Courage and Renewal® Seasonal Retreat Series

Sustaining the Courage to Serve: A Courage and Renewal® seasonal retreat series for people in the helping professions

Holy Listening in a Circle of Trust: A Courage and Renewal® seasonal retreat series for clergy

Serving Those Who Serve

When we approach our lives and our work with genuine passion and integrity we are able to serve others with courage and commitment. 

Courage and Renewal® retreats foster personal and professional renewal by offering the time and space to reflect on life and work. 

This retreat series is grounded in the Circles of Trust® approach— as described in Parker Palmer’s book, A Hidden Wholeness.  These retreats are intended for anyone who wants to live and work more wholeheartedly - including those in education, healthcare, law, philanthropy, religious life, and community organizing.

Skilled facilitators help create a quiet, focused, and disciplined space—a circle of trust—in which the noise within us and around us can subside and we can hear our own inner voice. In large group, small group, and solitary settings, we will explore the intersection of our personal and professional lives, making use of stories from our own journeys, and insights from poets, storytellers, and various wisdom traditions.  Clearness committees, a communal process of discernment around a vocational or other life issue, will be offered as part of this retreat.

Retreat Series Description

This retreat work goes well beyond a one-time, “mountain top” experience. In this experiential program, a cohort of some twenty participants journey through four retreats over one year.  In large group, small groups, and solitary settings, participants use personal stories, reflections on professional practice, time in nature, and insights from poets, storytellers, and various wisdom traditions to explore the relationship between the inner life of mind and spirit and the outer life of work and service in the world.

During that time we:

• Offer participants a meaningful break from the demands of daily life, an opportunity to slow down and take a journey of renewal.
• Create a soul-safe space that supports the inner journey, strengthens us for work in the world, and can be taken home to help renew family, workplace, and community life.
• Focus on deep listening in community-- to ourselves and to each other.

For dates, registration and further information visit: www.couragecircleoftrust.org.