The Clergy Fly Fishing Retreat is one of our most popular offerings! The Great Smoky Mountains offer many opportunities for great fly fishing in a picturesque setting. Past participants have come from all over the United States–Oregon, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, and New York.

The Fly Fishing retreat will begin with dinner at 6:30 on Monday evening and will conclude with breakfast on Thursday. The retreat fee ($495 single occupancy, $350 double occupancy) includes lodging, meals, equipment, instruction, licenses, and transportation to fishing sites. A deposit of $100 is due by May 7.

To register for this Sabbath House retreat, mail a deposit to:

The Sabbath House
530 Bee Branch Road
Bryson City, NC 28713

or contact us at 828-488-5209 or sabbathhouse@gmail.com.

With Tom Eshelman

Includes Lunch

From Kanuga.org

CHRISTIAN FORMATION CONFERENCE — Faith Stories: A Life in the Spirit

June 11, 2012 – June 15, 2012

OPTIONAL NETWORKING DAY: JUNE 10

Story is at the heart of our faith and religious teachings. We seek ways to share our faith experience and explore images of God that will lead people to a life in the spirit and toward who they might become.

So how do we give children, youth and adults the tools and experiences to navigate theology and spirituality? How do we as adults reclaim our story, which leads us toward a spirit-filled life?

WHAT YOU’LL GAIN:

• Practical, take-home resources for leading faith formation programs for all ages
• Tools for building a unique curriculum that truly fits your parish
• More than 30 workshops on topics including time management, art as a holy craft, games for children and tweens, biblical storytelling, Godly play, technology as a ministry tool and planning a mission trip
• Networking, support and encouragement from some of the Church’s best Christian educators
• Time to nourish your own spiritual development with respite, renewal and play

As with all Kanuga summer conferences, you can make this week a mountain vacation for the whole family. While parents attend sessions, young people participate in their own programs directed by our carefully selected staff in a safe and fun Christian environment. Programs for young people will begin at 3 p.m. Monday, June 11.

Spouses can fish, hike, play tennis or nearby golf, relax on the porch or by the lake and visit area attractions. The whole family can spend time together in the afternoons and evenings.

About the keynoter

Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso is senior rabbi of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis where she has served since 1977. She is an internationally known children’s author who has published 11 children’s books and one book for adults, God’s Echo – Exploring Scripture with Midrash. There are over 400,000 copies of her books in print.

Two of her children’s book were selected by Publisher’s Weekly as Best Books of the Year. She also was the winner of the 2005 Sugarman Family Book Award, the 2006 Best Book of Indiana Award and the 2004 Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature. She continues to be a sought after speaker in both Jewish and Christian settings, addressing major religious conferences.

About the staff

COORDINATOR: Teacher and trainer Jenny Beaumont has worked with children and adults in Christian formation for more than 14 years. She was the director of children’s ministries at Christ Church in Charlotte, N.C., for 10 years. After an 18-month sabbatical, she was called back to serve as the director for adult spiritual formation. She currently chairs the Province IV Christian Formation Steering Committee and is a member of the Episcopalian Committee for Christian Education.

COORDINATOR: Emily Given has been a Christian formation minister in the Episcopal Church for over 15 years. She blends her background in social work, education and professional organizing into a unique ministry style as a parish educator as well as a ministry organizational consultant. She has worked on both the diocesan and parish levels and serves as a board member of the National Association of Episcopal Christian Education Directors. She currently serves as the director of children and family ministry at Saint Michael and All Angels in Dallas.

What is the Wild Goose Festival?

We are a community creating a festival at the intersection of justice, spirituality and art. The first festival took place in June 2011; the next one is June 21-24 2012. We take inspiration from many places, such as Greenbelt, Burning Man, the Iona Community, SXSW, and others. The festival is open to everyone; we don’t censor what can be said; we invite respectful – but fearless – conversation and action for the common good.

Why Wild Goose?

The Wild Goose is a Celtic spirituality metaphor that evokes unpredictability, beauty, and grace. The festival resonates with this image because we recognize that in the current climate of religious and political division and lack of civility, embracing the creative and open nature of our faith is perhaps our greatest asset for re-building and strengthening our relationships with each other, with our enemies, with our stories, our questions, and the other. In that spirit, in an informal setting, and in the context of creative and respectful relationships, we invite you to imagine a new world with us.

For more information about the Festival click the picture below:

Please join us Thursday evening, September 20th, at the Cathedral of All Souls, Asheville, to
 celebrate the publication of Virginia Redfield’s beautiful new memoir, Night Bloom.
 The evening will include readings from the book, both by Redfield herself and other
 Asheville writers; a book signing; and refreshments.

The event will take place 7 p.m. in the Cathedral’s Parish Hall—the large
 building to the left of church.

The participants in that tribute event will be:

Janet Shaw, Catherine Reid, Sebastian Matthews, Elizabeth Kostova, Holly Iglesias, Betty Holden, Tommy Hays, Chris Hale, and last — and of greatest importance — Virginia Redfield.

Each participant will be reading one page of NIGHT BLOOM, and offering a brief remark on the book.

For those of you unfamiliar with Redfield and/or Night Bloom, following is a description co-crafted by Virginia and author and teacher Kevin “Mc” Mcilvoy: “Night Bloom is a memoir that presents the coming-of-age story of
 Virginia Redfield, 88 years old. She gives an unforgettable account of her
 own struggles against the fundamentalist faith of her mother, and her own
 victory through “the words of great writers who helped me free myself
 from bondage.” She explains, “I wrote this memoir for my self. I needed
 to see clearly where I had come from, where I stand now. I trust and hope 
that some readers may recognize certain twists in the path of my life and 
respond: ‘Oh, I know how that feels!’”

For more information about Night Bloom, visit the website:
http://www.virginiaredfield.com/

To own as a Kindle eBook, 
click here to purchase on amazon.com

Or click here to “like” on Facebook

Virgina Redfield

“Written with clear-sight, and from a clear heart, Night Bloom,” to quote a reviewer 
at amazon, “tells a lively story that “takes us into the heart of a girl struggling, and succeeding, in becoming her own person.”

Please join us on September 20th in friendship to
 this marvelous book, and to this marvelous woman—and writer.

Emilie White
Kevin “Mc” Mcilvoy
Tommy Hays
Christine Hale
Janet Shaw
Robbin Whittington
A community of writer-readers dedicated to helping this beautiful book find its audience

“Night Bloom is an escape story of the highest order, a fearless rendering of how Virginia Redfield not only survived the crucible of her childhood, but emerged from it a young woman of great intellect and profound insight. In this unflinching look at her early life, Redfield has somehow turned her mother’s oppressive Christian fundamentalism on its head and given us a true miracle of a book.”   —Tommy Hays, author of The Pleasure Was Mine

photos and book cover design by Alissa Whelan