Back To A Garden I’ve Called Eden – coming home to each other and our beautiful Planet Earth!

Photo by Tom Klingl

Registration is open – click here.

Can you offer a workshop at the retreat? Click here

and write to Workshops@europeanuu.org.

News from the Retreat Committee

Dear Friends,

We had hoped to have our first ever hybrid retreat in Prague, both in person and online.  However, due to the spread of the Omicron variant of Coronavirus throughout Europe and North America we felt that the only way to ensure the health and wellbeing of our members was to move the retreat totally online.

Our Theme Speaker

The Rev Lara Cowtan is the Interim Minister at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver.  A life long Unitarian Universalist and daughter of a UU Minister, Lara has been active within the UUA, EUU (she was one of the founding members of the Basel Fellowship) and served on the Executive Committee of ICUU.  Lara trained for the UU ministry at Meadville Lombard Theological Seminary, graduating with a Master of Divinity Degree in 2017.  She was ordained by her internship congregation in Westport Connecticut.  Before training for the UU ministry, Lara had a successful career in nursing.  In Lara’s own words around being called to Interim Ministry, “I feel especially called to transitional ministry, journeying with congregations as they move through change and challenges, envisioning and reaching into the future.”

Friday Apr 8 (evening in Europe)

Our Retreat will begin with the Opening Proceedings at 7:30 pm (Central European Time) when we will welcome everyone to the retreat and share together in Candles of Joy and Concern.

Saturday Apr 9: Workshops, Theme Talk and Concert

We will have our first series of workshops between 11:30 am and 1 pm.  If you can offer a workshop, please contact Susan Goldberg workshops@europeanuu.org who is co-ordinating this part of the program. Here’s what Susan has written about workshops. 

Back To A Garden, I’ve Called Eden – coming home to each other and our beautiful Planet Earth!

At 4 pm, we will have our Theme Talk given by the Rev Lara Cowtan

Jim and Lucie Carlson (aka Cricket and Snail) will be providing us with a 40 minute concert on Saturday evening at 7:30 pm.

Sunday Apr 10: Workshops, Flower Communion Service

We will have our second series of workshops between 11:30 am and 1 pm.

At 4 pm, we will have our first ever virtual Flower Communion on Zoom, with a representative from each EUU Fellowship being asked to take part.  The service will be very much in the Czech Tradition of the Flower Communion and will be a celebration of our Unitarian Universalist Faith and Principles.

As you can see, we have timed activities so that any of our members can join us, especially those who are now located in North America.

Other Activities

We have plenty of room in our Retreat Program for additional activities, such as Coffee Morning Meet-Ups or Morning Gatherings, informal discussions, etc………..
Write to RetreatCommittee@europeanuu.org if you want to arrange an activity. 

Registration Cost – Surplus to go to Ukraine relief

We have decided to implement a “give what you can” registration fee for this online retreat, with a recommended fee of €35. However, we want to make this retreat open to all so please pay what you can. All  “surplus” realized will be used to support the EUU Social Action response to the Ukrainian humanitarian crisis, so please think of this when you decide whether you can pay a little more than you planned for the retreat. 

As your Prague Retreat Committee, we never anticipated having to cancel two “in person” retreats.  We know that a lot of folks are tired of meeting online and looking forward so much to meeting in person.  We are, however, so grateful that we can hold a virtual retreat on Zoom and hope that you will join us for what we hope will be our last purely virtual retreat!

Please come along and join us.

Click here to register.

We look forward to welcoming you to a weekend of fellowship, connection, and inspiration.

In Faith,

Mark Shiels
On Behalf of The Prague Retreat Committee.