IRELAND RETREAT 2023
Travel off the beaten path!
Many people have taken trips to Ireland, but few have wandered off the beaten path, forming communities of pilgrims who wanted to experience Ireland in authenticity
Apply at Ireland Retreats
You’re invited to join us on a journey of hope, healing, creativity and community. Staying in historic restored rural accommodation including cottages in exquisite natural surroundings, with a group of friends old and new, enjoying the landscape on amazing walks, hearing music and story, meeting locals,
God, Guinness & Girlfriends… Waking Up to the 2ndHalf of Life
Join pastor & therapist Christine Ruth, yoga & meditation instructor Carolyn Chaiko, Irish writer & story activist Gareth Higgins and spiritual director & educator Brian Ammons, on a retreat in Northern Ireland for women seeking to reignite their passion and purpose.
As your life’s story unfolds, the transition to the next chapter can be disorienting. Whether you’re newly single, a newlywed, a new parent, a new empty nester, newly divorced, newly menopausal, or facing any life change, there’s no better place to make your shift than in the company of empowering women who want to help discover the newly emerging “you.”
Come release what no longer serves you and rise to new possibilities as we hear stories, create relationships, lean into God’s wisdom, deepen our souls, write new narratives, do some yoga, and explore the legacy of Northern Ireland and its invitation for our lives. This retreat will be equal parts storytelling, Celtic spirituality, yoga, music, writing, reflection, connecting, pilgrimage, and adventure.
Who’s invited? 21+ Women seeking to co-create their next chapter. This is an LGBTQ+ welcoming retreat.
Do I have to do yoga? No, but you will love the slow pace of our stretches.
Do I have to believe in God? Absolutely not, but we will doing some spiritual, soul-work. All faith (or non-faith) orientations are welcome.
Do I have to drink Guinness? No. We invite women in recovery and those who choose not to drink, for any reason, to fully participate in this retreat.
Our Hosts: Married spiritual director and chaplain Pastor Brian Ammons & Irish writer and story activist Gareth Higgins
Dates: October 17th-25th, 2023
Cost: $3,300 (+ airfare) When You Apply with a Friend or Family Member, Full Registration is discounted to $3,125 per person - see www.irelandretreats.com for more information
For More Detailed Information and an Application Form go to www.irelandretreats.com
What’s included?
• The services of all guides and retreat leaders, support staff, and guests from the world of arts, politics and peacemaking.
• Four nights in historic restored rural accommodation including cottages in exquisite natural surroundings
• Four nights in a retreat centre in the grounds of a converted
old country house by the sea on the edge of Belfast.
• Breakfast (including traditional Irish options) every day, and lunch or dinner most days.
• Transport from Belfast hubs to accommodation, and on organized trips throughout the tour.
• All admission fees to sites such as cultural centers, museums, etc.
• The use of all accommodation facilities including lounges, gardens, etc.
• A life-changing experience of spirit, imagination, and community.
Hosts
Christine Ruth, M.Div., MS, LMFT is an ordained pastor, a grief counselor, and licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT). She founded Princeton Family Counseling Center in Princeton, New Jersey and the Podcast, “The Soul Enchilada.” Christine has twenty-one years of ministry and counseling experience facilitating retreats, grief workshops, and conducting individual and marriage therapy. She is a program assistant for Internal Family Systems, a therapeutic approach to trauma.
Christine’s passion centers around counseling, writing, teaching, Jungian psychology, and spiritual growth. She loves providing safe spaces for people to wrestle with doubt, struggle, and questions of the faith. Christine also loves good coffee, blues and jazz music, world travel, musical theater, camping, and as a Wisconsin native- can never get enough cheese.
Carolyn Chaiko E-200 YACEP specializes in teaching the stillness practices of yoga: restorative, yin, meditation, as well as gentle. Carolyn is considered to be a ‘relaxation expert”, helping students to tap into their own calm centered self. Carolyn provides restorative and yin teacher trainings as well as weekly classes. Her intuitive approach and expert understanding of the science of relaxation, creates a deep restorative yoga experience for her students. Recognized for her inspiring class themes, knowledgeable understanding of restorative postures, and guided meditations.
Carolyn first came to yoga to address stress and anxiety generated during her husband’s military deployment. Through restorative yoga, she found an oasis of peace, as well as the inner strength and courage to face life’s challenges. Impressed by the benefits of yoga, Carolyn was inspired to share her love of this beautiful practice with others.
Off the mat, Carolyn is a licensed Architect, with a successful professional career spanning more than 20 years. Carolyn enjoys “holding space” for both architecture and yoga.
Gareth Higgins was born in Belfast in 1975, grew up during the northern Ireland Troubles, and now lives in the US. He writes and speaks about the power of storytelling to shape our lives and world, peace and making justice, and how to take life seriously without believing your own propaganda. He has been involved in peace-building and violence reduction in northern Ireland and helping address the legacy of conflict, received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Queen’s University Belfast, and helped teach the world’s first graduate course in Reconciliation Studies at Trinity College Dublin. He also helped found the Wild Goose, New Story and Movies & Meaning festivals. Gareth leads retreats in North America and Ireland; and he founded The Porch Magazine.
Brian McLaren says Gareth’s new book How Not to be Afraid is “a beautiful book”, Kathleen Norris says it’s “a necessary book”, and Micky ScottBey Jones says it’s “a much-needed resource for skill-building through our fear and trauma, so that we might create the belonging and communities we desire”. Nadia Bolz-Weber says “I totally trust Gareth Higgins when he writes about his own fear and how it’s actually possible to transform it into something powerful, something capable of healing us and the world.” Pádraig Ó Tuama says “Gareth Higgins is a friend. This book is too.” Find out more at www.hownottobeafraid.com
Brian Ammons, M.Ed., M.Div., Ph.D. is an educator, spiritual director, coach, writer and ordained minister. A former faculty member in Duke University's Program in Education and for over eight years Chaplain & Director of Spiritual Life at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC, Brian was named Interfaith Youth Core Outstanding Educator in 2017. Brian holds a PhD in Education with a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from UNC-Greensboro, and is an ordained minister in the Alliance of Baptists tradition. Brian was trained as coach in an International Coaching Federation accredited program jointly sponsored by Pinnacle Leadership and The Center for Congregational Health. and formed as a spiritual director through Shalem Institute’s spiritual guidance program.
Brian has written and spoken widely on themes of vocational discernment; interfaith work in higher education; and the intersections of gender, sexuality, and spirituality. Brian is married to writer and activist Gareth Higgins, and they split their time between Asheville, NC and Belfast, northern Ireland.
Accommodations
The Lorne Estate, Craigavad, Holywood
Questions? Please fill out the form to email Carolyn Chaiko and Christine Ruth with any questions or for more information!