by Maryann Concannon
During the weekend of October 24-26, ten F/friends gathered at the Avila Center in Durham, North Carolina, for Weathering the Storm: a Contemplative Retreat in the Manner of Friends. Participants were mainly from North Carolina, but also travelled from Michigan and Delaware. April Allison (Durham Friends) and Maryann Concannon (Mentee, Red Cedar Friends, Lansing, Michigan) facilitated. Our on-site support at Avila was provided by Elaina Eakle from Peace Hill of Avila, a contemplative group that co-sponsored our retreat. We were blessed with beautiful sunny fall weather, good food, and friendship.
We reflected upon the storms that we are now encountering, whether in our nation, community, or as individuals. Who might we become through the storm? What may be lost? Gained? In what ways have we been faithful within the storm? Of particular importance this weekend was that F/friends received a brief but well needed respite from these tumultuous times—the storms of our current world.
The theme of the retreat was taken from the first chapter of the book of Jonah in the Bible. Jonah is a very interesting, short four-chapter prophetic text that is easy to read and well worth the time. Examining Jonah’s reaction to the call from God, we reflected on our own ways of responding to a leading. Do we run away, like Jonah did? Do we say “no,” or are we faithful to the calling?
The retreat consisted of Worship, programmed time, small group opportunities, and individual time to explore nature, rest, contemplative activities and spiritual study. One of the programs we offered (and often offer at these retreats) is a journaling activity called Lectio Divina, a way to process short spiritual passages. The steps of Lectio Divina are: Read, Reflect (mediation), Respond (journaling our thoughts on the text), Rest (contemplation). Participants spent an hour working with the reading they had chosen, then shared their experiences.
In another activity, the facilitators were inspired to mix it up a bit, making up the term Visio Divina, we used weather-related photographs to Read, Reflect, Respond and Rest. Each F/friend chose the photo that spoke to them. Rich interpersonal sharing followed.
The retreat ended with closing worship and final processing sharing sessions. Hopefully we sent everyone off with renewed energy and clarity about the storms they may be facing.
