[Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1) - Grace huddle?

[Janice Ulangca]

Beret, congratulations to you, the Northfield UMC team, and to John Cock (and also Lynda)  for such a life-changing event.  John was always a powerful pedagogue.  It was a marathon, but I can see why he needed to do it himself.  He didn't have time to train a team to lead with anything like his ability.  (Remember the Pedagogy courses, and the years of mentoring?!)  The decor and "blackboard" sound fabulous.

Please say some more about the Grace Huddle!  And anything else you can share about the spirit exercises.

Many of us can testify that this kind of event will reverberate through lifetimes.

With gratitude for this contribution to history,

Janice Ulangca

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Beret Griffith 
  To: Dialogue at wedgeblade.net ; OE at wedgeblade.net 
  Cc: rgriffith at charter.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 2:00 PM
  Subject: [Dialogue] Spirit Journey Retreat (RS-1)


  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).



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