Virtual Advent Retreat

The Spiritual Life Committee invites you to a virtual retreat for Advent, themed Wait Upon the Lord.

The retreat will take place Friday–Saturday, November 20–21. The cost is $25. All supplies will be sent to you in advance.

Please RSVP by Friday, November 6, with Norma Meyer. Contact the Rev. BJ Woodworth with questions.

Why Retreat? Amidst all that is happening and will be happening in mid-November, why would one go on a 24-hour retreat. Let me offer one metaphor from Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Invitation to Retreat:

“Going on retreat is like a boat entering into the lock in order to rise to new heights. When I don’t enter into the locks at regular intervals my life will just keep sinking to the level of the culture around me and to the level of my own unexamined inner world. However, when I entered the lock, that is retreat, when I allow the doors to close behind me and wait quietly for my soul to be lifted by the presence of God, I find that almost imperceptibly I am buoyed to new levels. When I emerge, I may not be able to say exactly what happened, but I know that I have been lifted to new heights and my sails are straight and ready to catch the wind of the Spirit as it fills my sails.”

Perhaps what we all need after nine months of a pandemic, continued racial injustice, and increasing political division and unrest is to take 24 hours to pull into the locks, rest, be still, attend to our breath, grieve, lament, light a candle, and find our strength in quietness and trust for the continued journey.

Secondly, a retreat at this time helps us prepare for Advent, a season in which we remind ourselves and get in touch with our longings and desires for the coming of God’s kingdom in fullness. It is a season about imagining and seeing what God’s dream is for us and the world. What are you longing, waiting, and hoping for this Advent? A retreat creates space to ponder and prepare our lives for the new thing God may want to birth in and through you.