Retreat 2024

Scotland

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2024 Provincial Retreat

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Prayer

The Wave of Prayer

2024 Scottish Provincial Retreat

Our annual silent retreat provides an opportunity to be quiet and feel God’s presence. The photo above shows those who came to the 2024 retreat. It was a joy once again to be in the welcoming and comfortable setting of St. Mary’s Monastery, Kinnoull beside Perth between Tuesday 9th April to Thursday 11th April 2024.

Our leader was the Reverend Nick Bowry, Rector of the joint charge of St James the Less, Penicuik and St Mungo, West Linton in the Diocese of Edinburgh.

Nick is a fairly recent entrant to the priesthood having been ordained in the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in 2017. Prior to that, he held many posts in HR with a range of organisations, including the Medical Research Council, the University of Edinburgh and Bethany Christian Trust.

He has been a member of the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Personnel Committe, the Administration Board and served on General Synod. He has also initiated many projects involving local communities, and is an advocate of asset-based community development. He currently represents the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC) on the Scottish Faiths’ Action for Refugees group, and is a member of the SEC’s Inter-Faith Relations Committee.

He likes a fairly traditional style of worship including a wide variety of types of music and greatly values the role of music in worship. He is a member of the Iona Community, has participated in and supports the Cursillo movement, and enjoys worship in the style of Taizé.

He continues to enjoy walking the pilgrim way to Santiago de Compestela when he can. Apart from walking, he likes reading and meeting and chatting to folk around our local communities.

Theme

Nick’s theme was Forgiveness: The Joy of Being Wrong.

He said he was delighted and a tad daunted to have been invited to lead the retreat. He said the choice of subject comes from three different inspirations. The first is my own journey in faith, and my struggles with forgiveness – self-forgiveness and forgiving others. The second is in pastoral settings I have often come across people who have also struggled with forgiveness in all its forms and in ministering to the dying a common thread is a desire to process and reach closure on an issue of betrayed trust or a long-held resentment, realising it is a burden carried, by some, for too a long time. He followed the usual pattern of developing the theme over four talks.

Talk 1: “God is Love”
To err is human, to love is God’s gift. We all sin, and can find it hard to forgive others, and just as importantly, to forgive ourselves. God is a loving God, and when we have contrite hearts and confess our sins, God welcomes us with open arms. To forgive is a costly activity for each of us. How does God’s love help us?

Talk 2: “Unforgiven and Forgiven”
The art of forgiveness (Matt 18:15-22) and the tragedy of not forgiving (Matt 18:23-35). An inspiring example of the Amish model of forgiveness.

Talk 3: “Dimension of Forgiveness”
The psalms, Old Testament stories, and the gospels describe the various dimensions of forgiveness, as we explore our own needs for forgiveness.

Talk 4: “A community of Reconciliation”
God’s justice and love creates a community of reconciliation when we are able to practice forgiveness of others and of ourselves. We come full circle, recalling that God is love. .

The retreat was a wonderful opportunity for a time of quietness and renewal in the peace and calm of God’s holy presence. Nick's leadership and the atmosphere of the house certainly delivered on that promise.

Previous Retreats

Please take a look at the pages for the previous Retreats to get an idea of what they are like and to look at the photo-galleries. We hope those who were there will enjoy the memories they bring back and we also hope they will encourage those who weren’t there to make a date to come to the 2024 Retreat.