Programs & Retreats
Program Schedule
All upcoming Programs & Retreats
Below is our full upcoming program schedule of both online and on the mountain retreats.
Looking for specific retreats & programs hosted online or locally? Select below to visit their individual pages:
Winter Craft Fair Vendor Registration
Open Dates
Turning Point Building
We are excited to be hosting our 2nd Annual Holiday Craft Fair at Kirkridge on Sunday, December 6th, 2026 from 1-4pm. Come enjoy a beautiful, wintery gathering on the mountain. It will be a time for community, for celebrating artists, and for encouraging holiday shopping to come from our local craft-makers. We are looking for vendors! Do you have crafts you want to sell? We are looking for weavers and potters and glassmakers, knitters and painters, photographers, writers and medicine makers… and anything else you can dream up! We would love to have you join this circle of artisans. Vendor…
Berrigan’s Folly Organizer and Activist Respite Program
Flexible Dates
“The times are urgent; we must slow down.” –Bayo Akomolafe Are you an organizer or activist in need of rest and rejuvenation? Kirkridge Retreat Center is launching Berrigan’s Folly Organizer and Activist Respite program. We are offering no-cost week-long private retreats for movement organizers and activists in Daniel Berrigan’s Folly Cottage at Kirkridge Retreat Center. Located along the beautiful, forested Kittatinny Ridge, the one room cottage is fully furnished and has a kitchenette where residents can prepare their own meals. Deer, black bear, groundhogs, and other woodland creatures forage just outside the large windows, and on rainy evenings, the space is…
Wild Church
October 21, 2026
The Farmhouse
Let's let church go a little wild! We gather at the beautiful Kirkridge Retreat Center every month, outside, on the third Wednesday, to listen together and in solitude for the voice of the Spirit that speaks through the more-than-human world. Most gatherings involve song, prayer and/or ritual, a time of wandering in the woods and fields and among the rocks, and then a time to share what you heard, if you like (no pressure). We also occasionally incorporate advocacy for the creatures and other ways of connecting with the earth. Children are always welcome! And we have a potluck afterward…
GBTQ Men’s Retreat-Longing to Belong: A Prodigal’s Search for Community
With Dave Howser and Paul F. Morrissey, OSA
October 22 - 25, 2026
Turning Point
For decades, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Questioning men have been gathering at Kirkridge to build community, sing, laugh, tell stories, remember the departed, share our strength and wisdom, and soak in the beauty of the mountain. This annual retreat is for GBTQ men across the generations who are on a spiritual path. Come as you are! Using the parable of the Prodigal Son and other sources, this year's retreat examines the unique search to belong that Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning men experience and explores the various types of relationships that we long for in community. The program contains structured presentations…
Ancestors Welcome Here: Samhain 2026 Ancestral Lineage Healing in the Woods
With Ream and Sevan Mercy
October 30 - November 1, 2026
Nelson Lodge
Please apply by October 1st. Applications will be received by facilitators. Confirmed participants will receive a separate email with a Kirkridge registration form and payment link. What We Are Offering: Ancestral Healing is the practice of connecting with and tending to your ancestors of lineage to bring balance, insight, and healing across generations. We come to this with the understanding that our ancestors are not only part of our past but also present today, influencing the well-being, beliefs, and patterns in our personal lives, families, and culture. This work invites us to recognize and honor the gifts of our ancestors…
Walking Awake Into the Celtic New Year
With Denise Crawn
October 30 - November 1, 2026
The Farmhouse
*Please note: if you are attending the "Going Deeper" series with Denise prior to this retreat, you can reserve your room for those two nights by "adding additional nights" in the Price section of your registration. If you feel a deep connection to Nature, have an interest in Celtic Spirituality, and a longing to be amongst the stunning autumn foliage at Kirkridge, this annual weekend retreat may indeed call you ‘home’ to the mountain. Throughout our weekend together we will explore some of the many surrounding lessons and gifts available to us as we ‘walk awake’ together into the Celtic…
Apocalyptic Reading Group – We Will Be Jaguars
November 1, 2026
Zoom
Apocalypse means “revelation.” Certainly we are living through apocalyptic times, but what exactly is being revealed? If the systems of US empire are collapsing, and it seems they are, what will we build in the gaps that empire leaves behind? How will we avoid replicating harmful ways, when those are all many of us have known? With this book discussion series, we’ll look for wisdom in books. Chosen in conversation with folks whose lives they’ve changed, these books have the power to upend our assumptions, spark our imaginations, and point us toward possible liberatory futures. These will…
The Kirkridge Gathering: Stories from the Land & Staff
November 10, 2026
Online
Join us for a time to hear how things are going at Kirkridge. We will share program highlights, upcoming events, news from the land, and updates from staff. We love this work. And we know you love this place. Let us celebrate and honor the abundance together. So often folks come to the mountain just once a year and others are finding it harder to travel these days. We look forward to sharing some glimpses so that you feel like you are right back on the mountain. We are grateful for a chance to join in community together over zoom.…
Trans Sanctuary
With Kerr Mesner and Orion Johnstone
November 13 - 15, 2026
Given our current national climate, this retreat is one of a two part series being offered at Kirkridge this year, with an additional retreat June 5-7. You are welcome to sign up for one, two, or all three of these workshops. This weekend is an opportunity for trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive people* to gather in community together. In these challenging times, we invite you into a space of sanctuary, refuge, and an honoring of our glorious gender diversity. We will explore themes of: Sanctuary: What kind of sanctuary do we need in this time? How we can provide sanctuary for…
Wild Church
November 18, 2026
The Farmhouse
Let's let church go a little wild! We gather at the beautiful Kirkridge Retreat Center every month, outside, on the third Wednesday, to listen together and in solitude for the voice of the Spirit that speaks through the more-than-human world. Most gatherings involve song, prayer and/or ritual, a time of wandering in the woods and fields and among the rocks, and then a time to share what you heard, if you like (no pressure). We also occasionally incorporate advocacy for the creatures and other ways of connecting with the earth. Children are always welcome! And we have a potluck afterward…
Winter Craft Retreat
December 4 - 6, 2026
Turning Point
On these cold December nights, we will have a fire burning and hot chocolate on the stove. Bring your knitting needles, quilting squares, paint brushes, wrapping paper, or whittling knife and gather in the warmth and stillness of the season. This retreat will have no facilitator or agenda. There will be delicious food, good company, and lots of time to craft and share stories. On Sunday afternoon following the retreat, there will be a Craft Fair at Kirkridge with local artists. Retreat participants are welcome to have a table if you have crafts you would like to sell. Or stop…
Winter Craft Fair
December 6, 2026
Turning Point Building
Welcome to Kirkridge's 2nd Annual Holiday Craft Fair!! Enjoy a beautiful wintery afternoon on the scenic overlook at Turning Point at Kirkridge Retreat Center. Let’s celebrate and support our local artists. Enjoy hot chocolate, snacks, music, and the gift of community. We will have artisan vendors selling holiday gifts from pottery to poetry books to glass nightlights to handmade jewelry to photography from our local community. Interested in hosting a vendor booth? Fill out a vendor registration form.
Wild Church
December 16, 2026
The Farmhouse
Let's let church go a little wild! We gather at the beautiful Kirkridge Retreat Center every month, outside, on the third Wednesday, to listen together and in solitude for the voice of the Spirit that speaks through the more-than-human world. Most gatherings involve song, prayer and/or ritual, a time of wandering in the woods and fields and among the rocks, and then a time to share what you heard, if you like (no pressure). We also occasionally incorporate advocacy for the creatures and other ways of connecting with the earth. Children are always welcome! And we have a potluck afterward…
Apocalyptic Reading Group – Selah
January 3, 2027
Zoom
January 2027 book: Selah: A Bayo Akomolafe Reader Join us to discuss this profound, playful, and kaleidoscopic collection from one of our most evocative contemporary philosopher-poets. Akómoláfé interrogates the fundamental assumptions and epistemological blind spots of our current culture in crisis. You can purchase the book (and benefit Kirkridge in the process) here at our online Book Nest: https://bookshop.org/a/105320/9781961814318 We’ll send a zoom link out when you register. This series is offered free of cost, and a donation ask will be part of every session. Bayo Akomolafe will offer a retreat at Kirkridge in March…
Bird Omens: A Winter Writing Retreat
With Lydia Wylie-Kellermann and Lacey Hunter
January 29 - 31, 2027
The Farmhouse
Join us for a cozy weekend in the mountains to focus on your writing life. Trust that there will be roaring fires, snowy trails, hot chocolate, candlelight, good food, and lots of quiet. We will offer some brief prompts and rituals throughout the days to nudge the imagination and then offer spacious hours for your own writing practice. This retreat is for word-lovers, storytellers, and writers in the most expansive sense of the word. Bring a project you are working on or blank pages that have been calling to you. Come sink into this land, follow the bird tracks in…
Zine-Making Retreat
With Robin Gow
February 12 - 14, 2027
The Farmhouse
From facilitator Robin Gow: The first zine I ever held was at The Wooden Shoe, an anarchist bookstore in Philadelphia. I was drawn to the shelf of zines for their uniqueness and grungy covers. I was nineteen and the zine I picked up was about the hanky code, a code for signaling queer desires, and I remember feeling exhilarated. I had never read something so intimate and raw and full of information I couldn't have found elsewhere. That moment was so emblematic of what zines represent. The ability to share ideas and information untethered by publishing gatekeepers or an imperative to be…
Word and Wind: A Yearlong Writing Cohort
With Lacey Hunter and Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
February 26, 2027 - February 27, 2028
Word and Wind: A Yearlong Writing Cohort is an opportunity to breathe life into the stories and imaginations you carry and call them by name. Writing is often sacred, solitary work. Through this cohort, we invite you to nourish that work by holding it with land and community. This year will offer participants writing time on the mountain, support in creating regular writing rhythms, and a community of writers to journey alongside. Who is this for? This year-long writing cohort is for writers in search of a writing community and gentle accountability. You are welcome to join if you have…
Gospel Healing in a Time of World Suffering
With Johanna Berrigan and Will O'Brien
April 2 - 4, 2027
Turning Point
Severe poverty and deepening divides of income, war and violence, racism and other forms of hatred and systemic discrimination, a ravaged creation: All of these cry out for healing – but what is the healing we need? How does this moment of societal crisis and vulnerability force us to ask deeper questions about who we are and what kind of world we need? And how are we engaging in healing practices for ourselves and for creation? How are we evolving spiritually to meet the challenges of our time? How do we find enough stillness to listen to the call within…
Working Class Love Notes: A Writing Retreat Weekend
With Beth Howard
April 9 - 11, 2027
Nelson Lodge
Working-class people are natural storytellers. You can often find us gathered on front porches, sitting around a kitchen table, or circled up around a campfire swapping stories. Stories are a way we hold onto our history, pass along knowledge, preserve traditions, and entertain ourselves. Often our instincts for writing come directly from our experience of hearing a good story and learning to tell them ourselves. Working-class stories deserve to be nurtured, shaped, and published but having a space for us to retreat, skill up, rest, and write together are few and far between which is why I’m thrilled to partner…
Artificial Intelligence Among the Demonic Powers and Principalities
With Bill Wylie-Kellermann, Edgar Rivera Colón and Frank Panopoulos
April 9 - 11, 2027
Turning Point
How do people of faith think theologically and act ethically in the face of rising Artificial Intelligence and its threat to humanity and Earth? What are the dimensions of that threat in... Social control? Humanoid Robots? Weaponry? Extinction? As developments accelerate more and more out of human control, Pope Leo’s ‘Magnifica humanitas’ offers one answer to be explored and pushed further. A theology of the fallen principalities, the demonic powers, commends another. Set in the context of prayer and discernment, this retreat will look together into the perils and possibilities for gospel action.
Allies in Recovery: A Weekend Workshop for Sexual Abuse Survivors and their Partners
With Mike Lew and Thom Harrigan
April 16 - 18, 2027
Nelson Lodge
It is required that all participants be fully vaccinated. The long-term and often painful process of recovery from sexual abuse has profound effects on relationships. Partners and survivors experience a parallel process of understanding the nature of abuse, its effects on the survivor and the couple, and the requirements of healing. Lack of information and understanding on both sides cause great strain on the couple. This weekend workshop is designed for couples where one or both of the partners is a non-offending survivor of sexual child abuse, rape, physical violence, emotional abuse and/or neglect. It is open to heterosexual, gay,…
Inhabiting Our Elderhood: Forgive Everything, Speak the Unspeakable
With Anne and Terry Symens-Bucher
April 23 - 25, 2027
Nelson Lodge
Inhabiting Our Elderhood: Forgive Everything, Speak the Unspeakable is a weekend retreat for elders who seek the grace to “forgive everyone everything,” and the courage to “speak the unspeakable.” Elderhood offers a unique opportunity to face and heal what has been previously untended, and offer this work as a blessing for others. Learning to do these two tasks well is our school of wisdom. What we leave unforgiven, unsaid and unacknowledged will be left for others to do. This retreat offers a gentle yet profound journey into the heart of forgiveness and truth-telling, so that we can transform, rather than…
The Place Where Beauty Starts: A Gathering for Grieving Hearts
With Anita Bondi and Naila Francis
May 14 - 16, 2027
The Farmhouse
In his poem “Not to Make Loss Beautiful,” Gregory Orr writes of making loss the place not only where beauty begins but where the heart truly understands the nature of its journey. Yet in a culture where so many turn to strategies of denial and avoidance to cope with grief, holding our pain as private failings, few are willing to risk a genuine encounter with sorrow. In doing so, we also miss out on the ways tending our losses invites more beauty into our lives: the beauty of connection, of offering ourselves and each other more compassion, of finding freedom…
Summons to Radical Discipleship
May 28 - 31, 2027
Kirkridge Retreat & Study Center
In a time when the dominant Christian narrative is devastatingly upholding fascism and zionism, we gather to remember a different story. We claim a Christianity that is rooted in a radical theology of liberation. Join us in community for the places where word and world mingle. There will be time to bible study, workshops, movement storytelling, art making, song, worship, campfires, imagining of new worlds, and the flowering beauty of the Pocono mountains in the spring. The Summons of Radical Discipleship is a yearly offering. Every five years, we host a larger Festival of Radical Discipleship. The Summons is a…
Finding Rest on the Mountain
With Britt MV and Micah Fialka-Feldman
June 25 - 27, 2027
The Farmhouse
Put your phone away and join us for a semi structured retreat connecting to yourself through nature and community. If you ever find yourself feeling drained simply from being a human in today’s world, this retreat is for the nervous system that lives in your animal body. We will spend time in the Kirkridge garden, walking the lands together, and incorporating gentle practices to activate the parasympathetic nervous system (your body’s rest and digest mode). This is the time to take care of yourself, as again and again we are called to take care of one another. Our bodies unwittingly…
Leaping on the Mountain
With Mike Lew and Thom Harrigan
August 13 - 15, 2027
Turning Point
The leaders are asking that all participants be fully vaccinated. Double and limited single rooms are available. This weekend workshop is for non-offending adult male survivors of sexual child abuse, rape, physical violence, emotional abuse and/or neglect. Our goal is to offer a safe, encouraging environment of healing. The weekend will provide a variety of healing activities, including the sharing of stories, writing exercises, anger work and other emotional expressions, small group discussion, relaxation and yes, even fun. This event is for men who are actively engaged in recovery work; it is not a substitute for therapy. A letter of…
Sisterly Conversations: Lesbians Sharing Our Stories Across Generations
With Riot Mueller
September 17 - 19, 2027
Nelson Lodge
What was it like to come out in the 1970s and 80s? What is it like to come out now? What stories would you like to tell about coming into your full gender expression, whether as trans, butch, femme, androgynous, nonbinary, agender, or something equally glorious? What other stories are important to your lesbian or queer development? Stories are how we connect, how we learn about one another, how we come to love one another. As elders, middle-aged people, and young queer and trans people in a world too often hostile, we need each other. Let’s build friendships across the…
Practices toward liberation: embodied prayer for these times
With Melissa Berkey-Gerard
September 24 - 26, 2027
You are invited into a spacious weekend of centering in our bodies, grounding in Love, and connecting to our deepest selves, the Spirit, and the earth. Our bodies often hold our emotions, fears, doubts, desires, and listening to our bodies will help us to discover places we are stuck, and places that long for freedom, love, attention. Together, we will create a space to express and release our fears and anger, and to listen for the invitation to respond to a troubled world with justice rooted in love. We will meet together to practice contemplative, embodied prayer, where you will…
Rainbows on the Mountain: Celebrating 50 years of LGBTQ Gatherings at Kirkridge
October 1 - 3, 2027
The first gay and lesbian Christian retreat was held at Kirkridge in 1977. This is no small milestone and a legacy worth celebrating every day. Join us to celebrate this history, share stories, dance and sing, walk the mountain, and imagine the work ahead. So many of you have been a part of this history and we want to share gratitude for that. Come, come, come to the mountain. We will continuing adding details of speakers, performers, and programming, but save the date and reserve your spot for this beautiful weekend of celebration. Q: Folks have asked, "Is this a…
Playing and Praying with Clay
With Denise Griebler
October 8 - 10, 2027
The Farmhouse
It’s not pots we are making, it’s ourselves. –M.C. Richards Take some clay in your hands and listen to your life. Clay invites our bodies to be more deeply grounded in Earth. The way it moves and holds shape awakens creativity and invites both play and contemplation. We’ll listen to the wind in the leaves, walk the stoney paths, wonder and create as we reflect on our lives and our place in the family of things. Along the way we may encounter wonder, grief, gratitude, and a sense of coming home to the land and ourselves. No need to worry…
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, William Stringfellow and Ourselves: a Discernment Conversation
With Bill Wylie-Kellermann and Mac Loftin
October 15 - 17, 2027
Turning Point
Consider three historical moments: Germany in the 30’s, the USA in the 70’s, and “America” amidst rising fascism 2027. Consider three voices: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s, William Stringfellow’s, and even your own in community. This retreat will set those voices in conversation, toward discerning speech and action in this present time. It will also ask, Can the living Word be recognized in this exchange? Among the commonalities between Bonhoeffer and Stringfellow, which can be entry points for conversation, we will attend to such as these: *the impact of Harlem on their ecclesial and movement politics; *their rooting of anti-racist commitments in baptism…
Fierce Vulnerability: Mobilizing the Power to Stop Injustice, Cultivating the Love to Heal It
With Kazu Haga
October 22 - 24, 2027
Nelson Lodge
Our world is facing an unprecedented crisis as our social systems fray, wealth disparity peaks, and ecological collapse looms. Meeting this moment requires a radical transformation that extends beyond laws and policy; it demands a fundamental shift in our hearts, values, and relationships. Fierce Vulnerability aims to cultivate this shift by building a movement rooted in the understanding that injustice is a manifestation of collective trauma, requiring an escalated yet deeply compassionate response. Rather than offering easy answers, this approach calls us to build community, create beauty, and respond skillfully to systemic violence while actively healing our own wounds. It…
Walking Awake Into the Celtic New Year
With Denise Crawn
October 29 - 31, 2027
The Farmhouse
*Please note: if you are attending the "Going Deeper" series with Denise prior to this retreat, you can reserve your room for those two nights by "adding additional nights" in the Price section of your registration. If you feel a deep connection to Nature, have an interest in Celtic Spirituality, and a longing to be amongst the stunning autumn foliage at Kirkridge, this annual weekend retreat may indeed call you ‘home’ to the mountain. Throughout our weekend together we will explore some of the many surrounding lessons and gifts available to us as we ‘walk awake’ together into the Celtic…
Held in the Dark: An Advent Retreat
With Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
December 3 - 5, 2027
The Farmhouse
Advent is a holy time of waiting and preparation. This year, gather with us around the fire as we sink into the dark as the nights grow longer. Let us give space to honor the stories that rise in our dreams. Let us tend to the silence and embrace solitude. Join us for an Advent retreat. We will spend time in silence, darkness, and song. There will be time to sing around the Advent wreath, lean into candlelit evenings, share in simple prayer rhythms, forage and weave wreathes, and plenty of time for rest and wandering. Following this retreat, all…