A retreat for clergy nearing retirement or recently retired.

For many of us clergy, it is hard to recognize how fully we live within the role or identity as pastor or leader. As we approach the end of our active ministry career, new questions of purpose, faithfulness and human connection emerge.

This four-day retreat will be a chance for guided reflection on the significant questions emerging within the hearts and lives of clergy as they end their active ministries.

Immersed in the rhythms of Benedictine life and using some practices from the work of the Center for Courage & Renewal, participants will be invited to a time away for prayer, conversation, reflection, rest and wrestling.

Other groups offer insight on finances, boundaries, ecclesiastical standing, etc. This retreat will explore the questions, uncertainties and opportunities most important to you. We’ll do our own individual work, in community. We’ll support each other and listen for the nudge of the Spirit.

Dates/Times/Schedule

Mon., Apr. 26, 4:30 pm – Thu., Apr. 29, 2027, 1:00 pm

We begin at 4:30 on Monday and finish with lunch on Thursday. There will be ample free time, small group time, individual reflection time and worship with Holy Wisdom sisters.

Cost

$499/person.

Register

The registration deadline for this retreat is April 1st, 2027, or when the retreat fills.

Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until April 1st. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts.

After you register, if you would like to request a double room with another retreatant or if you have other questions about accommodations, please contact us at retreats@holywisdommonastery.org.

About the Program Leaders – Rev. Winton Boyd and Rev. Rachel Young Binter

Rev. Winton Boyd has a long history with Holy Wisdom Monastery since attending his first retreat in 1987 (Parker Palmer and Henri Nouwen).  He’s loved the openness and welcome of the sisters for most of his adult life.  As Senior Pastor at Orchard Ridge UCC in Madison from 1999-2019, he brought groups on retreat, did personal days with colleagues, and developed friendships with the sisters.  He’s been co-facilitating the Clergy Immersions for 4 years and is also an Oblate of the monastery.  He’s now a retired UCC pastor and a long time facilitator with the Center for Courage & Renewal.  For Courage & Renewal, he directed a multi-year Lilly Endowment Grant focused on clergy retreats and facilitator formation.  In addition to the clergy immersion program, he’s led retreats on aging, men’s issues, political dialogue, and healthy conflict.  He’s trained in family systems and Kingian non-violence, and is a long time mentor for new Courage & Renewal facilitators.  He’s a proud citizen of Minneapolis now, sharing a 100 year old home with his spouse of 40+ years, Tammy.  They have three adult children and 2 grandchildren.  He particularly loves walking the monastery prairie and singing in the oratory.

Rev. Rachel Young Binter is the director of the Center for Clergy Renewal. She is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Church in America (ELCA). Her ministry experiences include street ministry, parish ministry, and campus ministry. In her campus ministry role, she served as a regional facilitator, providing support, training, and networking to other campus pastors. She has a long history of interfaith and ecumenical ministry, with the campus ministry she served at UW-Milwaukee being known as a catalyst for creating interfaith training, events, and dialogue on campus. She is a member of Proclaim, the professional community for Lutheran ministers and candidates who publicly identify as LGBTQIA+ and has been a presenter for LGBTQIA+ events and conferences. She has an interest in embodied care of others through yoga and Reiki. She loves to garden, make teas, and smell fresh mint on her skin. She has led many retreats over the years at Holy Wisdom with parishioners, colleagues, and students, and is grateful to be rooted on its holy ground. Rachel and her husband, Kurt, live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their eldest, Nadezhda, is a healthcare worker and labor organizer in Milwaukee, and their youngest, Hans, cares for plants by day and plays music by night in New York City.  

The post What Now? A Retreat for Retiring Clergy appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.

Brigid was associated with holy wells in Ireland and Scotland and the Celtic world, so during our retreat we will learn about the ancient spiritual practice of praying with water at holy wells, by learning to do the rounds and pray with rocks and rosaries. We will consider how holy water devotional practices can nurture our connection with our own local watershed. We will be accompanied by the story of the woman at the well in the Gospel of John and other scripture around water.

Brigid is also known for presiding over different types of fire—the forge, the hearth, and creative inspiration. And so we will also invoke the imagery of the flame, by meditating on the sacred heart of God’s life-force within each of us. Through journaling and contemplation we will seek new ways to connect with God’s desire for all beings to be creative and to flourish, placed within the unique desires of each of our hearts.

Throughout the retreat Julia will teach using singing, praying, story-telling, and ritual to draw on practices of contemplation and deep listening, as we each listen for God’s sacred flame within our heart’s desire and our various calls from God expressed through our passions and longings for justice.

Dates/Times/Schedule

Fri., Feb. 5, 6:00 pm – Sun., Feb. 7, 2027, 5:00 pm

Itinerary subject to change.

Friday, Feb. 5

Evening

• Julia will offer a public lecture, “Holy Water, Sacred Flame,” on the importance of re-membering, discovering and creating embodied Christ-centered, earth-based rituals. Lecture will include story telling about Julia’s family’s “Holy Water” pilgrimage, teachings on the history, mythology, and legacy of Saint Brigid, and reflections on the importance of embodied, earth-based ritual and Christ-centered ways to help us spark hope and renewal in our climate changed world.

Saturday, Feb. 6

Morning, 10:00 am-12:00 pm: Imbolc Sacred Flame Ritual

• A morning of devotional practice and ritual around Brigid’s sacred flame. Brigid was thought to be the midwife to the Christ Child, and Brigid’s feast day of Imbolc means “in the belly.” We will wonder—what seeds God has planted in our souls that Brigid might help us “midwife” into the world? We will tend to our own inner fire and passions in this cold season, and how our fire might connect us to the work of communal care for one another and the earth.

Afternoon, 2:00-4:00 pm: Imbolc Holy Water Ritual

• A ritual reenactment of praying at a holy well, with rocks and prayers and making the rounds, as is customary at Brigid’s holy wells in Ireland and Scotland. We will also make our own holy water, pray for connection to our local watershed, and connect to God through devotion to water.

Sunday, Feb. 7

Morning: Choose your own worship

• Attend Holy Wisdom worship; or Join Orchard Ridge UCC worship at 10am for an Imbolc-inspired communion service to celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Brigid.

Afternoon:

• Imbolc “Wild Church Circle” with Flicker Wild Church at 3pm.

Cost

$265 – Commuter
$465 – Residential

Register

The registration deadline for this retreat is January 28th, 2027, or when the retreat fills.

Cancellation policy – if you register but must cancel your registration, you can receive a 75% refund up until January 28th, 2027. After that, a 50% refund is available until the retreat starts on Feb. 5, 2027.

After you register, if you would like to request a double room with another retreatant or if you have other questions about accommodations, please contact us at retreats@holywisdommonastery.org.

About the Program Leader – The Rev. Dr. Julia Burkey

Julia is Senior Pastor of Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ (UCC) in Madison, Wisconsin. She is passionate about social justice and recovering and creating earth-based and embodied devotional practices within Christianity. Julia recently completed a Holy Water ancestral pilgrimage around Europe, learning about devotional water relationships from her ancestral lands. Julia is also a Wisconsin Master Naturalist, a trained birth doula & death doula, and sauna aufguss ritual master. Along with her spouse Rev. Daniel Cooperrider, Julia is a co-founder of Flicker Wild Church, where she volunteers as co-convener and ritual artist. Julia earned her Master of Divinity with a special focus on the Bible and Arts in Worship from Union Theological Seminary and a Doctorate of Divinity focused on interfaith relationships and church visioning from Hartford International Seminary.

The post Holy Water, Sacred Flame: Rituals of Hope for a Climate Changed World appeared first on Holy Wisdom Monastery.