, by arrangement, costs $6.00 per person.
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