.jpg "Barbara C. Harris Camp set against the mountains and woods of New Hampshire")
Laughter. Sitting and really talking with friends, old and new. Nature walks. Meals that somebody else plans, cooks, and serves. Perhaps an “untalent show.”
These are all things that our retreat planning committee said at our first meeting, as we each answered the question “what do you need, at our parish retreat?”
All our various ideas came back to two core themes: Connection, and Joy. The need to know, and be known to, a loving community in true and real and deep ways. The need to play and to laugh. The need to enjoy those beautiful pleasures of retreat life (books and canoes and campfires). The need to mourn and heal, and to find peace. The need to see that God is good, and that we are standing together in a joy-filled, sometimes silly, sometimes serious, and always loving holy family.
The Parish Weekend Away will be September 23-25, 2022, at the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, New Hampshire. This past Wednesday, you received an email with all the details — accommodations, meals, costs, options. Please look back at that (and spend a few minutes taking in those beautiful, inspiring pictures), and make a plan to join us. This Sunday, May 8, you’ll receive an email with a link to our registration form.
And on Sunday, May 15, during our Sunday forum after worship, we’ll ask you those same questions our planning committee pondered: What do you need? What would be life-giving? Soul-healing? What can this Parish Weekend Away offer to you?
Please come. Connect. Laugh. Eat. Play. Sit. Talk. Renew.
With joyful anticipation,
Bryn
