Retreats & Workshops

To view the Listing of Topics for Retreats and Workshops, click here.

Some topics are better suited for one format or another, but most can be adapted to suit various formats: weekend or day-long retreats, workshops or as a parish mission extended over a series of evenings.While this is not an exhaustive list, these are certainly among my favourites. If there is a topic you do not see listed but would like to have me present on, please let me know. Developing new content is my favourite way to learn and grow in my own faith journey!

To inquire about booking a retreat, please contact me at: 
prairiencounters@gmail.com
References available upon request.

                                               Spiritual Direction

Spiritual Direction is an ancient practice of mentorship, a trusted one-on-one relationship, offered to anyone who wishes to grow in his/her relationship to God, who desires to learn more about prayer, who is seeking meaning and purpose in life, or who is looking for spiritual guidance in important life decisions and situations. While in earlier centuries, spiritual direction was the purview of Catholic priests and monks, today an increasing number of trained and gifted lay people of all denominations and walks of life are responding to the renewed demands by Christians and non-churched seekers for spiritual guidance and accompaniment. The organization Spiritual Directors International  includes spiritual guides from a multitude of spiritual paths.

While counseling is often initiated by a crisis, spiritual direction can be engaged at any time of life. While counseling is focused on problem-solving, spiritual direction rather focuses on how God is present and active in any given situation good and bad.

While there is some degree of variability, there are primarily two forms of spiritual direction: regular direction and retreat direction. They differ largely in the frequency of meeting and in the intensity of reflection. Regular direction can involve a one to two hour meeting every four to eight weeks, and thus is slightly less intense than retreat direction, although spiritual exercises and disciplines are often given to the directee to attempt between meetings.

If you are on a retreat (lasting a weekend, a week or longer), we will generally meet on a daily basis for one hour. During these daily meetings, exercises or spiritual disciplines such as Lectio Divina are given to you as fodder to assist your spiritual growth. I am trained in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. Developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491--1556) these spiritual insights and practices are enjoying a significant revival in today's growing interest in spiritual mentoring.

Email: prairiencounters@gmail.com

                                      Ecumenical Ministry

For me, ecumenism is a priority. Today there is an ecumenism of blood. 
In some countries they kill Christians for wearing a cross or having a Bible and before they kill them they do not ask them whether they are Anglican, Lutheran, Catholic or Orthodox. Their blood is mixed. To those who kill we are Christians. We are united in blood, even though we have not yet managed to take necessary steps towards unity between us and perhaps the time has not yet come. Those who kill Christians don't ask for your identity card to see which Church you were baptized in. Unity is a gift that we need to ask for.
(Pope Francis, Interview with Vatican Insider, December 2013)

My years of  studies at four different denominational colleges immersed me in the ecumenical world, a world which has drawn me ever since. My work and ministry experience of 25+ years has covered a wide range of functions and activities: workshop and retreat facilitation, diocesan resource staff, parish pastoral work, adult faith formation, spiritual direction and pastoral counseling, preaching, editing and writing. 

My ecumenical ministry includes:

• Supply preacher in a variety of Christian denominations; this ministry
  continues to give me a deep and broad ecumenical perspective as 
  well as an appreciation of the various ecclesial ways of functioning. 
  Remuneration according to the contracting denominational norms and guidelines. 
  Sample Sermon Texts:
  * Seeing as God Sees -- 4th Sunday in Lent, Year A
  * Monsters under the Bed! -- 12th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B
  * The Tale of Two Women -- 13th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year B

• * Hearing in Love -- Pentecost, Year B
  * Give Thanks in All Circumstance -- Thanksgiving, Year C
  * Filling our hearts with God's Love -- Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
   

• Conference speaker and retreat leader for various denominations such as the Anglican Church Women, the Presbyterian Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Women, Catholic Women's League.
   

• For the past nine years I have coordinated a growing ecumenical network of women who work professionally in ministry (ordained and lay) through an annual retreat and informal monthly lunches at Queen's House of Retreats (www.queenshouse.org).
   

• In my local community I host ecumenical Bible studies, assist in ecumenical prayer events and have served on the Executive of the Humboldt Ministerial Association.
   

• I have been the Roman Catholic Co-Chair for a local Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue in Saskatchewan between the ELCIC Saskatchewan Synod and the RC Diocese of Saskatoon, in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. The document this group studied, From Conflict to Communion, can be found here.

Email: prairiencounters@gmail.com

When God puts us back together again
(With the aid of our willingness to cooperate)
This great church will be marked by
the dignity and scholarship of the Anglicans
the order and sacraments of the Roman Catholics
the warm fellowship of the Methodists
the Presbyterian desire for good preaching
and the Lutheran desire for sound theology. 
 
There will be the Baptist concern for individual salvation
The Congregational respect for the rights of lay members
The Pentecostal reliance on the power of the Holy Spirit
And the Quaker appreciation for silence. 

We will find there the Mennonite sense of community
The social action of the Salvation Army
And the Reformed love of the Bible
All wrapped in the Orthodox reverence before the mystery of God. 

From: A Survival Guide for Ecumenically Minded Christians
Father Tom Ryan CSP, Novalis 1989