Why We Gather: Fall Retreat Reflection
Leaders of Color Retreat, Oct. 19–22 • Clergy Retreat, Oct. 28–29
Ministry asks a great deal of those who lead it. Pastors and leaders spend so much of themselves drawing water for others that it is easy to forget they, too, need to be refreshed. That is why we make time to step away together, and this fall, two retreats offered our leaders rest, renewal and the gift of one another.
Leaders of Color Retreat
At our annual Leaders of Color Retreat at Zephyr Point Presbyterian Conference Center, 33 teaching elders, commissioned pastors and commissioned ruling elders of color from the presbyteries of San José, San Francisco, North Central California and the Redwoods spent four days together. Guided by Ruth T. West of San Francisco Theological Seminary at the University of Redlands, they explored spiritual practices for building resilience in the struggle for God’s transformative justice.
They prayed, worshiped, played and laughed; cooked Japanese curry, tteokbokki and eomuk-guk; roasted s’mores by the fire (with a surprise visit from a bobcat!); and rested. The retreat closed with communion, co-led by Executive Presbyter Neal Presa and the Rev. Laura Cheifetz, Transitional Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of San Francisco, with a liturgy honoring our many ancestries and origins and our journey toward justice.
Clergy Retreat: “Pits and Wells”
A week later, clergy of our presbytery gathered for the Clergy Retreat at St. Francis Retreat in San Juan Bautista with facilitator the Rev. Fred Harrell, around the theme “Pits and Wells: Finding Living Water in Difficult Times.” Drawing on Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), pastors made space to name what drains them and to notice where living water is still rising.
The days held honest sharing, prayer partners, morning and evening prayer, firepit conversations, the art of the Rev. Dr. Vincent Arishvara, and a Theology on Tap conversation led by the Rev. Dr. Dave Watermulder that drew on Dolly Parton and St. Rose of Viterbo.
Gatherings like these remind us that none of us does ministry alone. Thank you to the staff of Zephyr Point and St. Francis Retreat, the Rev. Diane Ford, the Church Health & Growth Working Group, and the Synod of the Pacific’s Anne Penke Fund for making these retreats possible.
Thanks be to God, the Wellspring of life.