TIME OUT
Taking time out to pray and reflect on our lives – where we are and where we’re going, our priorities, hopes and values – is a basic part of spiritual growth. It a commended by all faiths and religious traditions, and is particularly vital as life gets more complex and challenging. Jesus took time out, and he invited his disciples to do the same; he said to them: ‘Come apart and rest awhile’ (Mark 6.31). The opportunities listed below are a way of responding to his invitation.
RETREATS IN 2025
I will be leading four retreats in 2025. The dates and venues are:
January 25: A Quiet Day at The House of Prayer, East Molesey, Surrey.
Website: www.christian.retreat.org. Contact: admin@christian-retreat.org.
April 4–6: A Weekend Retreat at Shallowford House, nr. Stone, Staffordshire.
Website: www.shallowfordhouse.org. Contact: info@shallowfordhouse.org
July 28–31: a Mid-week retreat at Whalley Abbey, Lancashire.
Website: www.whalleyabbey.org. Contact: bookings@whalleyabbey.org
October 20–23: a Mid-week Retreat at Launde Abbey, Leicestershire.
Website: laundeabbey.org.uk. Contact: info@launde.org.uk
November 24–27: a Mid-week Retreat at The Ammerdown Centre, Radstock, Somerset.
Website: www.ammerdown.org. Contact: centre@ammerdown.org
All the retreats will draw on material from Six Steps Into the Bible but with different emphases.
The Quiet Day at Molesey will be a prayerful exploration of the evolving biblical pictures of God and Jesus.
The Retreats at Shallowford and Ammerdown will combine teaching with times of reflection, focussing on how ideas of God and Jesus, morality and destiny develop in the Bible. Shallowford will be more concise; the longer time at Ammerdown will give more time for discussion and reflection.
The Retreats at Whalley Abbey and Launde Abbey will follow the same pattern but with a different balance between teaching and reflection, focussing on the evolving spirituality of the Bible, with good periods of stillness, personal prayer and reflection.
For further details and booking information please go to the websites of each venue. Other retreats on the Six Steps theme are in prospect for 2026, including Ashburnham Place, East Sussex; Minsteracres Retreat Centre, Co. Durham; and Rydal Hall, Cumbria.
RENEW:ALL
This year I contributed to RENEW:ALL, the National Retreat Week sponsored by St. Katharine’s Foundation in London: 21–28 September 2024. RENEW:ALL provides online free resources for those taking time aside. It began last year when 15K people engaged with the programme. The hope is to raise awareness of the positive spiritual wellbeing that comes from taking time on retreat. For further information about RENEW:ALL click here: Renewall | be transformed by the renewal of your mind…
My contribution, Stepping Into The Bible, is based on Steps One and Three of Six Steps, offering an approach to reading and studying the scriptures that helps us get under the skin of the Bible.
INVITATIONS
I have led a variety of Retreats and Quiet Days, Parish Weekends and Prayer workshops, among them an Ordination Retreat for the Ely Diocese and an Advent Retreat for Lutheran pastors in Pennsylvania. I have also led several retreats at the Benedictine Abbey of Tournay in south-west France, and Home-based Retreats (described below). I am happy to respond to invitations; to contact me click here.
Topics have included –
How to read the Bible
Meditative Prayer
Lectio Divina
Benedictine Spirituality
Preparing for Advent
A Holy Week Pilgrimage
THE LIVING REMINDER
In 2005 I led the Ordination Retreat for the Ely Diocese. I drew the title for my addresses from Henri Nouwen’s book The Living Reminder, three lectures about the spiritual resources of ministers. What is it, asked Nouwen, that enables them to preach, teach, counsel and celebrate with a continuing sense of joy, wonder, gratitude and praise? His answer is to picture the minister as a ‘living reminder’, one whose life points to God and who heals, sustains and guides the people of God. At the end of the book he recalls how he realised that he had, in fact, discussed the minister using the familiar threefold pattern of pastor, priest and prophet. Following Nouwen’s theme, the addresses reflect on what it means to be a pastor, priest and prophet in today’s world, and I explore this using the symbols that we use in our ministry , the ordinary things of life that we endow with special significance and which become effective signs of the grace of God. The text of the addresses is available here. Read now.
TIME OUT IN TOURNAY
The Abbaye Notre-Dame de Tournay, nestling by the river Arros in the glorious foothills of the Pyrenées, is a Benedictine community founded around 60 years ago. Like all monasteries it is a holy place, hallowed by prayer and the rhythm of the monastic life. The warm welcome, the peace and quiet, and the beautiful liturgy provide space for the spirit and make it the perfect place to take some time out. The surrounding area is rich in natural beauty with many places of pilgrimage and is noted for its Romanesque Churches.
Every three years, or so, I lead a week of refection at Tournay Abbey combining quiet time at the Abbey with visits to places of interest in the area. The next time will be early or mid-September 2025. Full details will be posted well in advance. If you would like to receive the details when they are available, please contact me: peter@peter-sills.co.uk .
A HOME-BASED RETREAT
What is a home-based retreat?
It’s just what it says, a time of guided prayer based in your own home. It is ideal for those
– whose commitments rule out going on a residential retreat;
– who have wondered about doing a retreat, but aren’t sure what’s involved;
– who would like to deepen their prayer-life.
What does it involve?
Those taking part are asked to make four commitments –
1. Clear your diary as much as possible for the week.
2. Set aside each day two times for silent prayer of half-an-hour to an hour, one in the morning, the other in the afternoon.
3. Meet for half-an-hour each day with one of the retreat conductors to talk over your experience.
4. Come to the service that concludes the retreat.
Will there be anything to read?
As there are no addresses in a home-based retreat, it is a good idea for a short book or set of meditations to take their place, for example my Lent book, The Life Hidden with Christ in God.