Greetings Brothers!
Registration is now open for the 2025 Conference Men's Retreat. We'll meet at Pilgrim Firs the
weekend of January 31 – February 2, 2025. Reverend Bill Comfort will lead this year’s “wild”
retreat.
Born to Be Wild
Bill will lead an interactive exploration of how wildness influences who we are, or can be, as
men. We will consider the Steppenwolf song, a Wendell Berry poem "The Peace of Wild
Things," a children's book "Where the Wild Things Are," by Maurice Sendak, and the paintings
of Wassily Kandinsky. Bill will pose questions for large and small group discussions as we
figure out together what being wild means for our lives. As always, these discussions will be
safe, welcoming and confidential. Closer to the retreat there will be a list of some of the
questions so that you can ponder on your answers in advance.
As always, the retreat begins on Friday evening and runs through Sunday morning. Additionally,
there is an optional one-day silent retreat that begins Thursday evening, January 30.
The committee explored adding a Zoom option for remote attendance but that’s not yet feasible.
"We understand the risk of illness, especially respiratory illness, is ever present. Please don’t attend if you are uncomfortable with the risk. < To protect yourself and other more vulnerable people at the retreat, we strongly recommend making sure you are fully vaccinated well before the retreat with the most current vaccinations especially Influenza and COVID-19). Check with your healthcare provider if you are not sure or have questions about attending. > Feel free to wear a mask to lessen your exposure. "
Rates:
$250.00 Thursday 7pm -Sunday 11am with 3 nights lodging. Friday breakfast – Sunday breakfast. Thursday – Friday 5pm is a silent retreat
$172.00 for Friday dinner through Sunday breakfast with lodging for two nights.
$55.00 for Saturday only includes 2 meals.
To be as inclusive as possible, we provide financial assistance to any brothers that need it to
attend. Contact Hans Dankers at jdank@msn.com for more information. For those that don’t
need financial assistance, consider donating to the Men’s Retreat Fund when you register.
We hope for safe travels and look forward to a fun and meaningful retreat. In the meantime,
enjoy the holidays!
The Conference Men's Retreat Planning Committee
Charlie Torres, Don Jenkins, Hans Dankers, Jim Gaudino, Larry Kiriluk, Paul Withington and
Rick Russell
