In the fall of 1992 Peggy Forde and Susan O’Neill, who were both mothers of young children at the time, approached me as the Christ Church Staff Associate, and said “we should have a Retreat for women. We NEED a Retreat!” I talked with Sybil Horton, who was my sounding board and who had a strong interest in the spiritual nurture of women, and Jackie Fraser, who was leader of the UCW Study Group because we all knew from the beginning that we wanted a Women’s Retreat for women of all ages. Of course, when you come up with an idea in the church, you get to help make it happen, so Peggy, Susan and Jackie worked with me as the planning committee for the first Christ First Women’s retreat in February, 1993. So was born the tradition of bringing together 3 or 4 women to work with me to plan each yearly retreat until 1998 when I retired. The tradition continued, sometimes with Staff leadership, and in later years with invited guest leaders, including two former Moderators of The UCC, Mardi Tindall and Lois Wilson. There was a total of 26 retreats from 1993 – 2018.
I believe Deborah Macdonald, Peggy and Susan attended every retreat! In 2012, Deborah was crowned “Queen” and Peggy and Susan “Princesses.”
The Friday morning of the first retreat brought with it a major snowstorm! Should we cancel? No-one wants to drive in this! There were phone calls with various people, including Sybil, who said “let’s rent a bus.” Luckily a school bus was available for that evening. Everyone had so much fun going on the bus and returning on Sunday to the church parking lot filled with waiting husbands and children that ever year after that transportation was by school bus! Every retreat but two were held at Crieff Hills, a Presbyterian owned Retreat Centre, with the others at Cedar Glen in Bolton.
Great memories:
- sitting in a circle on the floor playing “this is a what?” and laughing until we cried
- listening to Phyl Walker’s and Helen Smith’s very funny bedtime stories
- remembering the “Weaving Life’s Threads” retreat where we were each able to contribute to weaving a worship table runner, thanks to the expertise and loom of dear friend, Audrey Stretch, and based on our Bible Study reflections
- the sense of accomplishment of the group after their planning and carrying out the Worship for Sunday morning
- experiencing the planning committee’s sense of satisfaction and fulfillment of a job well done at the end of the retreat
- looking at the beautiful hourglass given to me at the 1998 retreat when the theme was “Sisters in Time”
These retreats were wonderful experiences of getting to know the women present and experiencing the sense of community through the telling of and listening to one another’s stories as well as sharing much laughter and sometimes tears.