CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN HOUSE OF RETREAT PLESHEY NOV 2017 Chelmsford Diocesan House of Retreat Pleshey November 2017 IN THIS ISSUE; Advent Retreat December Quiet Time & Lunch Christmas Sing Day Concert with Simeon Wood New Year Prayer Weekend Living with days Evelyn Underhill Prayer Diaries As we send out this Newsletter I guess many of you will be thinking more and more about Christmas and all that that entails. Shopping, wrapping presents, what food is needed and many other factors - hopefully we all take the time to remember and enjoy the celebration of the birth of Jesus. With this in mind we have our Advent Retreat over the weekend of the 24 th -26 th November with Revd David Coleman. There are still spaces available. Please see our programme or call the office for more information. [Please note that the Advent Quiet Day on the 30 th November with Canon Ivor Moody is now full.] Have you thought about some time-out during the busyness of December? See some more details of some quiet time at The House - with a Christmas lunch! On Saturday December 9 th, we have two events; It is our Christmas Sing Day, led by Lauren Talbot, who regularly leads worship at St Stephens Church, Twickenham, Gill and myself. This is filling up nicely and if you still wish to come along we would encourage you to contact the office and book your place soon. That evening we are holding a fund-raising concert and Simeon Wood returns, along with his flutes, walking stick and other musical instruments see the poster enclosed. We are most grateful to St Marys Church, Great Baddow for allowing us to host the concert there on this occasion. The Christmas Retreat, we are pleased to say, is fully booked. There is a waiting list should you wish your name to be added to this. Please pray for this event in particular. In the New Year, Friday 5 th to Sunday 7 th January, we are holding a Prayer Weekend and we hope many of you will be able to join with us. More details within this Newsletter. A new idea for 2018, are some days where we touch on the aspects of Living with situations. We will run 3 or 4 of these a year hopefully touching on things like Dementia, Discrimination, Chronic Illness and other such things. Again some more detail enclosed. Please note that the House will be closed, other than for the Christmas Retreat, from Thursday 21 st December, opening again on Tuesday 2 nd January 2018. Can we take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderfully joyous Christmas and peaceful New Year and we look forward to seeing many of you visiting the House through 2018. Stewart McCredie
CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN HOUSE OF RETREAT PLESHEY NOV 2017 2 Email Addresses: A reminder that if you have an email address, we can send you the Newsletter and Programmes electronically rather than post - which is incurring higher and higher costs. If you don t have an email, we will happily still post these to you. Can we ask that you send an email to retreathouse@chelmsford.anglican.org requesting email updates instead. Thank you to all that have previously advised. Please be assured your details are safe and will not be passed on to anyone. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose than for the House of Retreat updates approximately 4 per year. Have you thought about some time out in the busyness of December? Something we are offering this year through December is the opportunity to have a few hours of quiet, space, time to pray (during the peaceful period that is more commonly known as December) at the Retreat House followed by a lovely traditional Christmas Dinner. Individuals, prayer groups, team ministries, Mission & Ministry Partnerships this is open to all. It s not too early to book so please make contact with the office and make a booking. Christmas Sing Day Saturday, 9 th December 2017 Open to all who enjoy celebrating Christmas in song. If you play a musical instrument, please bring it with you. The day also includes a festive lunch. 9:30am 4:00pm 27 per person
CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN HOUSE OF RETREAT PLESHEY NOV 2017 3 Around 2 years ago, Simeon held a concert for us in Pleshey to which around 100 people came along and had a thoroughly splendid evening. Since then, we have been asked numerous times when will he be returning. He was also one of the leaders, along with Dave Hopwood, of our music week this year. Those attending had a wonderful week. As a fund-raiser for The House of Retreat, on the 9 th December, Simeon will be presenting his Christmas Presence evening. This is a night of music and laughter. Simeon s wonderful talent and delightful personality will make this an evening not to be missed. It is also a great outreach event - a safe place to bring non-christian family and friends. St Marys Church, Great Baddow have very kindly agreed to us using their church for which we are most grateful. Tickets are available from either St Marys church office or the Retreat House. Contact details are on the back page of this newsletter. The page can be detached and posted on your church notice board. Living with These days will hopefully be helpful to anyone living with or those who provide support or care for someone living with or through situations. We hope to cover a number of subjects and are still working through some dates. They will be around the format of a quiet day but we would expect each one to be different in their own way. The first of these days, Living with Dementia, will be on Saturday 10 th March and will be led by Jennifer Bute and Louise Morse who have both led conferences and other such events previously around this subject. Jennifer currently lives in a dementia inclusive village in the south of England. Louise has written, amongst other things, books on worship in dementia. The days start at 9.30am finishing around 4.00pm and include lunch. The cost being 28. Booking is in the usual way via the House office. Another of these days will be on the 28th July 2018. This will be 'Living with... Discrimination and will be led by Andrea Minichiello Williams, founder and CEO, Christian Concern & Christian Legal Centre. We will have more detail about this and other dates in future newsletters.
CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN HOUSE OF RETREAT PLESHEY NOV 2017 4 Evelyn Underhill Prayer Diaries by Robyn Wrigley-Carr In January, 2018, Evelyn Underhill s Prayer Book will be published by SPCK, London. I want to give you a tiny glimpse of how the Prayer Books were found, plus a taste of some of Evelyn s prayers. Last year, while on a research trip examining echoes of von Hügel in Evelyn Underhill, I visited The Retreat House. While looking through some papers and books there, I stumbled upon Evelyn Underhill s Prayer Book. It had been found at an Oxfam Bookshop many decades before by a Canadian priest who had posted it to Pleshey. Several Underhill scholars had assumed it had been lost decades before. As I read through the Prayer Book, I had the words of Grace Adophsen Brame echoing in my heart and mind: that little book of prayers which Underhill had made herself, one single copy of hand written prayers which she loved If that is ever found, it will be a treasure. 1 Recognising the treasure I held in my hands, I copied out the Prayer Book. On a subsequent trip to check my copy with the original, a second Prayer Book of Evelyn s also emerged. And both copies being uncovered in the 75th anniversary of her death! This Prayer Book was the earlier of the two, so I quickly copied that one as well. In the Prayer Books Evelyn presents her favourite prayers from writers in Christian spirituality from the 3rd to twentieth century. In the second half of the latter Prayer Book, we read many of Evelyn s own prayers, and I d love to give you a taste of some of them. At times, Evelyn s prayers are deeply passionate, heartfelt prayers. For example, Let our lives run to Your embrace and breathe the breath of Eternity. O God Supreme! Most secret and most present, most beautiful and strong. Constant yet Incomprehensible, changeless yet changing all! What can I say, my God, my Life, my Holy Joy You are the only reality At times, Evelyn s prayers are poetic: beyond us are the hills of God, the snowfields of the Spirit, the Other Kingdom. Evelyn s energy and zest shine forth in her prayers: make us ready for adventure. Guide us with your adorable wisdom. take possession of our souls. So fill our imaginations with pictures of Your love Evelyn s dependent, humble posture is clearly evident: Let us ask God to work in us those changes that He knows we need. Let us ask for closer communion with our Lord-: therefore a greater forgetting of ourselves. Evelyn prays about union with Christ, even at times in unique ways: Within Your wounds, hide me! And Evelyn, the retreat leader, tries to lead the community in prayers that will comfort and restore: Soothe our restlessness: say to our hearts Peace be still. Brood over us, within us, Spirit of perfect peace enfolded in Your loving care. It s extremely exciting to see the prayers Evelyn carefully chose and wrote for leading spiritual retreats available to a new generation of pray-ers and retreat leaders. Please spread the word about this publication. All royalties are being donated to The House of Retreat, Pleshey, where Evelyn led retreats in the 1920s and 1930s. 1 Grace Adophsen Brame, The Ways of the Spirit (New York: Crossroad, 1990), 39.
CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN HOUSE OF RETREAT PLESHEY NOV 2017 5 Prayer Requests We received an email in this last few days from Lucy Bubb to let us know that her father, John Bubb, sadly passed away on the 7 th October. John and Diana, his wife, have been Friends of the House for many years. Lucy asked me to pass on details of his funeral, which will be at 11:30am, Tuesday 14 th November at St Giles and All Saints Church, High Road, Orsett, RM16 3ER. There will be refreshments after the service and burial. Family flowers only and any donations kindly to CMS and USPG. All are welcome to the service. Please pray for Diana, Lucy and all other family and close friends. Audrey Butler has been most grateful in recent months for all the prayers, messages, cards and good wishes from so many of you from across the country and indeed as far as Australia. She has had a further time in hospital but is now home with continued care. Please continue to remember Audrey at this time. Esther de Waal is quite possibly a name not many of you will know or recognise. She is a recognised authority/retreat leader/author around Evelyn Underhill, and many other subjects and has been to the House previously, most recently last year. She has also been a point of contact for Robyn Wrigley-Carr regarding the Prayer Diaries. Sadly, whilst in communication with her recently regarding leading a retreat here in 2019, she has informed us that she has had a breakdown in recent times and is now not able to lead retreats or carry out much of her previous activities. I know she would appreciate prayers at this time. If you have any prayer requests, please contact us and we will pass them on to the Chaplains to include in Morning Prayers. Only, on request, will we include them in Newsletters. Prayer Weekend 5 th -7 th January 2018 We are offering an opportunity for people to stay for the weekend, or part of it, to spend time in prayer for the House and all who will connect here in 2018. It may be that you desire space at the beginning of the New Year for yourself. That is fine too. The weekend is not a led retreat but there will be some prayer stations around the house focusing on specific subjects. Morning Prayers will be held at 9:00am, Midday Prayers at 12:15pm and Night Prayer at 8:30pm all in the Chapel. There is also the option to call in during the weekend to spend time in prayer. (Donations would be appreciated.) Meals are available for visitors but must be booked in advance. We look forward to hearing from you in the next few weeks.
0 Open CHELMSFORD DIOCESAN HOUSE OF RETREAT PLESHEY NOV 2017 6 Friends of Pleshey 18 th November 2017 Friends Day No fee 10:30am 2:30pm Looking forward to 2018. To include a bring & share lunch. The House will provide desserts. Please confirm attendance with the office. 9 th 11 th February 2018 Friends Retreat And God saw that it was good Jane Franklin 146/ 160 An opportunity to explore the Divine and Nature and your own Creativity through contemplation, colourful prayer and poetry influenced by Hildegard of Bingen, Ignatius of Loyola and Francis of Assisi. 7 th May 2018 Open Day 10:00am to 4:00pm to all. The day is the success it is due to the incredible team effort made by the volunteers. If you haven t helped in previous years, please consider offering this time round. Many hands make light work as the saying goes. Please contact Jo or Stewart at the House so that we can add your name to the list. 20 th October 2018 Friends Quiet Day 28 Celtic Reflections 2017 Events 2018 Events Revd Graham Dowling Chaplain to the House of Retreat More details to follow. Prayer & Welcome Rota This ministry is such an important part of the life of the House and we are keen to encourage as many of you as are able to join this merry band of people who pray regularly and welcome groups arriving at the House for retreats. If you can spare just 1 or 2 afternoons a term, or year, please make contact with Val Jones who co-ordinates this important group of people. Her contact details are; Email: valerie.jones1942@hotmail.co.uk Tel: 01279 653550 Dates for Friends Day in 2018 10:30am 2:30pm (New times) An opportunity to spend time with each other. To include a bring & share lunch. The House will provide desserts. No fee Please confirm attendance with the office. 24 th February 2018 21 st July 2018 *8 th September 2018 17 th November 2018 *Change of date The House of Retreat, The Street, Pleshey, Chelmsford, Essex CM3 1HA The Diocesan Retreat House for Essex and East London Tel : 01245 237 251 retreathouse@chelmsford.anglican.org www.retreathousepleshey.com The Retreat House is part of the Chelmsford Diocesan Board of Finance, Registered Charity No: 249505
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