Parish Retreat
Our parish retreat is an opportunity for people to get away for a weekend; to rest, to find time, space and silence, and to meet with God.
We go to Pleshey retreat house, a delightful former vicarage in a quiet Essex village. The food is good and the rooms are warm!
We keep silence within the retreat house during the weekend. This may feel very strange at first, particularly if you are not used to silence, but it means that we can give each other the freedom to focus on what God is saying to us. By the end of the retreat, most people have found the silence the most helpful part of the experience. People can speak, if they wish, to the retreat conductor, or they can arrange to speak with others on the retreat outside the house and grounds.
The weekend begins with an introduction to the retreat. There is a series of talks through the weekend, optional prayers, and a communion service on Sunday. But the main gift of the weekend is that of time and space. People can use that time to pray, read, paint, walk, write, think and sleep.
Some people worry that a retreat is self-indulgent. But we all need time and space. Often coming away for a brief while enables us to look at the issues we face in our daily life in a different way. Many people have met with God in new ways on retreat, and sometimes their lives have been changed.
Our next retreat is booked for Friday 25 to Sunday 27 March, 2011. We begin with supper on Friday at 7:00pm and are finished by 2:00pm on the Sunday.