Retreat Programs

“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…

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…

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.  One year ago as we prepared for the inauguration, we…

On the Celtic Wheel of the Year, Imbolc marks the midway point between winter solstice and spring equinox. With its arrival we find ourselves at a threshold in Nature. Here in the northern hemisphere, as we continue our annual cyclical spiral away from the cold, dark months of winter towards the returning light and warmth of spring, promises of renewal and new life are beginning to stir and emerge. Across the centuries Brigid has been beloved and revered as Saint and Goddess. Her stories have woven their way through the Celtic Lands and into the hearts of many across the…

The phrase “damned whiteness” comes from a 1961 poem by white Christian missionary Ralph Templin, who recognized his own whiteness as a “frightening disease” that kept him from showing up in true solidarity with Black freedom fighters. In a new book that takes Templin’s phrase as its title, historian David F. Evans explores how white Christian allies failed the Black Freedom Movement. Evans focuses his study on Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement; Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm; and Ralph Templin, co-founder of the Harlem Ashram and director of the nonviolent School for Living,  identifying some common…

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 ourselves and each other in this sacred gathering? How might we strengthen our webs of community now and in the days ahead Grounding -  What supports us in grounding in our bodies, the earth, and that which is greater in…

Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people face the triple threat of white supremacy, misogynoir, and homophobia. Even the Church–long a refuge for Black people in the United States–is too often a site of trauma for us. That is why we now invite Black queer and trans people to The Clearing. Named for a scene in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Clearing is a site of soul retrieval that involves a rejection of the nothingness the world places on us and ours and a reclamation of our gifts and blessings, our belovedness. In The Clearing, our potential is freed from…

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,…

What are you practicing? This retreat is for anyone who knows in their bones that another world is possible beyond militarized borders, policing, and prisons, even if we can’t quite perceive the details from here, and who wants to be practicing  toward that world. We’ll be exploring ways we can be doing that even right now, especially right now, in the midst of all THIS. To ground our conversation, we’ll be sitting with Andrea Ritchie’s latest book, Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies, which is full-to-bursting with interviews and stories from organizers all over Turtle Island, folks who are…

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 ourselves and each other in this sacred gathering? How might we strengthen our webs of community now and in the days ahead Grounding -  What supports us in grounding in our bodies, the earth, and that which is greater in…

A Walking Awake pilgrimage to the Isle of Iona, Scotland with Columcille Megalith Park and Kirkridge Retreat Center (registration is open to all). After experiencing a wonderfully memorable shared pilgrimage to Iona in 2024, Columcille Megalith Park, Kirkridge Retreat Center and Walking Awake are excited to announce that we've decided to offer another in August, 2026! If you are curious about the connections that link these three places together, have a love of Celtic Spirituality and Nature, always dreamed of traveling to Iona (or to return), this pilgrimage is for you! Our journey will begin on Friday, August 7th, 2026 with a group pick-up…

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 ourselves and each other in this sacred gathering? How might we strengthen our webs of community now and in the days ahead Grounding -  What supports us in grounding in our bodies, the earth, and that which is greater in…