First Year Class Retreat

In an effort to help build community among each class at CDSP, the Dean of Students and a few faculty members take a class on a retreat each year.  This past weekend was our retreat.  The retreat takes place at St. Dorothy's Rest, a diocesan youth camp and retreat center.  The location is a closely guarded secret since it is a complete mystery how we all got there safely.  No GPS unit or cell phone works because of the density and height of the redwood forrest that you drive through during the last part of the trip.  Once I arrived I was in awe at the beauty of the trees, the rustic simplicity of the chapel and buildings and the shear silence of the forrest.  It was God's country.  

Friday night and Saturday morning were times for each of us to get to know each other better and to reflect on how we want to spend our time here at CDSP.  The Dean of Students, Anne, is a great facilitator of groups and she had a few exercise that we did using Appreciative Inquiry, AI, a process I am familiar with from my EFM trainings as well as something I wasn't as familiar with called World Cafe.  Both processes were periods of time where we all shared our past experiences as well as looked to the future.  Since today was Sept 11, Mark Richardson, the President of CDSP led us in a conversation to look back at our own actions in the days following the attacks and particularly looking at those learning points that we want to ensure we remember for the future.  

On Saturday afternoon, we had free time to go explore the area including the California Coast.  We learned that the final scene of Goonies was filmed at a nearby beach so the majority of us all headed ten miles west to the Pacific Ocean and Goat Rock Beach.  One of the other seminarians actually went swimming in the ocean.  

The final piece of business for the retreat was the election of class officers.  A process we all thought would be quick, ended up taking us almost 3 hours to complete.  Finally by consensus, we elected our class president and our member of the worship committee.  It was then time to enjoy compline and social time around a campfire.  

This weekend was a great relaxing break from the first week of classes but the work still needs to be done and tomorrow Greek begins so I must say good night for now.

St Dorothy's Rest website