Celebrate Spring and the Breathing Earth

Scholarship Fundraising Event at Still Point Mountain Retreat featuring Jesse Palidofsky and friends in concert
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

Featuring:

✓ Jesse Palidofsky and friends in concert
✓ Alfresco dining by accolade winning retreat chefs
✓ Story-telling, poetry, drumming, fire circle and more
✓ Accommodations in Still Point cabin and Rolling Ridge Retreat House

You are welcome anytime Saturday to join the Still Point Partners, Friends of Silence staff, and Rolling Ridge Study Retreat Community in joyful spring raking and cleaning in the budding wilderness. Or come just as the shadows begin to lengthen for the main event ...

✓ 4 pm — lemonade, appetizers, and fundraising surprises
✓ 5 pm — scrumptious picnic porch supper
✓ 6 pm — festive concert, followed by fire circle
✓ Stay all night — for free

Men's Rites of Passage at Rolling Ridge with Belden Lane and Steven Gambill

Think of this time as jumping, or maybe being thrown, into a "life-changing stew" where you simmer for five days in the "transformational mix" of silence, wilderness, and powerful ritual that holds the possibility of breaking open your heart, allowing you
April 22-26, 2015
Wednesday 1:00 pm - Sunday 3:00 pm
Rolling Ridge at Harpers Ferry West Virginia

Belden Lane will join with Stephen Gambill and the Washington DC Regional MALEs team (Men As Learners and Elders) to host this area's second Men's Rites of Passage near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, from Wednesday afternoon April 22, 2015 through Sunday afternoon April 26, 2015.

This is not just another men's retreat or another spirituality event.  Think of this time as jumping, or maybe being thrown, into a "life-changing stew" where you simmer for five days in the "transformational mix" of silence, wilderness, and powerful ritual that holds the possibility of breaking open your heart, allowing you to see new possibilities for yourself, and creating "living questions" that will percolate within you and guide you for years to come.

Simply Silence: Spring

An age-old prayer tradition for contemporary pilgrims
April 10-12, 2015
Friday evening supper through Sunday morning
Still Point Mountain Retreat

Gather at Still Point Mountain Retreat for Friday Vespers, followed by 7:00 p.m. dinner and Compline. Arrive Friday after 1:00 p.m. Retreat ends on Sunday morning. Gathered participants will follow contemporary Prayer of the Hours, interspersed with generous time for silence and rambling in the winter woods, warming around the fire, reading or writing in the library, reflecting through art or your own contemplative work, and enjoying one another in community. Come away and rest. A warm, comfortable log cabin and kindred spirits await.

Retreat include five delicious home-style meals, a contemplative library and art materials. Retreat Fee: $185.

It's easy to register:

Sacred Quiet Days

Friday Walking Meditation "Journey of the Heart" and Sunday sunrise fire circle at Rolling Ridge: an informal gathering
April 3-5, 2015
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat

Save the date!  More information to come.

"It's Almost Spring!" Workday

Join the Study Retreat Community for a day of joyful work in the garden, near the spring, in the retreat house, and among the trees
Saturday, March 14, 2015
9:30 am - 4 pm
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat

Can work be fun, renewing, relational?
Yes!
But don't take our word for it.
Come to our annual spring work day and find out for yourself!
Afer all, it's almost spring!
Time for a little renewal of body and spirit, don't you think?

Arrive at 9:30 am and be welcomed with steaming coffe and fragrant tea, fresh-from-the-oven muffins, and friends new and old.

Work begins promptly at 10 am.

Work where you will find it most enjoyable:

Simply Silence: Winter

An age-old prayer tradition for contemporary pilgrims
February 27 - March 1, 2015
Friday evening supper through Sunday lunch
Still Point Mountain Retreat near Harpers Ferry WV

View from Still Point deck in winter

Gather at Still Point Mountain Retreat for Friday Vespers, followed by 7:00 p.m. dinner and Compline. Arrive Friday after 1:00 p.m. Retreat ends following lunch on Sunday. Gathered participants will follow contemporary Prayer of the Hours, interspersed with generous time for silence and rambling in the winter woods, warming around the fire, reading or writing in the library, reflecting through art or your own contemplative work, and enjoying one another in community. Come away and rest. A warm, comfortable log cabin and kindred spirits await.

Retreat include six delicious home-style meals, a contemplative library and art materials. Retreat Fee: $185.

It's easy to register:

Wilderness Wandering and Quarterly Men's Gathering

December 5-6, 2014
Friday 6 pm - Saturday 6 pm
Still Point Mountain Retreat at Rolling Ridge

"Wilderness wandering is perhaps the most essential soulcraft practice
for contemporary Westerners who have wandered so far from nature"
-- Bill Plotkin, Soul Craft

As men, we need three things to grow in our spiritual journey: intentional heart connection with other men, a daily contemplative practice, and regular immersion in wilderness.

We invite you to join other men from our region for a "Wilderness Wandering" on December 5-6 at the Stillpoint Retreat at Rolling Ridge in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, beginning on Friday night with a shared potluck dinner between 6-7 pm followed by a reflection period. Saturday will serve as an intentional extended period of solitude in nature without distraction, incorporating an opportunity for fasting, prayer, solitude, observation, and journaling. This is not for the faint of heart. It is for those men who want to be intentional about their spiritual journey.

The Gift of Story

A retreat for Advent and the Winter Solstice
December 5-7, 2014
Friday supper 6 pm - Sunday lunch
Rolling Ridge Study Retreat

Traditionally the liturgical season of Advent is a time to reflect inwardly on what gives us hope, while on a planetary level the earth's northern hemisphere awaits the solstice, marking the moment after which the sun's light will lengthen each day, pushing back the darkness. It is a time immersed in story: of stars, angelic visitations, dreams, and journeys, as well as generosity and compassion in less exalted realms: gifts left on doorsteps or in shoes or stockings, feasts for the poor, tales of elves and sugarplums told round the warmth of a burning Yule.

Yet we live in a time when the deeper possibilities of these stories are largely ignored and discredited. We are surrounded instead by a different story, one of separation: between us and nature, spirit and matter, reason and intuition.

Shalem's Contemplative Voices Award

Honoring Cynthia Bourgeault
Sunday, November 16, 2014
4-6:30 pm

The Shalem Institute's Contemplative Voices Award was created to honor those individuals who have made significant contributions to contemplative understanding, living and leadership and whose witness helps others live from the divine wellspring of compassion, strength, and authentic vision. 

Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader, who divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine and a demanding schedule traveling globally to teach and spread the recovery of the Christian contemplative and Wisdom path. She is the founding director of both The Contemplative Society and the Aspen Wisdom School.

Advanced Wisdom School with Cynthia Bourgeault

Gurdjieff for Christian Contemplatives: An Intensive Exploration of the Holy Trinity and the Law of Three
November 11-16, 2014
Tuesday dinner - Sunday lunch
Claymont Society for Continuous Education in Charles Town, WV

This Advanced Wisdom School will be an intensive exploration of the Holy Trinity and the Law of Three, based on Cynthia's new book which is required reading for this Wisdom School.

Two years ago Cynthia provided an introductory immersion in Gurdjieff work and Gurdjieff movements to Christian contemplative seekers, exploring core ideas and practices largely unfamiliar to mainstream Christianity but with a deep affinity with mystical Christianity and a profound capacity to resolve theological logjams and move practice to a deeper, more integrated place. Topics explored included: reciprocal feeding, the Law of Three, the original enneagram, essence and personality, three centered awareness, attention, and self-remembering.

Pages