Thriving (not just surviving!) through change

Led by Bishop Chris Edmondson

Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd February 2020

The cost of this retreat is £140

 

It is a fact of life that everything changes.   So how do we navigate our way through it and live with it positively? Over this retreat weekend we will explore the landscape of change in different ways, including through Bible study and in personal reflection.

Bishop Chris has, over the course of his ministry, been a parish priest, Diocesan Missioner, Warden of Lee Abbey, and prior to his retirement on 2016, was Bishop of Bolton in the Diocese of Manchester. He now lives in Bradford, and is an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Leeds.

 

This really is what it says and no previous knowledge is required!

Far from being daunted you will have fun, whilst learning some very useful skills which will enhance your reading and understanding of the bible. You will learn, for example, how to look up words in a Theological Dictionary of Hebrew – that is, a dictionary in which the words are arranged according to the Hebrew alphabet, but which are commented on in English! This is often highly enlightening and regularly goes beyond what you might find out from even a good commentary in English.

Leader: John Wigfield, Director of Pioneering Ministry and OT tutor, St Hild

 

An opportunity to draw aside and reflect on your life’s journey as we unfold the history of the ancient form of the labyrinth and its use as a sacred space for prayer and meditation.

Whether you walk the turf labyrinth by candlelight, an indoor cloth ‘pebble’ labyrinth, or a hand-crafted wooden finger labyrinth, follow the winding path to the still and abiding centre.

Plenty here to inspire and respond to – in prayer, poetry, prose or artwork.

Cost: £200

Leader: Kay Barrett, Veriditas labyrinth facilitator

 

Heart & Soul Singing Retreats aim to combine singing in harmony with rest, nurture and inspiration.

This retreat offers an opportunity to take time out whilst discovering the joy of using your unique voice in harmony with others.

Heart & Soul Singing Retreats are very inclusive. They attract people who have sung before and people who haven’t and every other singing experience in between. The singing sessions are informal and no previous singing experience, or the ability to read music, is required. A varied repertoire of songs and rounds are shared, which can include songs from the African continent, both spiritual and secular, Taize chants, Georgian songs and original songs from the Natural Voice repertoire. Keely teaches each harmony part in a call and response way so that a song is built up in small and memorable portions. As we listen to each harmony part we build up a sense of the whole song and where we fit in.

Keely Hodgson is a composer and Natural Voice Practitioner and community singing leader who directs several informal singing groups and a large community choir. She arranges music for voices, writes songs and works as a composer and a music specialist in Special Needs settings, using her voice, guitar and cello. She has led singing retreats in North Yorkshire since 2010. As a Natural Voice Practitioner, she is committed to sharing the joy of singing with others and helping those who have not sung before to discover their unique voice.

Enjoy a weekend of monastic hospitality, prayer and worship with the Community, including a visit to the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway on the Saturday. The colder weather of early March should create some good clouds of steam and smoke! A reasonable level of mobility is required for this excursion as there are steps in several places. Holy smoke on the Sunday. Participants are invited to bring along some railway-related pictures, books, stories or artefacts to share with the group

Leader: Br Philip CR

Cost: £160

 

In the Bible spiritual growth is likened to the natural development processes of plants, and the part played by gardeners, whether human or divine. Meeting God in the Garden will explore four recurring movements of this growth: becoming rooted and grounded in God; emerging into being in response to God’s invitation; struggling towards abundance through resistance; bearing fruit and being willing to fall. They are seasons that meet us afresh within a lifetime of growing, stirring us once more into abundant life.

Leader: Christopher Chapman, retreat leader, spiritual director and author of Earthed in God: Four movements of spiritual growth.

Cost: £250

Don’t mention the war!

An occasion to get to know something about what makes modern Germany, and the role of the church in German culture; it will also be a chance to look at how our prejudices have shaped our understanding, German of British and vice versa.

Leader: Fr Thomas CR

The cost of this retreat is £250