Join us as we explore a new venue for retreat offerings: the great outdoors! We will arrive (location TBD) on Wednesday afternoon to do a gear check, have supper together, and then head into the BWCAW early on Thursday. We will make our way into a campsite, set up camp and then spend the next few days there—being silent, responding to questions, paddling to see what nature has to show us. We will come out of the BWCAW on Saturday. We’ll have supper and debrief together over a bonfire on a Lake Superior beach. Participants will head back on Sunday.
Words from our teachers…
We are so fortunate to have a wilderness area like the Boundary Waters on our doorstep. Its scale and beauty and wildness are known all over the country and even the world. I (Mary Ellen) know the Boundary Waters as a transformative place—a place of peace, beauty, and life changing experience. I have come to believe that Sigurd Olsen was right when he wrote of this area as “the singing wilderness” and why The Wilderness Act (that set aside the Boundary Waters area as wilderness) speaks about the importance of a place where people are visitors, not permanent inhabitants.
Rev. Mary Ellen Ashcroft is a priest serving Spirit of the Wilderness Episcopal Church in Grand Marais. She has led wilderness trips for twenty-five years, written a number of books, and loves introducing her grandchildren to camping and canoeing.
Rev. Buff Grace is an Episcopal priest supporting fellow preachers in lectio divina and calling faith communities to respond to climate change. He has practiced nature prayer since childhood and led groups in wilderness travel since college.