High Point Friends Meeting

The Blessed Community
High Point Friends Meeting
June 16, 2026

"The Quaker Meeting is meant to be a Blessed Community - a living testimony to a social order that embodies God's peace, justice, love, compassion, and joy; an example and invitation to a better way of life...Community can be a prophetic call to the rest of society."

This past Sunday we remembered. We remembered those in our life and our Meeting that passed away in the last year. We remembered their life, their stories, their accomplishments, and the mark they left on our lives. We remembered their gifts and unique contributions as we reflected on how that would guide us in the way we would live our lives.

Remembering is important because we live in a culture that often feels very dis-membered from its past. In other words, we are often cut-off (or we cut ourselves off) from our history, our ancestors, our own stories of origin, and those who have labored faithfully before us. In many ways, remembering is a true sign of humility for it reminds us that we are simply adding to what has been started before us, and we are hopefully leaving something better for those who will come after us.

In October, we will "remember" as we celebrate the 70th Anniversary of gathering for worship in our present Meetinghouse. Friends started worshipping at 800 Quaker Lane in 1956 and for 70 years have been gathering as a Quaker faith community in this particular location and offering ministry, service, community, and a place of belonging. May our "re-membering" connect us with this living vision and legacy of being a vital Quaker faith community both now and in the future. As the late Bell Hooks put it:

"...I pay tribute to the past as a resource that can serve as a foundation for us to revision and renew our commitment to the present, to making a world where all people can live fully and well; where everyone can belong."

May we pay tribute in the same way and help co-create a world where everyone can belong.

With Gratitude,
Scott

Grateful for a very meaningful Memorial Sunday this morning where we remembered the lives and stories of F/friends and lit candles in their honor for a life well lived. May their memories and stories live on through us.

MEMORIAL SUNDAY - June 14

This morning in our 10AM Meeting for Worship, we will be remembering and honoring these friends. A candle will be lit in their honor as we hold their memory and legacy in our hearts. Please join us in honoring these friends and family members...

Mary Long Jarrell
Charles Webster Riehs
Theron Duane Farlow
Judie Miller Austin
Evelyn Meredith Davis
Eloise Keller Farlow
Roger Noel Dickey
Carol Ann Mundell Shoemaker
Ann Cotter-Kelley

May their memories and legacy inspire us to live well.

SUNDAY - HIGH POINT FRIENDS MEETING

Greetings Friends,
Here is what's happening tomorrow at High Point Friends Meeting...

9:00AM - UNPROGRAMMED MEETING FOR WORSHIP will be offered in the Meeting Library beginning at 9AM. This is a space for those seeking a silent space to slow down, listen deeply, reflect, and create a spaciousness within that has felt constricted through the week. This is open to anyone that feels called to experience it.
The choir will meet at 9:30AM in the main Worship Room to go over their song for the 10AM Meeting for Worship

9:30AM - COFFEE / TEA / FELLOWSHIP will be offered in Ragan Fellowship Hall as Friends arrive. Feel free to stop by on your way to worship.

10:00AM - PROGRAMMED MEETING FOR WORSHIP - Tomorrow will be our annual Memorial Sunday. This is a very special Sunday when we take time in our meeting for worship to remember and recognize those who have passed away in the past year. We will read the names during our meeting for worship and there will be time in our Open Worship for folks to share stories, memories, or words of encouragement. The message is titled "Finishing Well" and the choir will be singing the song "You Raise Me Up". Even if you didn't know any of these Friends personally, we hope you will still join us as we celebrate their lives, faith, and the legacy they left for us. We will livestream on our High Point Friends Meeting page.

11:00AM - FORMATION CONVERSATION - Since my (Scott) message will focus more on our Memorial Sunday, we'll take time in our 11AM hour to look at the Genesis reading from the lectionary for this Sunday. We'll explore Genesis 18:1-15 where Abraham and Sarah find out they are going to have a baby. That's a shock at any time but at their age, it was even more shocking :) We'll do some exploring, sharing, wondering, and adventuring through the story.

If you have a prayer need that you would like to have mentioned in our 10AM meeting for worship, you can reach out to me (Scott) [email protected]

Blessings!
Scott

FUM E-News for June 11 - updates and stories on Quakers around the world and how God is at work through Friends.

FUM E-news, June 11, 2026 Report from the board, Cuba Zoom upcoming, RFS graduation, Great Plains Yearly Meeting…

MEMORIAL SUNDAY - JUNE 14
10AM Meeting for Worship

This Sunday is our Annual Memorial Sunday at High Point Friends Meeting. It is a Sunday that invites both remembrance and celebration as we remember those in our Meeting and our life who have lived well and we also celebrate their legacy and witness and reflect on how they encourage and inspire us. In the book of Hebrews, we are invited to be encouraged by the great "cloud of witnesses" that surround us (Hebrews 12:1) and to live our lives with intention as we seek to be faithful.

Our Meeting for Worship begins at 10AM and we will live stream it on our High Point Friends Meeting page. As part of our remembrance, a candle will be lit in honor of each person after their name is read reminding us of the light each person brought and continues to bring to this world.

The Blessed Community
High Point Friends
June 9, 2026

We are called to bless our world, this creation, and all the spaces we inhabit throughout our day. This notion of "bless" can feel overwhelming, but what if we envisioned it simply as offering a generative presence back to our world. Author Mark Scandrette describes it this way, "The genesis-vision of the Creator's dream for our lives has been planted in each of us. And we were created to be generative - to flourish and grow to fulfill our good destiny in the kingdom of love." To be a generative presence is simply to live and offer our lives in such a way that we enable others to flourish as well as welcoming the Spirit's work in our lives so we can flourish.
God's call to Abraham in Genesis 12 was to be blessed and to bless others, and this call is extended to all of us and to people of faith as we seek to help co-create a world that has the possibility of experiencing ever increasing wholeness, mercy, and justice through the generative presence of those who seek to live faithfully in the way of Jesus.

Quakers have a long history of being a generative presence and being a "blessed presence" in the world through our witness to peace, justice, mercy, and social reform that seeks to generate life and hope and goodness. Our world continues to need the witness of Quakers as a generative presence because our world needs peace, wholeness, and healing.

As we go through this week, how can our lives, words, actions, and presence generate hope, goodness, peace, and wholeness so that our lives and our Meeting can be a place and presence of blessing.

With Gratitude,
Scott