Programs

Re-Rooting the Spirit: Exploring Incarnationalism in the Contemplative Life

Join us for our annual contemplative Advent retreat amidst the beauty, peace, and hospitality of The Bishop’s Ranch. As in previous years, the Advent retreat will be curated and overseen by our Chaplain, Fr. Brendan E. Williams, CMR, who is also a professional spiritual director, scholar of religion, and experienced teacher of contemplative practices. 

This year we will explore the theology–and, most importantly, the direct experience–of what it is to be a contemplative practitioner in a particular place, on a specific landscape, in conscious relationship with the Land in that locality and with all the other-than-human beings who dwell there. We will also explore embodiment or ‘incarnation’ itself, its implications for the contemplative life, and where we can (and often do) go wrong in ignoring it in favor of something that we imagine to be ‘transcendent’. Together we will get a taste of re-rooting ourselves powerfully in the living Land and fully claiming our place in the great family of Being through contemplative practices done in connection with the landscape around us, through hearing and responding to sacred teachings, through creating our own Land-based rosaries as tools for re-rooting, through ceremony, communal prayer, and intentional movement.

Registration closes December 1, 2024.

A Contemplative Advent Retreat

Experience the ancient treasures of contemplative practices that can nourish your spirit  as we listen deeply for what is wanting to be born inside our hearts. Our days will intersperse times of silent reflection with music, art, nature meditation and poetry as we draw on the wisdom of the mystical traditions. There will be a feast of chanting and singing, Lectio Divina, Visio Divina, a candlelit Taizé service, and the creation of Earth Art mandalas. Deepen your journey during your free time by playing in the art room,  walking the labyrinth, hiking the beautiful trails or reading in front of the fire.

We all need a little extra help sometimes, someone in our corner to boost our confidence, our spirit or even our defiance! So why not make your own custom icon, your own imaginary saint or spirit guide? Perhaps you need your very own Patron Saint of Serenity, or how about an Earth Goddess Guardian Angel? Maybe you need a Spirit Guide to Adventure? Whatever kind of guide you need you can express yourself through this two-day mixed media workshop. Your Angel can be serious or silly, meditative or magical it’s up to you!

Lisa provides a mix of faces, both animal and human to choose from as well as hand and basic body patterns so you don’t need to worry about your drawing skills at all. She will demonstrate how to design your Guardian Angel using the printed images and decorative papers. This collage technique is at once flexible, forgiving and fun. This workshop is great for beginners who want to explore mixed media art more and practiced artist who want to express themselves in a new way. Everyone will go home with a custom “icon” created on an 11x14 canvas panel. Canvas panels, face and body images and some ephemera are provided, you bring art papers, wrapping papers, old maps, journal pages, art you are ready to cut up. Anything you are inspired to “clothe” your guardian and papers for a background.

Accommodations for this retreat are in Webb Lodge.

Make time for those unfinished projects or new endeavors at a four-night quilt retreat. With all meals provided and no chores in sight, beginning through advanced quilters can truly focus on their passion. You’ll have time to be with old friends and the opportunity to make new ones while working on your own projects or sharing your creativity with other participants. This retreat is intended to give you the time you need for yourself without formal instruction or sales pitches.

The Quest for Healing and Home

In 2022 John Philip Newell began a second series of annual retreats to address the deep spiritual yearnings of this moment in time and to help give birth to new beginnings in our lives and world.

The Great Search 3 is the third of a three-part series of annual retreats led by the Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and his colleague Cami Twilling in which we explore the search for wisdom, the search for meaning, and the search for faith.

The teachings of this retreat are based on John Philip Newell’s book The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home (especially Chapters 7, 8, and 9 drawing on the wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore, Etty Hillesum, and Edwin Muir).

The text for this three-year program is John Philip Newell’s new book The Great Search (August 2024). The shared prayer book for this program is Praying with the Earth.

The Great Search 3 can be taken as a stand-alone retreat or in conjunction with The Great Search 1 and The Great Search 2 which can be attended in any order and at any of our retreat centers across the country or online.

This retreat will include a special evening dialogue between John Philip Newell and Matthew Fox, included for all retreat participants. Two of the most celebrated authors and teachers of spirituality today, Matthew Fox and John Philip Newell, will combine their insights and wisdom in a wide-ranging, lively, and hopeful conversation about some of the most vexing and challenging concerns facing humanity and Earth today. Known for their spiritual breadth and depth, as well as their compassionate teaching, Matthew and John Philip are delighted to be in conversation together.

About Matthew Fox

Rev. Matthew Fox, PhD, author, theologian, and activist priest, has been calling people of spirit and conscience into the Creation Spirituality lineage for over 50 years. His 42 books;  and his lectures, retreats, and innovative education models have ignited an international movement to awaken people to be mystics, prophets, and contemplative activists, who honor and defend the earth and work for justice.

With Dr. Neil Douglas-Klotz

During our days together, we will follow themes appropriate for Easter week. These include the origins of our embodied life and self in our large, eternal, breathing soul (ruha), the crucifixion felt by our small self (naphsha), and its healing and resurrection through re-discovering its purpose in life. This is a process done not once, but many times, in our lives.

The way of Yeshua, as seen through his Aramaic words, is not for the faint-hearted, even though he promises that the “burden is light” and offers “rest” (nyach) in the fullness of life and love that our ruha (soul) provides. Making the connection between small self and soul is what he taught and exemplified in his life here, even under the most extreme and challenging circumstances.

The experiential side of the retreat will focus on chant, body prayer, body awareness meditation, and contemplative prayer from the Aramaic Jesus tradition. These will harmonize in feeling to the days of Holy Week and, most importantly, provide inspiration for the difficult times we face. Neil will also be going into some of Yeshua’s teaching stories and his “words from the cross, “about which many people ask, as well as parables and sayings from his recently released (February 2025) book The Aramaic Jesus Book of Days as well as his book Revelations of the Aramaic Jesus.