Remembering Forward: The Time of Advent (2017)

Remembering Forward:
The Time of Advent

an online retreat 

December 3 - 24, 2017

See below the photo
for information and registration.

Remembering Forward is an online spiritual retreat in the Christian tradition. It will accompany your daily life during the season of Advent, which prepares the way for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.

An online retreat enables you to participate at home or any other place where you have a computer or tablet with internet access. You check in at the time of day or night that works for you. You can read, listen, gaze, meditate, and pray in a way that suits your schedule.

Twenty minutes a day is a nice rhythm, but even ten minutes can be helpful if you check in with any regularity. You can check in on your online retreat less often, or more often, than once a day, and for as long or short a time as you wish. It's up to you. The resources for the retreat will be waiting for you every day on the retreat site. (More information on the technical aspect of the retreat below.)

Remembering forward?

What is this, a time warp?

In a way, yes.

Advent is a season that challenges and plays with our sense of time.

It is a season turned toward the future:

~ the near future, in our waiting for the celebration of the birth of Jesus;
~ the hovering, known-and-unknown future, frightening or reassuring,
~ the long-term future, with the reminder that the Advent season takes the long view.

~ Advent heightens our sense of yearning.
~ With Advent comes the renewal of imagination and vision.

The season of Advent is also a time of remembrance:

~ For some this season and its memories bring joy. For others, this is a sad and difficult time.
~ Sometimes the season holds both delight and sorrow, contentment and emptiness.
~ Advent is a season of holy memory, in which we journey with people and stories from the past that are part of our living tradition and give us strength.
~ Advent is a time for returning to treasured traditions. It can also be a time for re-examining their place in our lives -- or for embroidering on old traditions.

Advent is full of apparent contradictions. 

It is the Slowdown Season and the Better-Wake-Up Season.

Advent 2017

This year, because of the location of the four Sundays before Christmas on the December calendar, we have the shortest possible Advent. (Last year we had the longest possible Advent.) The 4th Sunday of Advent, which we celebrate the morning of Sunday, December 24, is also Christmas Eve!

So we have a little less time than usual this year to pay attention to the season of Advent: exactly three weeks.

Let's spend this attentive time in community, on this retreat, together. Let it be a spacious time in an often pressured and busy season.

An online retreat? How does that work?

The retreat offers daily resources online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me, Jane, the retreat facilitator) has signed in.

In other words, the retreat blog is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Conversations between and among retreatants remain private.



~ "Do I have to talk to other people on this retreat? I'm a very private person."
~ "Can I get some support here? I want some company."

Answer to both questions:

Jane's online retreats offer you a choice; it is up to you to find your preferred balance between the solitary and the communal, between privacy and solidarity.
You can and may remain private and just read the blog and use the practices and meditations on your own. Nobody will force you to speak or disclose who you are. Or you can and may take part in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. Conversation during the retreat takes place in writing, via the comments on the blog posts of the retreat blog. Please be prepared to observe confidentiality and kindness and to respect other participants' diverse experiences and outlooks.

Use the retreat according to your personality and your circumstances. The online retreat is like a room in which you are welcome to sit in the company of others and to be either visible or invisible.

What will I find on this retreat?

Every Sunday:

A meditation on one or more of the Scripture readings from the Revised Common Lectionary or the Catholic Lectionary, with reference to our retreat's theme.

Every Monday:

An invitation to a simple "seasonal slow-down" exercise in your daily life.

Midweek:

An invitation to reflect on and pray with some questions on "remembering forward" in Advent.

Every day:

Checking in daily will be like opening an Advent calendar. You will find each day a little gift: a piece of music or visual art, a commemoration of a saint's day, a bit of holy wisdom, or a remembrance or vision embodying Advent hope.

You can mix and match these daily and weekly observances.

Registration and payment

Registration is easy via secure PayPal link, which takes credit and debit cards too: you don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method.

(If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

The "Early Bird" rate applies if you register and pay any time before midnight on Thursday, November 30, whatever your time zone.

The regular rate applies from December 1 on.

If you are in a situation of financial stress, please write me and we can arrange for a discount, a payment plan, or scholarship. Or you can just check and pay the "hardship" rate below.

The "benefactor" rate below helps to offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

Retreat fees (choose one)

Regular rate $95.00 USD Early Bird rate $85.00 USD Hardship rate $55.00 USD Benefactor rate $135.00 USD

Retreat designer and facilitator:
Jane Redmont is a retreat leader and spiritual director, theologian and pastoral worker, writer and writing coach. An Episcopal Christian, she was also formed in the Catholic tradition and has Jewish and Unitarian Universalist family roots. She has worked in campus, urban, and parish ministries, taught undergraduates, seminarians, and graduate students, and been involved in work for justice and in ecumenical and interreligious relations all her life. She serves as a Congregational Consultant for the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and is the author of two books including When in Doubt, Sing: Prayer in Daily Life.

Questions? Concerns? Write me (Jane) here.

Nine Days with Dorothee Soelle: an online retreat

Struggling with the challenge of staying hopeful in hard times?
Exploring the relationships between Christian spirituality and social justice?
Busy and yearning for for some quiet and energizing inspiration?

Join us!

Nine Days with Dorothee Soelle
an online retreat
August 14-22, 2017

Dorothee Soelle (also spelled Sölle) (1928-2003) was a German theologian, poet, peace activist, Protestant and ecumenical Christian, spouse and mother, teacher, socialist, and from mid-life on, feminist. She was the author of The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance, Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian, Revolutionary Patience, Theology for Skeptics, and many other works. Soelle wrote in an accessible manner --mostly in prose, sometimes in poems-- and only rarely in the form of long academic treatises. Her chosen topics, though, were often challenging: silence and language in the struggle to name God; suffering and the vulnerability of God; Jesus the risk-taker and the community of the friends of Jesus; history, evil, and Christian political engagement; the church as community of memory, resistance, and hope.

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Monday, August 14, 2017.

* The writings of Dorothee Soelle will provide us with focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:

one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me. The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $75.00 USD Benefactor rate $100.00 USD DIscount rate $65.00 USD Hardship rate $50.00 USD Installment option $35.00 USD

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and a little music to feed the soul) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

 Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Hurry Up and Slow Down: mindfulness retreat begins --online-- July 31, 2017

Hurry Up and Slow Down:

an online retreat

July 31-September 10, 2017

What, when, where, how

* A 6-week online retreat. 

* Begins July 31.

* At home, on a break at work, in your daily life, at any time, day or night, 15-20 minutes every day or two.

* Simple, accessible, gently focused on practice, with ancient and new wisdom to support and inspire you.

* Each week of the retreat has an anchoring theme:

mindfulness

breath
place

time
community

earth

* Suitable for those who consider themselves spiritual, but not religious, as well as for people who are religiously affiliated.

* If you think you don't have time for "Hurry Up and Slow Down," you're exactly the person who will benefit from it.

[In the fall a few years ago], when I felt as if I had NO TIME, and I mean NONE, to do anything, because I was so busy, I signed up for this retreat. What a big gift I gave myself... Having some focused time to replenish my spirit was great. Highly recommended!

--Fran Rossi Szpylczyn, New York

The "Hurry Up and Slow Down" retreat was one of the most valuable I have ever experienced, because it encourages the participants to take nuggets of time on a regular basis for guided reflection and renewal, rather than trying to devote a whole weekend or several evenings to the pursuit. It's well done and well worth the time commitment as well as the money.

--Joanne Fisher, Michigan

* Easy registration via secure PayPal link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.
The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $145.00 USD Benefactor rate $200.00 USD Discount rate $105.00 USD Hardship rate $90.00 USD

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

More details below the picture.

Front Beach, Rockport, Massachusetts
(c) Jane Redmont 2013

Hurry Up and Slow Down is a spiritual retreat accompanying your daily life. It offers guidance, but it is not an academic class with a lot of reading. Its focus is the "how" of living every day mindfully and reverently, in a way that suits our own circumstances and takes into account how busy we are. The weekly themes are rich and basic:

* mindfulness * breath * place *
* time * community * earth *

These themes can be building blocks of spiritual practice, whether we are religiously affiliated or not.

Every week, with the theme of the week, will include four components, offered each Sunday and accompanying you throughout the week:

1. Awareness of the week's theme:

Taking stock, naming, asking and answering questions, doing a little writing (or drawing if we are more visually inclined).

2. Inspiration:

A short reading, an image, an insight, a bit of wisdom about the theme for us to ponder during the week.

3. Practice:

An exercise related to the week's theme, a concrete how-to that we can incorporate into our daily life throughout the week.

4. Tradition(s):

Some insights into the week's theme from the experience and wisdom of more than one religious or wisdom tradition. We are not the first to grapple with the themes of our retreat and we are not alone.

Spirituality and Social Media: Online Mindfulness Retreat Begins July 12!

Thich Nhat Hanh

Spirituality and Social Media

an online retreat with

mindfulness practice and conversation

July 12 - August 2, 2017

Spirituality --whether we follow a religious path related to a particular historical community or a less institutionalized wisdom path-- is about everyday life. It involves our minds and hearts but also our bodies and the spaces and times in which we live. Spirituality is not just what we believe but even more, what we practice.

For many of us, social media (interactive internet-based platforms and programs like blogging, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) are a part of daily life now.

--How does our use of social media fit into our spiritual path?
----Can social media help our spiritual practice?
------Is it a challenge, a hindrance, or both? How so?
--------Do we need to develop spiritual practices for our online lives?

mindfulness
rhythms of online and offline times
modes of conversation
impulse control
self-care and care for others
raising energy for justice
meditative moments
(Yes, we can call all these "health and wellness practices" too.)

----How can we better navigate conversation and conflict online?
-------How is social media a vehicle for spiritual wisdom and community?
-----------What does a mindful way of interacting on and with social media look like for me, for you, in our particular life pilgrimage, at this time?

These questions are among the queries (as Quakers might call them) accompanying us on our online retreat.

Our task and challenge
will be to approach these queries mindfully,
without harsh self-judgment or
judgment of others
but with a commitment to make life-giving choices
as we navigate social media every day.

What, when, where

* An online three-week  retreat-and-reflection experience  beginning Wednesday, July 12.

* Simple and accessible:

online check-in every two days
a three-week commitment, July 12-August 2
spiritual exercises relevant to your life online and offline
for persons of any or no religious or spiritual background

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: reflect on the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 10 to 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me. The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $125.00 USD Benefactor rate $200.00 USD Discount rate $95.00 USD Hardship rate $75.00 USD

An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers resources and spiritual exercises every other day, along with other resources (some words of wisdom, some images to nourish you visually, and a little music to feed the soul) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

More information about the retreat

* Every two days we will check in with the retreat and with each other (briefly if we wish, more if we prefer).

* Every other check-in (i.e. every four days) we will focus on mindfulness in our social media practices.

* In the "in-between" check-ins (i.e. every four days) we will reflect and converse about other themes related to spirituality and social media.

In addition to spiritual practice in our social media lives, which will be a steady thread throughout our three weeks together, we will look at social media as facilitator of spiritual growth (you can replace "spiritual growth" with "faith" or "following the Way" or the word or phrase that better suits your religious or spiritual affiliation), as challenge to spiritual growth, and as opportunity for spiritual growth, and we will also explore social media as "content provider," as educational and aesthetic resource.

Reminder: 
The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Nine days with Ada María Isasi-Díaz: an online retreat

Longing for meditative time *and* new energy in your busy life?
Eager to discover --or remember-- the life and work of Ada María Isasi-Díaz?
Aware that spirituality involves struggle, community, family, in daily life?
Curious about or committed to listening to the wisdom of grassroots Latinas?

Join us!

Nine Days with Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz

an online retreat
July 17-25, 2017

Ada María Isasi-Díaz (1943-2012), born in La Habana, Cuba, came to the United States as a political refugee at the age of 18. Educated in Catholic and ecumenical Protestant institutions, she became a professor of Ethics at Drew University Divinity School in 1991, the year after receiving her Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary. She taught at Drew until her retirement in 2009. Isasi-Díaz was the editor and author of several books, including En La Lucha/In the Struggle: Elaborating a Mujerista Theology and Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century. Her development of a mujerista theology was, within the rich field of liberation theology, the expression of the theological, ethical, and socio-cultural insights of grassroots Latinas, whom she always considered her "community of accountability." Her final project was co-editing the book Theological Perspectives for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: Public Intellectuals for the Twenty-First Century.

Isasi-Díaz  became involved in the movement for the ordination of Catholic women in the 1970s. During her years at Drew, she maintained both  her residence in New York City and her involvement in Our Lady Queen of Angels parish in El Barrio, East Harlem. After the decision by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York to close the church building in early 2007, Isasi-Díaz helped to lead protest vigils and and worship services outside the church on the sidewalk, frequently serving as preacher at the weekly service. She was an activist for social justice as well as church justice, not simply asking for church reform but living new ways of being church at the heart of her community. Her lifelong attention to the lives of grassroots Latinas nourished her ethical, theological, and spiritual thinking.

The online retreat will focus on the meaning and lived experience of realities and concepts basic to AMID's life and work, including lo cotidiano (daily life); la lucha (the struggle); la comunidad/la familia (community/family); permítanme hablar (allow me to speak); un poquito de justicia (a little justice); place and being a person of multiple locations; and kin-dom.

Note: The meaning and resonance of the Spanish words are not fully embodied in their English translations. These words cannot be divorced from their Latina/o cultural, political, economic, religious, and linguistic context. AMID, who wrote in both English and Spanish, used the Spanish words above in her English texts, and so will we.

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Monday, July 17, 2017.

* The writings of Ada María Isasi-Díaz will provide us with focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:

one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me. The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $75.00 USD Benefactor rate $100.00 USD DIscount rate $65.00 USD Hardship rate $50.00 USD

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

An online retreat? How does that work?

* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and a little music to feed the soul) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

NOTE:

This retreat is not a replacement for the in-depth study of Dr. Isasi-Diaz's life and thought. Like our other online retreats (inspired by --among others-- Dorothy Day, Dorothee Soelle, Howard Thurman, Thomas Merton, and William Stringfellow) this one offers a carefully chosen selection of wisdom from a larger body of writing, together with attention to the life that produced and reflected this wisdom and to ways we can learn from this wisdom in daily life.

 Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

Reminder: Stringfellow online short retreat starts tomorrow! (MONDAY JUNE 26)

A polemical, circus-loving, biblical, critical, incarnational, political, Psalms-praying, "almost but not quite out" partnered gay man, an Episcopalian, lawyer and theologian. You don't want to miss this. Nine days in the company of William Stringfellow. (1928-85). Online retreat begins Monday! That's tomorrow. June 26. See here for details.

Summer 2017 online retreats and classes: register now!

Registration is open for the first Redmont Retreats online offerings of the summer.

Click on the links below for more information and to sign up.

Links are this color orange -- a different color from the rest of the post. If a course or retreat title is not yet orange, it's that the link isn't up yet.

This blog post will be updated with the remaining live links next week. Meanwhile, the beginning-in-June program information is up, as are two of the beginning-in-July retreat information pages! Click, read, register!

Idaho road near Priest Lake, (c) Jane Redmont 2011

This summer, we are offering three types of online programs:

(1) Five short nine-day retreats, simple and adaptable to your daily schedule:

one excerpt or quotation per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer or meditation per day
      for nine consecutive days

Click below for information and registration. Try one retreat for starters, or sign up for two right away! (Ask me about early bird discounts and about group rates for your congregation or group of friends.)

June 15-23:  Nine Days with Dorothy Day
June 26-July 5:  Nine Days with William Stringfellow
July 7-15:  Nine Days with Howard Thurman
July 17-25:  Nine Days with Ada María Isasi-Díaz
August 14-22:  Nine Days with Dorothee Sölle

(2) One five-week class (with a retreat option if you want to add it - no extra charge)

June 19-July 23: Bonhoeffer in His Times and Ours
A 5-week online course-retreat on the life and writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

An adult education class (no grades!) with readings about and by Bonhoeffer, pastor, theologian, resistant against the Nazi regime, martyr. It also includes a dimension of spiritual practice if you would like to add that "thread" to your experience with Bonhoeffer. The format allows for it to be a hybrid of course and retreat, or just a course of readings and online conversation if that is your preference! Minimum of two "check-ins" per week (more if you wish!) but you can check in at any hour of the day or night. Open to all. No religious or academic requirements. Be willing to read and reflect.

(3) Two "mindfulness retreats"

One that we've offered many times before...

July 31-September 10: Hurry Up and Slow Down
Spiritual practice in daily life

A six-week, supportive, gently guided online retreat open to persons with any or no religious or spiritual background. One theme per week: Great if you can't take a vacation this summer, or if you are on vacation and need help unwinding, or if you are away for a bit and then have to meet the daily challenges of "re-entry."

and one brand new...

July 12-August 2: Spirituality and Social Media

A three-week online retreat-and-reflection experience about our social media practices, rhythms, spiritual or religious content, care, conversations, and conflict.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Nine Days with Howard Thurman: begins July 7

Longing for some meditative time in your busy life?
Interested in (re-)discovering the work of a wise guide?
Join us!

Nine Days with Howard Thurman

an online retreat
July 7-15, 2017

Howard Thurman (1899-1981), a philosopher, educator, theologian, and pastor, was an African American born in the segregated South during the Jim Crow era. Nourished by the rich traditions of the Black Church and ordained as a Baptist minister, he was deeply influenced by Quaker thought, especially the mysticism and nonviolence of Rufus Jones. He was also a pioneer in interreligious understanding. His writings --books, prayers, meditations, and sermons-- are rooted in Christianity yet accessible and pertinent to persons whose wisdom path is "spiritual but not religious."

Howard Thurman exercised a deep influence on some of the Civil Rights Movement's leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He traveled to India to meet Gandhi in the 1930s with the first group of African Americans to do so. Thurman served as the first Black Dean of Marsh Chapel, the university chapel at Boston University, and founded the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples, a multicultural, multiracial, and interfaith congregation in San Francisco which is still in existence today. Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited predates Black liberation theology by a generation.

What, when, where

* An online nine-day spiritual retreat, beginning Friday, July 7, 2017.

* The writings of Howard Thurman will provide us with focus and inspiration.

* Simple and accessible:

one quote per day
one spiritual exercise per day
one prayer per day
on nine consecutive days

* At home, on a break at work, in a coffee shop, on vacation, in your daily life: read, reflect, meditate, and pray with the retreat materials in a way that suits your schedule.

* Spiritual refreshment, nurture, and challenge.

* You'll need 20 minutes a day of focused time and a computer or tablet with internet access.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me. The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!

Retreat fee (choose one)

Regular rate $75.00 USD Benefactor rate $100.00 USD DIscount rate $65.00 USD Hardship rate $50.00 USD

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.


An online retreat? How does that work?
* The retreat offers daily resources (the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers mentioned above, with some images as well to nourish you visually, and a little music to feed the soul) online on a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not "searchable": random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments.

* Once you register, I will send instructions for the one-time-only sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

Privacy and community

During the retreat, you can remain anonymous, invisible, and silent and just read the blog and use the quotes, spiritual exercises, and prayers on your own.

OR

If you are more extroverted and communal or in need of companions on your retreat, you can share your thoughts, experiences, and questions via the comments function on the blog and engage in conversation with other retreatants and with the retreat facilitator. (More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.)

Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.

We're back for the summer with lots of online offerings!

We've got summer online retreats and courses coming up!

Intensive nine-day retreats,
longer stretched-out retreats, 

a reboot-new edition-more-of-a-class of the winter Bonhoeffer retreat,

Howard Thurman,
Dorothy Day, 
William Stringfellow, 
Ada María Isasi-Díaz, 
and more! 

Also featuring the return of the popular "Hurry Up and Slow Down" online retreat

and

a new online retreat on spirituality and social media.

Publicity will be out later this weekend, 
here, on Facebook, and on LinkedIn 
(no Twitter yet but we're thinking about it),

with discounts if you register early or take more than one retreat or class.

Bonhoeffer in His Times and Ours: starts June 19, online!

For a full list of  other Redmont Retreats summer 2017 programs, click here.

Bonhoeffer in His Times and Ours

 * community * tyranny * resistance * friendship * history * decisions * uncertainty * faith *

June 19-July 23, 2017
An online adult education class
(with an optional retreat dimension)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Christian pastor in the Lutheran tradition, scholar, and resister against the Nazi regime, was executed for his resistance activities in 1945, at the age of 39. His writings and life have become well known around the world, from South Africa to South Korea.

Here in the U.S., many are reading Bonhoeffer's works again --or for the first time-- both because of the times in which we live and because of a couple of new, recently published biographies. DB's writings inspired resisters to the regime of apartheid in South Africa a few decades ago. Both "evangelical" and "liberal" Christians have found him and his words appealing -- often, though not always, for different reasons. His prison writings speak to those for whom religion or church are a difficult or meaningless reality.

What, when, where, how

* An online course-retreat combining reading and learning with (optional) spiritual practice and prayer. (Of course, reading is itself a spiritual practice!)

* No religious or academic requirements. Open to all who wish to read, learn, and reflect.

* Begins Monday, June 19, 2017.

* There will be readings, but not as much material as in a college course.

* You'll need to check in to the course-retreat blog at least a couple of times a week, but you can do it any time, day or night, wherever you are. You'll need a computer or tablet with internet access

* This online course also includes a dimension of spiritual practice and prayer for those who wish. The format allows for it to be a hybrid of course and retreat. Your choice. (And no technological complications -- you can just skip specific posts or make them part of your experience.)

* Readings will be from different stages of Bonhoeffer's life, from privileged university student to underground seminary leader to conspirator to prisoner.

* The online materials will also include some visual and musical resources. Bonhoeffer loved music.

* Easy registration via PayPal secure link, which takes credit and debit cards in addition to PayPal. Note: You don't have to have your own PayPal account to use this online payment method. (If you prefer paying by check, please e-mail me.)

Some discounts are available for those in financial hardship. Talk to me.
The benefactor rate helps offset costs and makes scholarship aid possible.

Register here!

Retreat fees (choose one)

Regular rate $135.00 USD Benefactor rate $200.00 USD Discount rate $100.00 USD Hardship rate $65.00 USD

Payment is non-refundable and due upon registration.

An online course that's not part of a school or degree? How does that work?

* The course-retreat offers online resources to participants (and only to them): excerpts from Bonhoeffer's written works, reflection questions, opportunities for conversation with other participants and with your friendly facilitator, spiritual exercises, links to music, images. It does so with the help of fairly simple technology, a blog. More specifically, a closed blog.

* What's a closed blog? It's a blog like this, but it is not public: it is open only to those whom the blog owner-administrator (that's me) has signed in. In other words, it is not open to anybody wandering around the internet. It is not searchable: random web surfers will not be able to view either the blog or our conversations in the comments. Our course-retreat blog is private and just for us.

* Once you register for the retreat, I will send instructions on the one-time sign-in mechanism. After you first sign on to the retreat blog, the blog will always recognize you.

What do you mean by "spiritual exercises"?

Spirituality --including Christian spirituality-- involves our entire life. It is bodily as well as mental. It involves our imagination and also our actions. It is about practice, not just thinking.

A spiritual exercise, therefore, may be a prayer or meditation, or a reading assignment or way of reading; but it may also be a piece of writing in a journal, a new or repeated way of interacting with others, a way of gazing or focusing, a practice of fasting or mindful eating, a new way of creating, a daily habit.

Privacy and community

Conversation (online, but not at specified times) is an important part of the course, both because you may want to ask questions and because it's good to have company when we are learning.

Conversation takes place via the comments function on the blog. Only other participants and the facilitator can read them. The blog is only open to course participants.

More about your friendly retreat designer and facilitator, Jane Redmont, here. Please do not hesitate to write me with questions or concerns.

Reminder: The full list of our summer 2017 online offerings is here.