Our New Directions in 2023

by Francie Thayer

It is with gratitude and excitement that I write to inform you that something new is happening for The Retreat House at Hillsboro. We have prayerfully discerned that it is time for us to leave the property in Hillsboro, MD, and move our home office. We have been surprised to discover that this path for the Retreat House seems to have been forming for months, if not years, and we had not seen it.

Like our biblical ancestors Sarah and Abraham, we feel we are being called to leave what is known. Our experiences just before and during COVID are also showing us that going to the places where people are comfortable gathering—in their own towns, at their churches and on Zoom—makes it possible for more people to join us on the journey to a closer relationship with God.

Decisions made more than three years ago set the stage for where we are going now. In the fall of 2019, the Retreat House “went on the road,” offering well-subscribed programming at locations that were all over the Eastern Shore of Maryland, on the Western Shore in Annapolis, and in Alexandria, VA. March of 2020 brought pandemic shutdowns that led us to engage and expand online programming and small outdoor gatherings.

As we move into 2023, we see a clear invitation from the Spirit to continue our mission of holding prayerful space for those who long to draw closer to God and to do it from a less-localized place, focusing our energy on living more fully into an “on the road” style.

Our new “home office” will relocate to Chestertown. We will continue to provide community-wide offerings “on-the-road,” online and in other communities that invite us to come and use their facilities. At this time, we have invitations from:

• Emmanuel Episcopal Church
• Holy Trinity Oxford
• Trinity Cathedral Easton
• The Foehliage Retreat Center in Galena, MD
• Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA
• Heartberry Hollow Farm & Forest in Roxbury, VT

We are deeply grateful for the gift of having grown as a community on the property at St. Paul’s Hillsboro for the last nine years. We have loved being there; we have been formed by the land, the prayer-filled spaces, and the town of Hillsboro. We take with us all we have shared in this sacred and peaceful place. And we are excited to see where we will go with the Holy Spirit in this new form of The Retreat House.

Much is yet to be imagined, and we greatly anticipate discovering our new ways. At the same time, we will continue to offer all the things many of us have come to enjoy from the Retreat House:  Monday Wisdom Café, Day’s End Meditation, Friday Pause, Seasonal Quiet Days, Saturday retreat days, Hermitage Overnights, and spiritual direction. All these will continue, just from different venues. And we wait prayerfully to see what new things will be given by the Spirit for all of us to share in community.

We are grateful for your prayers and your participation in how we have lived our mission. We are deeply grateful for your encouragement and pray you will continue to participate with us as part of the Retreat House family.

 

Photo by Rowan Freeman on Unsplash.com