More Bursaries for Retreats for NHS Workers

As the APR’s way of saying ‘thank you’ to NHS Staff and care-workers for their tireless care throughout the pandemic, we have made a number of Bursaries available for them to go on retreat at any of the APR Retreat Houses across the UK. Thanks to some generous donations, we have been able to extend the scheme again, now running until June 2022.

Full details about how the scheme works, and how to apply, can be found on the Bursary page of our website.

If you would like to contribute to the NHS Bursary Fund, and help even more NHS and Care-Workers take a much-needed retreat this year, please follow this link.

Many Retreat Houses are offering Advent retreats – below are just a selection. Other locations are available by clicking here.

Advent quiet day (with fruit tree planting) at Hilfield Friary on Sat 27th Nov, 10am-4pm

Waiting on the Word: A poetic journey into Advent with Malcolm Guite at Sarum College on Friday 3 December, 10-4pm

Advent Retreat at Whitchester Christian Centre, Hawick, 1-5 December

An Advent Pilgrimage at The Bield at Blackruthven, Perth, 26-28 November. They are also hosting reflective days on 10 and 11 Dec

Creative Advent journaling at Holy Rood House, Thirsk, 7th Dec, 10-11.30am, and repeated from 6-7.15pm

The School of Contemplative Life are offering an online Quiet Day, Advent and the Birth of the Word within us, from 10am-5pm on 11 Dec

‘Still before Christmas‘ at Launde Abbey, Leics, 6-9 December

Join St Columba’s House, Woking for a number of Advent events, including a quiet day on 29th November, and a Celtic Advent on 7th Dec, 10am-4pm

Join an online gathering for Advent Coffee, Cake and Chat with St Chad’s, Leek, at 2pm on Monday 6th December. Email the Warden on
stchadsleek@gmail.com for the link

The Importance of Waiting, at Whalley Abbey, Lancs, 6-8 December. They are also hosting a series of Advent Quiet days on 30 Nov, 7 Dec, 14 Dec and 21 Dec, from 10am-4pm

Our AGM at St Columba’s House, Woking in early November was well-attended, both in person and online via Zoom – and we were very grateful to the St Columba’s staff for making the technology of our first ever ‘hybrid’ meeting work so smoothly.

We also bade a fond farewell to Revd Barry Preece who has served as a Trustee of the APR for 9 years, and 6 as Chair – and we welcomed Revd Carol Smith as our new Chair.

You can download the Minutes of the meeting by clicking this link.

These are just a selection of the online retreats offered by Donna Worthington. For bookings and further information, please visit www.christianretreats.live, or contact Donna directly: drworthington@live.co.uk

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING: Explore this incredible mystical text written in the 14thC, a profound guide on prayer.  Sat 27^th November 2-5pm OR Mon 29th November 10am-1pm, £20

ADVENT RETREAT: Time to attend to the beauty and wonder of this time of waiting. 17th December 10am-1pm, £20

PARABLES COURSE: Nice little stories or subversive arrows that turn things upside down? Feb 10th, 17th and 24th, 6.30-9pm, £60

Soul Desire is a timely publication, written for those who are new to contemplation. Author and Spirituality Adviser, Cameron Butland, writes, ‘If we are to value silence and meditation, we need to trust in the contemplative relationship and allow ourselves to experience the love of God. This experience will teach us everything we need to know. God’s love taught St Anthony of Egypt and in the same way this love alone can transform our lives’.

To order your copy, cost £12 (free p&p), please email booksosp@gmail.com, or contact Cameron Butland directly at cdsa03@gmail.com.

Published in March 2020, this beautifully-produced guide offers some practical ideas to help Retreat Houses of all denominations reach out to a wider audience. These include ideas on how to best utilise online and social media promotion, as well as how to promote the value of retreat through more traditional local, regional and national channels.

Spreading the Word is available to download for free here as a pdf file, and comes with our blessings for your ongoing ministries. However, if you would like a hard copy, you can purchase one online (using Paypal) through this link, or by emailing the APR Administrator on promoting.retreats@gmail.com.

The Archbishop of Canterbury invited Trustees of the APR to Lambeth recently, for a conversation about how to better promote retreats throughout the Church of England. It was a very positive meeting. Archbishop Justin spoke both of his enthusiasm for encouraging prayer, and of his support the work of the APR as we promote the benefits of both retreats and Quiet Days, and support the work of Retreat Houses across the country, and beyond. In particular, he emphasised the value to everyone in ministry of taking regular time out to nurture their own relationships with God, saying that, ‘Evangelism or witness can only be genuine when it comes from an overflow of the love of God’.

The APR website is expanding, with a range of new resources soon to be available – the first of these are already published under the tab, ‘Signposts for Spiritual Growth’. These ‘signposts’ direct readers to a wealth of top-quality pages across the internet, concerning all aspect of prayer, spiritual formation, and growth in faith.

The pages, ‘Encountering Spirituality’, will be a virtual library of documents exploring both traditional spiritualities, contemporary role models and ‘life moments and transitions’, and are due to be published soon. Later this year, we will also be publishing a ‘Marketing Tool-Kit for Retreat Centres/Houses’.

We are pleased to announce that the Rt Revd John Stroyan, Bishop of Warwick, has been appointed as our new President.

Bishop John succeeds the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, Bishop of Southwark, who came to the end of his term of office at the end of 2016.

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