Sisterly Retreat 2012 on the deck at Nelson Lodge

Dear friends,

It feels odd to remember that when I applied for this job over four years ago, I didn’t know the queer history that was nestled into this ridge. I had grown up on this mountain, returning year after year to climb the stones and marvel at ice-covered trees. But the tradition I knew of this place was one of peacemaking and nonviolence.

It was in the course of discerning a move here that I read the history and stumbled upon the long history of LGBTQ events. I learned the story of the Memorial Garden summoned into being by John McNeill and Virginia Mollencott as they walked with folks dying of AIDS in New York City. That welcome…that insistence on people’s humanity…that knowing that you can be queer and Christian…that struggle and pain and joy and imagination… all of that lives in these stones and moves through the breeze in the trees. I realized that while I had not been told that history at Kirkridge as a child, it was part of what was forming me as I climbed the trees.

I am so grateful for that history of this place. It is part of what makes this place feel so deeply like home…part of what has claimed my spirit and body and vocation on this mountain.

Next year, we will celebrate 50 years since the first gay and Christian retreat at Kirkridge. Fifty years!!! There weren’t many places in 1977 where you could find that happening. And we are beginning to dream into some big celebrations to honor this moment. More on that to come!

So, happy pride month, beloveds. May the history of this place prod you no matter how you identify. May you know your belovedness. May you not be bound by rules or boxes. May your imagination overflow. May love echo everywhere and in every way in a time so desperate for it. May we know the ways that all liberation is bound up together.

And what a great time to sign up to join a LGBTQ retreat at Kirkridge this fall! Join us for Sisterly Conversations: Sharing our Stories Across Generations, The Clearing: A Healing Music Retreat for Black Queer & Trans People, GBTQ Men’s Retreat: Seeking Restoration through Community, or Trans Sanctuary.

Friends, feel the gratitude for this mountain, this history, this struggle, and each one of you.

Lydia Wylie-Kellermann