Emerging Community Call
Call begins at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Our Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders. To join us on a Community Call, please subscribe to the mailing list. You’ll receive a reminder email with the Zoom link the day before each call.
Facilitators: Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma and Michael Shewburg
Topic: Retreat in a Time Like This
Many of us are sensing that this is a significant and tender moment across North America and beyond — socially, politically, economically, and spiritually. What is unfolding in the US is rippling outward, shaping realities for retreat centers across borders, affecting travel, funding, partnerships, and the emotional and spiritual needs of those we serve.
RCC is convening an Emerging Community Call to gather retreat leaders and practitioners for shared reflection on this moment, and on how retreat is being called to respond in this particular season. This call echoes the early COVID-era RCC gatherings — spaces that offered reassurance, honesty, and a sense of camaraderie when leaders most needed it.
This gathering will hold the experience of this moment as a shared, cross-border reality. While conditions differ by context, many retreat centers are encountering similar pressures and questions. Together, we will create space to name what we are seeing and feeling, listen across experiences, and discern how retreat continues to offer grounding, care, and hope in uncertain times.
This call will offer:
Space to reflect on the current moment and its impact on retreat
Shared wisdom about how retreat is responding — and being needed — right now
Connection and mutual encouragement across the RCC community
This is not a training or a presentation. It is an invitation to gather, listen, and discern together what leadership, hospitality, and care look like now.
You may find this reflection helpful as context:
“Retreat Centers Were Built for These Times”
https://www.retreatcentercollaboration.org/blog/retreat-centers-were-built-for-these-times
Details and facilitators will be shared soon. We hope you’ll consider joining this timely conversation.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88598219840?pwd=DdMJTLd9XVF9ZQmUzlncQbkGMBHHaI.1