Deep Rest Retreat Update

Dear friends of GilChrist,

After another careful discernment process, the GilChrist team has decided to delay the return of group retreats and continue supporting Deep Rest solo retreats through the end of 2021. Over the past several months, we have consulted with our facilitators, our larger organization, other retreat centers, and medical professionals. Reflecting on these conversations and sense of calling in this time, we concluded that, as much as we are making progress to mitigate the impacts of coronavirus in our society, principles of safety, equity, and stillness will be best served by holding to a slower rhythm of retreats in solitude. Beginning on March 16, we will take general reservations for Deep Rest retreats in June through December 2021.

While we feel confident that we have made the best choice given the circumstances, we still make this announcement with heavy hearts. For over 25 years, gatherings have been vital to sustaining the “contemplation in community” for which GilChrist was designed. We miss meditating with guests in the loft. We miss tending the edges around diverse, shared contemplative practices in all our hallowed spaces. We miss witnessing an enlivened group spilling out of WindHill on a Sunday afternoon, sharing warm good-byes. Our hearts ache on behalf of ourselves, our community, and our whole world for all we’ve lost during this time.

We also take note that the robins--our harbingers of spring in Michigan--have returned. We press on in the knowledge that one of the most precious things we can offer in gratitude for all of Earth’s gifts is undivided attention, apprenticing ourselves to the rhythms of each season.

We continue to hold each of you in our hearts--for health, for companionship, for renewal--and may the coming spring support the awakening and creativity our world so badly needs.

With peace,

The GilChrist Team

Deborah, Erika, Gail, John, Jonathon, Kirstin, Nancy