Clergy Retreat, November 18-19, 2005

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is home to the Lakota people of the Sioux Nation. The reservation runs along the Nebraska - South Dakota border and is home to 38,000 people, plagued by an unemployment rate at 80 per cent and infant mortality three times the national average. It is commonly regarded as the poorest county in the United States. Life expectancy is also the lowest in the country for both men and women. Up until the 1970's over one-third of the children were taken from their families to be raised in white families.

The Pine Ridge Retreat for Clergy and Church Leaders, a complement to our annual mission trip to Pine Ridge in the summer, gathers pastors and lay leaders from the dozen plus churches on the reservation for two days to bless them by:

• Expressing appreciation for the important work they do.
• Deepening their relationships with God and one other.
• Fostering creative collaboration in learning and service.

The retreat this year was co-hosted by Lookout Campus of Bellingham, WA and our church. The responsibilities for the success of the retreat were carried out by Peggie Carley, Peter and Mary Studer and Carleton Peterson. Prior to leaving these goals were established:

• Through a "no strings attached" banquet we want to honor these leaders and express appreciation for the diligent work they do in daily parish life, often amidst extraordinary tragedy and stress.
• Provide times of prayer that invite both unburdening of and taking on the cares of the community and the world.
• Demonstrate a values-based retreat model.
• Design intense conversations that facilitate deepening relationships, and expanding respect for colleagues from differing traditions.
• Discover differing resources colleagues find useful for building hope and courage for pastoral work and church leadership.
• Discuss how creativity and collaboration can be leveraged for the spiritual work that is being done and might be done on this reservation.
• Acknowledge resistance and obstacles to spiritual growth and stronger churches and seek to overcome them. Develop next steps that could be implemented and connections that could be built.