Reopening Retreat Centers

Our weekly Community Calls provide peer support, discussion forums and guest workshops for retreat center leaders and allied organizations. Keep checking back for more of these videos here in our blog.

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Today’s conversation revealed more of our diversity of responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the complexity of the reopening process for many of us.

Facilitators:

Justine Johnson, Kirkridge Retreat and Study Center

Paul Mach, Lindenwood Retreat and Conference Center

Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma, GilChrist Retreat Center

This was a community dialogue around best practices, sharing what retreat centers are learning during the pandemic. This is a challenging re-entry process for centers that are actively reopening, with important changes across the board. Centers have worked to reduce the number of participants and groups, space out furniture, improve signage, let beds and rooms lie fallow, change food prep and delivery methods, and institute new cleaning protocols. But for centers who have decided to wait, this is also a time of reflecting, pivoting, and transformation. Several leaders expressed finding a sense of opportunity within the challenges and are finally addressing back-burner projects; others have been forced to radically downsize staff and re-envision their spaces and organizations, or are attempting their first forays into online, virtual programs and events, with varying markers of success.

See Kirstin’s survey and notes from GilChrist Retreat Center’s work, along with an audio recording and our notes from today’s conversation at the link below.