Photo: Photo (left to right) : Merry Wood, Jonathan King, Kit King, and Steve Hornby.
Retreat and restore: Epistle from Quaker Voluntary Action
‘We go back into the world feeling refreshed.’
From 14-17 April 2025, four Friends gathered at Claridge House, Surrey, a Quaker centre for retreat, rest, and renewal, for a working retreat run by Quaker Voluntary Action (QVA). We split our time between worship, living in community, physical work, and exploring the theme of Caring for Creation. In addition to the participants, the group was supported by Kit King, QVA coordinator, who facilitated the retreat, and Merry Wood, manager of Claridge House, who provided support in many ways throughout our time there.
We had four themed sessions during the retreat, facilitated by Kit King. The first was an introductory session, which allowed for Friends to start getting to know one another, start thinking about the theme, and to look at the programme for the days ahead. The second session focussed on climate justice, thinking about in what ways we can and should act in order to protect our planet. Our third session was on peace – we considered how we bring about peace inwardly into our own lives and outwardly into the world, and discussed positive and negative peace. Finally, we spent the last session reflecting on our time at Claridge House, sharing our highlights of the retreat, and giving thanks for our experiences.
‘It was a privilege to break bread and share in the companionship of eating together.’
Following Merry’s guidance as to what the house needed, we cleaned and repainted the white porch canopy, and the garden terrace and back patio were ‘de-mossed’ and pressure washed. The trellis on the back of the house has been repainted, and we began work to prepare the back wall for repainting. Finally, we sanded and re-oiled their currently vacant beehive, in order to prepare it for a new swarm to make it their home.
We took it in turns to prepare each meal, which added to the sense of community and the rewarding feeling of giving back to one another. It was a privilege to break bread and share in the companionship of eating together.
Each day started and ended with Meeting for Worship. We heard readings from Quaker faith & practice, a Native American prayer, and designed paper flowers which we folded up and dropped onto a tray of water so that we could watch them slowly and peacefully unfold.
In our free time, we were able to explore the beautiful house and grounds. This included their library, wild flowers, and a meditative labyrinth.
It is clear that a lot of time and effort goes into making Claridge House a calming, peaceful, and restorative place. Our thanks go to Merry and the team for enabling us to share in the beauty of this important Quaker site.
We go back into the world feeling refreshed, proud of our work, and re-energised to do our bit to make the world a better place.
Signed on behalf of the participants by Kit King.
