[Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1)

[Beret Griffith]

Dear Colleagues on the Journey,

Here in Minnesota where the snow is melting we just completed a 
forty-four hour weekend with forty people. The pastor at the United 
Methodist Church in Northfield is an Academy graduate and last 
winter, about this time, he pushed hard to offer an Ecumenical 
Institute course for the congregation. He asked me to talk to the 
Adult Education Committee to see if there would be interest in 
sponsoring a retreat. I'd heard that John Cock had taught an RS-1 in 
Hilton Head and had done some rewriting for the course. John and I 
talked. He was interested. I briefed the committee, and got the 
go-ahead to form a team to move forward.

A team of five worked for the next year to pull it off. We first 
wanted it in the fall of 2006. The Mount Olivet Retreat and 
Conference Center where we wanted to hold the retreat books at least 
a year out and was not available. We then reserved space there for 
the weekend of February 16-18, 2007. It is about thirty miles south 
of Minneapolis.

The Spirit Journey Retreat: Empowering Our Faith (RS-1) was 
outstanding. There were forty people including John and Lynda Cock. 
John led the WHOLE weekend. With his additions to the weekend of 
small group work (we even had a Grace Huddle - a highlight for nearly 
everyone), reflection time on Saturday afternoon, songs, rituals and 
spirit exercises, it even had a slightly spacious feel. We did start 
at 7:00 am on Saturday and Sunday and nearly everyone showed up first 
thing in the morning. It reaffirmed our understanding of the 
contentlessness of the story and its relevance to current time. 
John's leadership was outstanding and must have been exhausting, 
recalling the days when four people taught the weekend. Lynda worked 
with me on practics and took care of selling John's books. Work on 
the space created a fine container for spirit work.

About a third of the folks were from outside the congregation and 
included four people who are experienced ToP trainers and 
consultants. One works for a consulting firm and another for a large 
foundation that does leadership training throughout the area. The 
profiles of participants were interesting and ranged from 
conservative to liberal, evangelical to progressive, somewhat 
educated to highly educated. Several people who teach and work in 
business had theological backgrounds. Discussions were animated, deep 
and grounded.

The G.O.D. rock (petrified tree), owned by Sue and Stefan Laxdal and 
present at all RS-1 courses ever done in Minneapolis, proudly took 
its place at the center of the room during the last session. It was 
preceded by a dinosaur bone, a very large crystal and a large fossil. 
The earth flag hung at the front of the room. We used a portable wall 
designed by ToP trainer Cheryl Kartes' husband Patrick. It was 
designed for the ToP crew and creates twelve feet of free standing 
wall. It was the best wall ever. We used six feet of the wall, 
covered it with a sticky wall and put four flip chart pages up for 
every session. John had never had such a blackboard.

Sleeping in a motel type room at the conference center with an 
abundance of food at meals was good. It did make me a little 
nostalgic for spaghetti on Friday and the sound of mice roaming the 
pantry while sleeping among the food stores in a church basement - on 
an army cot.

Spending time with John and Lynda, with whom we had never formally 
worked, was a time not to be missed.  Ron and I had a dinner on 
Thursday so they could both meet the team and get properly welcomed 
before divining into the intensity of the weekend. Afterwards we 
managed some celebratory eating, drinking and great conversation.

Thank you to John and Lynda and to all who have gone before on this 
journey. Those folks who had the original vision, the nerve and 
persistence to create the RS-1 course and then to gather a body of 
people who were insistent on getting it out to people are to be 
remembered. Cyber hugs all around dear colleagues.

Beret and Ron Griffith
on behalf of our local team: Faye Caskey, head of Adult Education at 
the church (her husband Carl hired Vance Engleman in Oaklahoma); Clay 
Oglesbee, Pastor (Academy grad); Ron Griffith (first took RS-1 in 
1968), Bill Ostrem (environmental activist in Northfield).