Morning By Mourning: A Soul Wellness Retreat

Come away with your seminary sisters and brothers to rest, to reflect, and to receive tools for the journey. Palmer (EBTS) alumni are invited to a special all-day retreat at Daylesford Abbey, Paoli, PA on Thursday, February 29, 2024.

The day begins at 8:45 a.m. and ends at 6:30 p.m.; light morning refreshments, lunch and dinner included; an overnight option for private contemplation is available.  We will worship, reflect, enjoy table fellowship, and be comforted and equipped TOGETHER in sacred community.

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In January of 2022 a group of Palmer alumni gathered, masked and awaiting a winter storm, at a nearby spiritual center for a time of recovery and renewal.  We were living through a challenging season; it seemed fitting this set-apart time of rest demanded navigating, yet—another storm.  

“The authentic love experienced from the alumni care team (and by extension, the seminary) is life-giving… a sustaining force in my ministry—a true blessing...”, wrote one alumnus after the gathering.  Another offered, “…just what was needed! Connecting to this community was so refreshing and restorative.”  A third shared the retreat time, “showed me how much I miss being around colleagues…being with real people who are struggling with the same issues was healing”.

Palmer’s Center for Alumni Care and Seminary Engagement--CARES, was born out of a discerned need and is committed to continue in authentic relationship with its community.  It offers care, connection, and nourishment to Palmer graduates—leaders in the Church—through chaplaincy care, small group fellowship, formational offerings, and more.  

This particular retreat focused on the story in Mark 14:3-9.  It was shared through the Eyes of Simon and of the Woman by biblical storytellers Rev. Dr. Deborah Winters ’85 and Rev. Cynthia Pollard ’03.  The invitation was for those called to soul-tend to others offering enough, to come away and be tended to and rest in enough, recognizing that we all had been broken open, serving in ways never thought possible or necessary with little time to pause, to reflect during pan pandemics.  We worshipped, reflected, enjoyed table fellowship, and were encouraged and sharpened TOGETHER in sacred community.

The leaders of the ancient church were also adept storm navigators.  The Light shone brightly through the way they cared for one another in community and through the way, as whole persons, they cared for others.  Through the care of our alumni community, may it also be so.