USE OR LOSE the diocesan retreat houses was the message that, in more synodical language, emerged from a debate on Thursday afternoon last week. But the Synod stopped short of requesting a national C of E review concerning their future.
Introducing the debate on a joint motion from the dioceses of Leicester and Peterborough, the Archdeacon of Leicester, the Ven. Richard Atkinson, said that the announcement in January of the closure of Morley House was a timely reminder of the significance of motion, after a similar announcement in November by the Community of the Resurrection about St Francis House, Hemingford Grey, and the closure of Ecton House, Barrowby, Verulam, and other houses of retreat in the past 20 years. A supporting paper from the warden of Launde Abbey, Tim Blewett, stated that many of the remaining houses were struggling, and most faced significant capital refurbishment costs.
The motion firstly asked the Synod to celebrate the contribution of diocesan retreat houses as beacons of the presence of God, and places where, in the words of Evelyn Underhill, one could experience “such communion with Him as shall afterwards make you more powerful in intercession; such self-loss in Him, as shall heal your wounds by new contact with his life and love”.
The motion challenged all of them to use their retreat houses. “It is not solely a matter of ‘use it or lose it,’ although there is truth in that, but the opportunity to cradle our work in places of prayer. More than once I have attended residential meetings where the option to use one of our retreat houses should have been explored.”
Finally, the motion invited the Archbishops’ Council to review and make recommendations. “Some may fear that this is really just a plea for money. Well, maybe it is in part, because without capital injection, Morley and Hemingford Grey may well be at the front of a procession of closure.” But the starting point was that it was the right moment to review the opportunities and challenges.
He had been associated with Launde Abbey over the past seven years. It was itself at a critical moment as it sought funding for the renewal and upgrading of key facilities. At the same time, its day-to-day business was secure, and the current year’s programme reflected the diversity of today’s retreats. New users were beind identified, especially the young.
How could the houses be used to best effect? How might they together sustain some sort of national network that was not dependent on the ability of an individual diocese to fund it or not? “We can’t rely on others to provide the space when ours has gone: we are all too aware of the diminishing number of religious houses, and the recent story, for instance, of Scargill House shows that the challenges are held in common. In 2005, the ecumenical Hengrave Hall closed in part through the lack of capital for improvements.” Was the future a network of regional houses, as at Shepherd Dene (Durham and Newcastle dioceses) and Launde?
A review would cost the Church money, but this would be a small price when set against what was at risk.
The Archdeacon of Westmorland and Furness, the Ven. George Howe (Carlisle), said there could be tension between the commercial requirements of a retreat house that sought secular usage, and those who came to a retreat for silent withdrawal. But it could also be an opportunity for both groups to gain from each other, and a mission opportunity. “Diverse use is more to be rejoiced in rather than questioned.”
But joined-up thinking and co-operation between the centres and with the diocese was necessary. The centres were not “direct rivals”, he said.
The Bishop of Basingstoke, the Rt Revd Trevor Willmott, said that he had been a warden of a retreat house that had closed, and was now a visitor to a group of Sisters in a religious community to whom “an untold number of visitors come to them to ask the question, ‘Lord, teach us how to pray’.”
When he was a warden, he had embraced all the health and safety regulations, disability access, and food hygiene laws, because “it challenged the Church to be professional.”
Many people, mostly Christians, who came to the Sisters, said it was too expensive, “as though somebody else ought to pay for it; but it is not someone else’s responsibility.”
The retreat movement belonged to the whole Church of God. It was an opportunity to meet brothers and sisters from other denominations on the same journey. It was a movement that needed to be broadened and widened.
Brian Newey (Oxford) put his amendment that the invitation to the Archbishops’ Council to review the sustainability of the diocesan retreat houses should be removed from the motion. “It might look as though I have taken the heart out of the motion,” he said, but his intention was the opposite. “I feel it is not in the Archbishops’ Council’s expertise to lead a project of this kind.” He hoped that the debate would “sort-of-give the nod to the dioceses to do the job themselves”.
Stephen Barney (Leicester), speaking as a trustee of a diocesan retreat house and chairman of the Leicester diocesan board of finance, said that “if we do not do something quickly, retreat houses will go the way of the dodo.” They might decide that they had more pressing claims on our resources, “but don’t sleepwalk into a situation where we wake up to find that we have an extinct species.”
Graham Smith (Gloucester), a trustee of a diocesan retreat house, said that asking the Archbishops’ Council to act in this matter was to place on others a responsibility for doing that which they should be doing themselves. “Only those who have responsibility can take the necessary actions,” he said. Only they could create the necessary surplus needed. “The Archbishops’ Council can’t make any meaningful recommendations,” he said.
The Archdeacon of Northampton, the Ven. Christine Allsopp (Peterborough), said that the dioceses of Peterborough and Leicester had been working in a fruitful partnership, as proposed in the motion, which had benefited Launde Abbey. “We have done much in partnership, but it is not necessarily going to be enough.” Should we not be ensuring that there would be a sufficient number of retreat houses remaining across the country?
“Ad hoc collaboration between dioceses may not be enough,” she said.
Dr Philip Giddings (Oxford) said he doubted that the Archbishops’ Council had the resources — £20,000 — to undertake the task it would be asked to do for retreat houses, given its other priorities.
Alan Cooper (Manchester) said that they had to have the courage to close things down, even though if they appreciated and loved them very much, if we could not afford to pay for them. Otherwise, they would be imposing them as a burden on their successors. The Archbishops’ Council could not make recommendations on houses for which it had no physical or financial responsibility.
Mr Newey’s amendment was carried.
Christina Rees (St Albans) said that “if we want these places to have a life in our future, we will have to do something about it.” There was nothing quite like them, she said. They could help young people develop an understanding of silence and reflection, when they could be encouraged “to turn off their mobile phones and stop their endless, ceaseless texting”. For that to happen, there had to be structure. Freedom came from routine, paradoxically.
The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt Revd John Goddard, said that it was not just silence that was found in a retreat house, but “it is the touching face of Christ.” His retreat house had been a place of prayer since the time of Paulinus. “It’s got into the stones.”
They needed a strategic network of such houses. “We could have more commercial use, but I am not in the hotel business.” He warned: “We will lose them if we don’t think about them strategically.”
Sister Anita OHP (Religious Communities) said that, as director of a 100-place centre and a 17-bed pastoral centre that did not belong to the diocese, she looked forward to more co-operative enterprises between dioceses and religious communities in “a courageous exploration of the future”.
The Archbishop of York said that he would encourage his clergy to go on a two- or three-day retreat. If clergy and laity committed themselves to going on retreat in the retreat houses, it would make a great difference to their future.
The motion as amended was carried. It read:
That this Synod
(a) celebrate the contribution of the Diocesan Retreat Houses to the Retreat Movement, and to the mission of the Church and the spiritual well-being of the nation;
(b) encourage the Archbishops’ Council and the other National Church Institutions, Dioceses, regional training partnerships and parishes to make full use of the Diocesan Retreat Houses for retreat, prayer, study, conferences and creative thinking for the future.
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