Montreat Conference Center has announced that the Rev. Merri Alexander will serve as its senior director for strategic partnership development.
In this capacity, she is the conference center’s senior representative to Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) offices, mid councils, organizations, institutions, and sister denominations that view Montreat as a valuable partner in ministry. While Alexander has been active in this role in recent years, she will now focus her full effort toward partnership development and outreach for Montreat.
According to Alexander, “Our goal is to work with sisters and brothers in Christ in ways that will strengthen their own ministries. We are eager to support the work that congregations, denominational offices and institutions, as well as middle governing bodies and other faith-based organizations, are doing. We bring our 100 plus years of conferencing experience—in both content and logistics—to the partnership. And, as they say in real estate, ‘location, location, location.’ Montreat is a wondrous get-away mountain location where people are able to find rest and renewal. We believe this is a divinely inspired formula for ministry to flourish.”
Partnerships with organizations and institutions such as the Presbyterian Association of Musicians, Macedonian Ministry, Columbia Theological Seminary, McCormick Theological Seminary, Union Presbyterian Seminary, “Healthy Congregations” and the PC(USA) Board of Pensions have been valuable to Montreat and to these entities over years of ministry together.
“We expect to build on this strong foundation and open fresh avenues of service to sister faith communions such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, and other ecumenical partners who have not historically used Montreat’s facilities or attended conferences here,” said conference center president the Rev. Pete Peery.
A familiar face at Montreat Conference Center, Alexander has held leadership positions in adult programming, summer worship, and sales and marketing in her 11-year tenure. Her prior experience includes serving as an associate on the presbytery staff of Savannah Presbytery, leading an 11-organization arts and humanities consortium, professional photography, and professional theatre. Alexander holds an M.Div. from Union Presbyterian Seminary, B.A. from St. Andrews University, and an A.S. in professional photography from the Southeast Center for Photograph Studies.