Nearly eight months ago, the Rosemont Community Retreat House officially opened its doors. To date, twenty-one individuals have stayed in the house, twenty-one individuals have participated in group program retreats, three parish vestries have used the house for day retreats, and the diocesan staff has met in the house twice. Looking ahead, eleven individuals have bookings in the near future, five people are planning to attend the next program retreat in just under two weeks, and the diocesan Commission on Gun Violence will be holding their next meeting in the house in June. Additionally, the house has sponsored five day retreats since its opening. Distinguished guests such as Father Andrew Mead and Mother Sarah Coakley have stayed in the house during their visits to preach. And every Wednesday evening, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., parishioner Don McCown leads a contemplative prayer and mindfulness group that meets in the library.
And yet, it’s only the beginning. We have just released the 2023-2024 program year offerings for the Rosemont Community Retreat House, which you can learn more about here. Next season, we are expanding to include two online-only offerings by Dr. Ellen Charry, our theologian-in-residence. Please look at next year’s retreats, and help us spread the word! And “like” the retreat house on Facebook. I’m grateful to our wonderful publicist, Eliza Brinkley, a seminarian at Virginia Theological Seminary, who is promoting all of our offerings creatively and effectively.
The Rosemont Community Retreat House is an outreach ministry of Good Shepherd, Rosemont. First and foremost, it’s a place for prayer, rest, healing, spiritual formation, and fellowship. There are many kinds of poverty in our world, and while material poverty is indeed a pressing problem, there is also spiritual poverty. There is loneliness, too, in a world that is more connected than it has ever been and where people are, at the same time, increasingly more and more isolated. The retreat house is a place to build community and foster healing, and this is one form of outreach to the poor.
There is only one aspect of our envisioned mission for the retreat house that has not yet transpired. For various reasons, we have not yet been able to host a family through Hosts for Hospitals. But that still remains a possibility, which we hope will occur in the near future. We are also looking at ways to connect with other organizations who seek lodging for families visiting the Philadelphia region for medical care. If you have ideas, I would love to hear about them.
Finally, since the Rosemont Community Retreat House is a parish ministry, I invite you to consider ways in which you can help. We need your help! Here are some possibilities:
Cook or serve meals for program retreats. You can make them at home and bring them to the retreat house when needed. It’s simple. Or if you wish, donate a meal from a restaurant. We will accept those, too!
Ferry dirty laundry to the cleaners as needed.
Welcome guests.
Share our programming with friends and family.
Donate to support operating expenses and scholarships for retreatants.
To assist with any in-person tasks, please email Chris Wittrock.
I’m grateful to all who have supported our retreat house ministry in so many ways. Thank you! And may God bless this peaceful house, which seeks to be a beacon of prayer, hospitality, love, fellowship, and healing.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle