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…

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…

The Clearing Healing Music Retreat is a three-day gathering on Friday, September 18 - Sunday, September 20th, 2026 for Black queer and trans people who carry the deep wound of a world that denies our belovedness. Here, we return to the river that has always healed us—our music, our breath, our way of seeing against the grain and walking against the current. We will draw on the power of Spirituals, Blues, Jazz, Gospel, and Hip Hop—our lament, our gutbucket truth, our improvisation, our embodied hope, our healing rage—to reclaim our stories and free what domination tried to drown. Through song,…

“Everyone knows everything sings and dies. But could it be, too, everything dies and sings….” — Galway Kinnell We live in a culture that often turns its face away from the one certainty we all share. Yet, when we lean into the mystery of the "Great Mystery," we often find that our lives become more vivid, purposeful, and harmonious. Join singer, songwriter, and master facilitator Barbara McAfee for a soulful investigation into the thin places where life and death meet. This is not a clinical seminar, but a communal ritual—a space to metabolize our grief and celebrate our vitality through…

The land where we rest, grieve, and celebrate is the only thing we have in common with those around us. Our bodies are created of and are part of the land. When we die, we fold back into the land’s cycle of life. Our breath, the sea water that is beneath our skin, and the minerals of our bones and eyelashes are all shared with the oak and marmot and seal. And for most of us living on Turtle Island, the land we are on is occupied. Most of us are living as uninvited guests, as settlers of people who…

Join us in the mountains for a weekend of silence. Kirkridge staff will offer some brief communal ritual spaces, but most of the time will be yours for whatever you need. There will be time for prayer, wondering and wandering, reading and writing, rest and sleep, silent connection and nourishing food. Let the land hold you in these hard days. Let silence wash over you.

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…

Please apply by August 15th. 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…

*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…

Japanese kintsugi involves taking something that has been broken, specifically pottery, and practicing repair in ways that highlight or accentuate the site of brokenness, by highlighting and accentuating the seams where the pottery was damaged. My art practice and writing pushes kintsugi processes further, taking older artworks I have created, hymns, and scriptures to create new works by ripping them apart and putting them together in collage. In writing, I excavate untold histories and retell well-worn ones to rip them apart, to discover what's there that remains to be conveyed to us. Ripping and Repair is a workshop in which…

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…

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…

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…