Breathe: October 11-12, 2013

breathe conf

Breathe is coming to the East Coast! Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th, 2013, we will breathe in Baltimore, MD. For those of you unfamiliar with the breathe event, it is a recovery-centric spiritual retreat for those who need a break from helping hurting people. Focusing on providing some valuable information about spirituality from a recovery perspective, this two day event will provide opportunities for us to practice some of the spiritual disciplines that recovery ministry leaders are finding so effective in their work with families in distress.

More details to follow, but if you need a spiritual time out, please mark this event on your calendar and stay alert for registration details!

Awaken Conference: February 8-10, 2013

Invitation to Awaken

The National Association of Christian Recovery (NACR) in partnership with the Laity Lodge invites you to a unique conference on recovery and spirituality February 8-10, 2013, at the Laity Lodge in Leakey Texas. The Laity Lodge brings together an extraordinary confluence of creativity and faith-building and invites the practices of beholding, resting and listening. This unique setting will truly provide an amazing setting for our time together!

The Theme of Awaken

The theme of this retreat is to discover fresh perspectives on recovery spirituality, to understand how recovery spirituality can lead us to deeper streams beyond abstinence and how through recovery spirituality we can come home to ourself and God.

Awaken will have time for quiet reflection and space for participants to have much needed respite time for themselves with God.  This is not an action-packed agenda packed retreat that will leave us more tired than when we arrived.
Interspersed around our times for spiritual practices, we will have some time to interact with Ian Cron and Matt Russell as they share with us their unique perspectives on various recovery themes.  Topics, focused on steps 1-4, 5-9, 10-12 will be spoken of in terms of:

  • “Silence” – we deal with our selves, our culture, our desires, our out-of-controlness, our inability to manage.
  • “Deep Listening” – including worship with Andy Gullahorn, and conversations focused on learning to listen to God, self and others and using this capacity as a means to form communities that reflect the image of God.
  • “Compassion” – involving both the need to give and to receive compassion.  This compassion recognizes that recovery is a process that opens one up to the deep grace of God where our capacity for compassion towards self and others shapes our communities and we hope, equips us to be participants in the work of the kingdom of God.

The Purpose of Awaken

  • To gather recovery ministry leaders, pastors, therapist, treatment professionals, authors, artists and musicians in a unique and beautiful location who have a passion for the integration of recovery and spirituality.
  • To strengthen and build relationships with the growing NACR network nationally.
  • To create life-giving and creative space for a conversation around the dynamics of the spiritual practices and how they impact long term recovery.
  • To create extended times of reflection, prayer and worship centered around stimulating talks.


Awaken Presenters

Ian Morgan Cron is an author, speaker, Episcopal priest and psychotherapist. He is the author of Jesus, My Father, The CIA, and Me and Chasing Francis – A Pilgrim’s Tale. Ian will facilitate much of the gatherings and will be talking about uncovering deeper steams of recovery.
Andy Gullihorn is a gifted singer and songwriter. He will be the artist in residence for the retreat.
Teresa McBean is the Executive Director of the NACR and a ministry at NorthStar Community in Richmond, VA. She is the co-author of Bridges to Grace: Innovative Approaches to Recovery Ministry
Matt Russell is a post-doctoral fellow at Cambridge University in the Psychology and Religion Research Group (PRRG). He is also a Senior Consultant to the NACR. He will be facilitating some of the gatherings and small group discussions.

 

Awaken Registration

Registration for the retreat is through the Laity Lodge’s website.

Cost for the retreat starts at $240.00 (some scholarships are available). The cost includes the wonderful lodging and spectacular food at Laity Lodge as well as the retreat activities.

Dates: February 8-10, 2013

Location: Laity Lodge in Leakey, TX. (Two hours drive from San Antonio, TX which is the nearest commercial airport.

Enrollment is limited, so register early!