Tag Archives: Launde Abbey

Quiet Day: ‘Also Made’

In Genesis 1, we read that God made the stars. In fact, He ‘also made the stars’. This day will offer gentle time and space to be affirmed in who we are. We are not an afterthought.

As we journey towards Christmas, let’s pause, and make space for Jesus to enter in.

The Quiet Day will be led by Emily Owen. Emily Owen is an award-winning author and speaker, with several books to her name. She lost her hearing overnight aged 21, and has had numerous surgeries. Emily knows what it is to be broken, and she knows what it is to meet God there.

There will be opportunities for 1-1s with Emily, either using voice/speech or in Sign Language.

Emily will be bringing with her copies of her children’s Advent/Christmas book “Also Made”.

Sign Language interpretation will be available for this retreat.

Yes – I’d like to take part in this Quiet Day! (Please complete this form to request a place.)

Quiet Day: The Poetry of Prayer

Prayer is poetic. It’s finding words, pictures, and metaphors to frame our experiences and name the Divine in the details of the everyday.

In poetry, we listen and describe what’s going on around us. In prayer, we begin to inhabit the words we declare.

An opportunity to take time to be still and listen deeply.
An invitation to play with words and pray poetically.

This Quiet Day will be led by Matt Long. Matt is Youth Engagement & Intergenerational Communities Enabler for the Diocese of Leicester. Matt lives the seasons – pausing, paying attention, foraging, fermenting, and finding words to frame story.

Yes – I’d like to take part in this Quiet Day! (Please complete this form to request a place.)

Quiet Day: A Time of Gathering

John Rackley

For the beauty and bounty of creation, we give you thanks.

A day to focus on the beauty of creation and immerse ourselves in it. A time to express our gratitude to God for the environment and its harvest.

An opportunity to take time to listen deeply, tread lightly and immerse ourselves in the wonderful colours, tastes, textures, smells and sounds of autumn at Launde Abbey. There will be invitations to wonder at the beauty, creativity, sustenance and abundance of Creation.

Weather permitting, some of this day will take place outside, so please bring suitable footwear. There will also be indoor options.

This Quite Day will be led by John Rackley, a Baptist who works with Christchurch LEP, Leicester. He writes for the Bible Reading Fellowship and Wild Goose. He is exploring currently the relationship between our spirituality and the natural environment.

Yes – I’d like to take part in this Quiet Day! (Please complete this form to request a place.)

July Quiet Day: Keeping the Fire Ablaze

After six months of an intense exposure to Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection’ we start a further period of six months that the church labels as ‘Ordinary Time’! Labelled as such because it includes no major feasts or festivals but this is a time which is anything but ordinary!

This quiet day, offered barely a month after Pentecost when the tongues of the fire of the Holy Spirit lapped around Jesus’ followers, invites participants to prepare for living in the power of the Spirit and to prepare for God’s challenges but to do so in the intimate personal presence of God.

With another five months of ‘Ordinary Time’ in which to respond to God’s will for us all, let us not allow those Pentecost embers die by wasting time counting down to the next Advent. God has filled us with the same fire that he used on that first Pentecost, so we will use this day of quiet to prepare ourselves to keep that fire ablaze.

Alan and Lesley Humphrey

Alan Humphrey is an Anglican priest and resident Chaplain at Launde. He comes to Launde from parish ministry before working alongside Lesley at a new monastic community where they were warden and house manager respectively. Their enthusiasm for sharing their love of God stems from experiences throughout their varied careers coupled with many years of serving on team at New Wine.

Yes – I’d like to take part in this Quiet Day! (Please complete this form to request a place.)

The ‘I AM’ Sayings FULLY BOOKED

This retreat is now fully booked. Please complete the form at the end of this page if you wish to be placed on the Waiting List.

In Exodus, Yahweh gives Moses his name – I am who I am. This is picked up in John’s Gospel in what have come to be known as the I am statements of Jesus …

I am the Bread of Life
I am the Light of the World
I am the Door
I am the Good Shepherd
I am the Resurrection and the Life
I am the Way and the Truth and the Life
I am the Vine

In this retreat we will pray with and through the I am statements of Jesus in John’s gospel. Using the textile art of Jane Allen we will engage with each of the I am statements of Jesus in turn. We will also pray with the narrative of the woman at the well using the artwork of Sarah Bird and the words of Jesus: I, the one speaking to you, I am He. There will be an invitation to use more traditional ways of praying with the text, including lectio divina and imaginative contemplation. There will also be the invitation to use clay and other art and craft materials to pray in a way that enables us to meet and talk with God through more creative approaches.

This retreat will be led by Chris and Rhona Knight.

Chris was a research scientist for many years until he changed direction after completing a PhD in Apologetics. He worked in the area of apologetics before leading on the teaching of doctrine at Lincoln School of Theology. He is married to Rhona and they have three grown sons. Now retired he has more time to enjoy chess, bird watching and photography.

Rhona was a GP and medical educator for 25 years. She was ordained in 2015 and led on teaching pastoral care at Lincoln School of Theology. Now retired she continues to research, write and teach particularly in the area of boundaries and trauma in ministry. She is a retreat leader, spiritual director and pastoral supervisor and enjoys reading, theatre, art, creativity and the outdoors

Please complete this form to be placed on the Waiting List for this retreat.

Icon Painting Retreat FULLY BOOKED

This retreat is now fully booked – please use the form below if you’d like to request a place on our waiting list.

Join us for this five day icon painting course with experienced iconographer, Peter Murphy.

The course takes place in the prayerful and meditative atmosphere of one of the oldest and most beautiful retreat houses in England, which has its own medieval chapel. Over the course of the week, students will learn to gild and paint on a specially prepared wooden panel using traditional medieval techniques and materials.

All materials, including gold leaf and pigments are included in the fee. Each course starts with an Anglican Eucharist, which all course participants are welcome to attend, and there is an opportunity to join in other services if required.

Peter Murphy was born in Leeds and was educated at the University of East London. He trained with iconographer Guillem Ramos Poqui in London. He was Vice Chairman of the Society of Tempera Painters and is a member of the British Association of Iconographers. He has been commissioned by a number of churches in the UK and has also been employed by a number of museums and has recently undertaken three major commissions for Hereford Cathedral. For more information about Peter and his work please visit: petermurphyicons.co.uk

Please complete this form to request being placed on the Waiting List for this retreat.

Diving For Pearls Retreat

Exploring the depths of prayer; newly-discovered writings from the seventh century Isaac the Syrian by Andrew Mayes guides this retreat. (Andrew’s book won a first-place prize in the 2022 Catholic Media Association Awards!)

These astonishingly beautiful texts invite us to leave the shallows and plunge into the deep waters of prayer. “There”, says Isaac, “we may discover in the ocean of grace pearls of new insight and fresh intuitions of God.”

This retreat beckons us to relax, enjoy God’s creation and to allow ourselves to sink gently into the beckoning waters of contemplation, where we open our hearts and minds to fresh discoveries of God – and of ourselves.

Andrew Mayes was formerly Spirituality Adviser both to the diocese of Chichester and the diocese of Cyprus and the Gulf. He has worked for some years in Jerusalem, and is the author of 12 spirituality books. A Franciscan and Anglican priest, Andrew delights in imagery and metaphor that takes us into the deeper reaches of prayer.

Early bird price: £395 if booked before 5th July 2022. Full price £415.

Please complete this form to request a place on the retreat.

Quilting and Textiles Retreat FULLY BOOKED

God in the Ebb and Flow of our Lives.

**This retreat is now fully booked. Please use the form below to enquire about being placed on our waiting list.**

Using our creativityand the medium of textiles, we will express and explore the relationship we have with God the creator throughout the ebb and flow of our lives. The metaphor of ‘the rhythm of the seas and oceans’ will be our focus and reminder that we have an unchanging God in an ever changing world.

In the ‘seascape’ of our lives, we explore the ebb and flow of the tides, and discover how God is involved in our shaping, polishing, and honing.

As part of the retreat there will be an opportunity to make a small seascape panel which can be joined up into a larger piece of work as a wall hanging. You are also welcome to bring your own sewing project. We recommend that any sewing machines used should have been PAT tested within the last three years.

Revd Claire Goode is a Chaplain at Launde Abbey. She is an experienced parish priest and retreat leader who was most recently the Vicar of a city centre church in Nottingham. Claire was also one of the team offering Spiritual Direction (Spiritual Accompaniment) and Mentoring in Southwell & Nottingham Diocese. She has been sewing ever since she can remember – she had her first sewing machine aged 9 years and has recently studied for a City and Guilds Patchwork and Quilting Certificate.

Early bird price: £395 if booked before 30th June 2022. Full price £415.

Please complete this form to request being placed on the waiting list for this retreat.

Beginners’ Retreat (September)

Are you someone who has been away on a parish weekend, perhaps been to a quiet day or two, but never experienced a residential retreat? Are you unsure how you might cope with a retreat, what you might do with your time, or whether you can cope with the silence? Then this is the retreat for you!

The aim of this semi-silent retreat weekend is to help you enter the world of silent retreats gently and with plenty of support. There will be guidance on how to use the time; periods on your own and with the other retreatants, and the opportunity to share your experience with others if you wish to do so. During you stay at Launde you can join in with the community’s rhythm of prayer and worship; walk, paint, potter or simply rest, as the spirit takes you.

Revd Alison Myers

Alison Myers is the new warden of Launde Abbey. Most recently a Team Rector in rural ministry in Cambridgeshire, she has crafted and led many reflective services and gatherings using spoken word, music, silence and creative prayer stations. She is also an experienced workshop leader and mentor, combining spirituality and theology with the practical challenges of leadership, team-working and managing change, informed by her working life before she was ordained as well as theological study and lifelong faith. She loves praying outdoors, a good cup of coffee, noticing the cycle of the seasons and encouraging a wondering faith. She lives with her family onsite at Launde Abbey.

Revd Chris Webb

Chris Webb, Deputy Warden of Launde Abbey and Diocesan Spirituality Adviser, is an Anglican priest who has ministered as president of a spiritual formation ministry in the USA, as a parish priest in Wales and in a church for the homeless. He is the author of two books: The Fire of the Word (2011) and God-Soaked Life (2017).

Early bird price: £280 if booked before 16th July 2022. Full price £300.

Please complete this form to request a place on the retreat.

Launde Abbey Gardening Holiday FULLY BOOKED

Launde Abbey Christian Retreat House, Leicestershire This retreat is now fully booked – please use the form below if you’d like to request a place on our waiting list.

Enjoy a productive week with our Head Gardener, Karen Johnson and our team of wonderful Volunteer Gardeners here at Launde Abbey. Working together in the beautiful gardens and grounds during the day, and relaxing either as a group or if you prefer, taking your own space. Each Guest will be invited to enjoy our full board catering and a private, comfortable bedroom with ensuite facilities.

Launde Abbey Gardening Volunteers enjoying a well earned tea break

Please note that due to the popularity of these weeks, only one booking a year may be made at a time, and your name can be added to a waiting list should further places become available.

Please complete this form to request a place on the retreat.

Launde Abbey Volunteer Gardeners

Please complete this form to request a place on the retreat.