Hello,
Wow! What a great weekend to celebrate our 150th Anniversary! Well done, everyone!
Now, take one deep breath and please shift your attention to the national Retreat we are hosting at St. Paul’s starting on Thursday, February 22nd, just over 3 weeks away. Please picture this:
• John will have a team of you at the Manzanita stop of the Marin Airporter on Thursday night to ferry people up to the Ralston White Retreat Center in Mill Valley, where our out of town guest will be staying. Some of you will be at the retreat center to welcome them.
* Judy and Lorrie have been working for months to prepare food, drinks, welcome bags and all sorts of helpful signs so that when everyone arrives at St. Paul’s, starting at 9am on Friday the 23rd, they will feel welcome and oriented to the weekend experience. Lots of help will be needed here.
• We move into the church at 9:30am, where Judy and Jacob will give an orientation to the weekend. I will then introduce the new Restoration Project Assessment tool, that helps us all see where we are in relation to our Seven Core Christian Practices. That Assessment will help guide all the participants through the weekend. I will then give my first talk, on vow number 5, Scripture.
* People will then break into small groups led by our Practitioners- Tanner, John, Ginny, Michael, Chloe and Meg. This is the pattern for most of the retreat- a talk followed by small group discussion.
* Hospitality continues throughout the day with lunch, snacks, dinner, guided walks for exercise, help with parking and so on. Many volunteers will be needed and plans are well underway. A similar pattern will happen throughout the day on Saturday.
• Saturday afternoon I offer the debut of Pelican, a performance piece I’ve been working on for years that’s like Pilgrim’s Progress as an open-eyed guided meditation. It reinforces, through our imaginations, many of the themes and teachings of The Restoration Project. The performance is followed by a Feast in Duncan Hall with food by our dear Chef Cynthia!
• Sunday morning includes a wrap up at 9am followed by an ordinary 10am service where my colleague, The Rev. Suzanne Wille, will preach on the only one of our Seven Core Christian Practices that will not have been directly addressed yet, “worship in the beauty of holiness.” After an ample coffee hour, we will say good-bye to our new friends, taking some of them back to the Marin Airporter to catch their flights home.
Out of town guests pay $599 for the retreat. Local people, who do not need to stay at Ralston White, pay $249. Parishioners of St. Paul’s are free and, more likely put to work! Please tell your friends from other churches. It’s not too late to sign up. Here’s the link to our Eventbrite Site.
This is a big deal! I believe that this PrayWorshipServe Retreat will mark the beginning of the next stage of our life together in Jesus. Throughout the next few weeks, and particularly at this Sunday’s Annual Meeting, we will be offering ways for you to get involved, regardless of whether or not you’ve ever been in a Discipleship Group. This retreat is about all of us and who we are becoming together as the family of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Please mark your calendars for February 22nd to 25th!
Blessings,
Christopher