Anglican Spiritual Practices: A Lenten Retreat

March 25 and 26th, St. John’s Charleston

Sponsored by the Charleston Episcopal Parishes and

The Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia

A refresher for those familiar with practices, an introduction for those ready to go deeper.

Registration

A perfect Lenten opportunity to discover and nurture practices that feed you while also trying on practices that may challenge you and stretch you.

  • Assess your spiritual life
  • Learn about a system of spiritual practice, grounded in the tradition, rather than a piece-meal or smorgasbord approach
  • Experiment with ancient and traditional practices to serve life in a modern world
  • Develop or refine your own spiritual discipline

The retreat is a mix of worship, silence, presentation, limited discussion and experiential activities.  It is may feel like a mix of workshop and retreat. Participants are asked to complete some readings in advance and to experiment with spiritual practices during the sessions.

Schedule

Friday March 25 The Feast of the Annunciation  6:30 – 9:20 p.m. 

         -Please come having eaten.

6:30  Evening Prayer

6:50  Session One

9:00  Compline

9:20  Close

Saturday March 26  9:00 a.m. – 3:30

9:00  Morning Prayer

9:20  Session Two

12:00 Noon Prayer & Lunch

1:00 Session Three

3:30  Close


Leaders

 

 

 

Michelle Heyne brings empathy, humor, and a solid grounding in ecclesiology and effective organizational dynamics to her work as a trainer and consultant.   She has worked as a financial services executive for over 25 years and served as a parish lay-leader for 15. Michelle is a member of Trinity, Seattle and has spent the last several years focused on the integration of spiritual and secular life.  Michelle and Bob are the founders of Shaping the Parish.

 

 

 

 

Robert Gallagher offers exceptional skills in facilitating shifts and changes in people and organizations. Fr. Gallagher has served on an industrial mission staff, as a parish priest and a diocesan staff person. Bob is an Associate Priest for Ascetical and Practical Theology at Trinity Parish, Seattle and has taught Anglican Spirituality at Bangor Seminary in Maine. He has developed an approach to congregational development rooted in Anglican spirituality. His companion book to Michelle’s is In Your Holy Spirit: Shaping the Parish through Spiritual Practice.

 

Readings
Advance reading

For those wanting to do more —  In Your Holy Spirit: Traditional Spiritual Practices in Today’s Christian Life, Michelle Heyne, Ascension Press, 2011. Click to order from the Episcopal Bookstore.   There will also be copies available at the retreat for $14.00. Checks made out to your parish.

Register

Registration
Send the registration form with a check for $12 ( covers lunch and snacks) made out to St. John’s Episcopal Church  1105 Quarrier Street, Charleston WV 25301

Questions

Contact The Rev. Susan Latimer  

Pastoral Theology

The retreat is grounded in Anglicanism’s traditional approach to Christian formation. There is a concern for the development of the individual Christian alongside the understanding that individual development always takes place as part of the Body of Christ.

For the individual there are the three threads:

  • Ancient practices for a contemporary life - This isn’t make-it-up-spirituality. It is rooted in what has served God’s people over time.
  • Adult - C.S. Lewis spoke of how Anglicanism was the most adult of Christian traditions. There is a need to accept responsibility for our own spiritual life as a member of the Body of Christ.
  • Experiment - The way ancient practice is made useful for modern life is by us experimenting with our own practice. The way we learn what “works” for us is through experimenting. The way we will be best nurtured and stretched is through experimenting.

For the parish there is a stance grounded in an understanding of how the Body of Christ becomes healthy:

  • Serve life - The parish can serve your longing for more depth and grounding in life. The parish can offer you the training and coaching needed for a spirituality that is balanced and has integrity.
  • Work with those ready to work - The formation of a parish is primarily done by assisting those ready to grow to do so. This is a pastoral strategy of parish revitalization that takes place over the years. Those with a more apostolic practice have an opportunity for renewal. Those ready to go deeper have a chance to test new ways. There are other legitimate formation offerings more directed at a broader group in the parish. The total parish offering recognizes both a diversity of spiritual needs and levels of growth.
  • An energy not its own - “The Church (it was early decided) was not an organization of sinless men but of sinful, not a union of adepts but of less than neophytes, not illuminati but of those that sat in darkness. Nevertheless, it carried within it an energy not its own, and it knew what it believed about that energy.”   -Charles Williams 
  • Power from the center - In Pastoral Theology: A Reorientation Martin Thornton presented his understanding of the parish church as the Body of Christ. He noted that the parish church was “the complete Body in microcosm.” He also observed the spiritual dynamic “in which power from the center pervades the whole.” God makes use of the holiness and love of those more proficient in prayer and spiritual practice to serve the whole parish. By their life and prayer the whole Body is built up.
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 Salt & Light 5 Epiphany sermon - Connects some of the themes in the In Your Holy Spirit books to the gospel reading of the day and to a parish’s own community life.