Communal Retreats at Iona House

Structured, overnight retreats offered to guests

 
 
 

How Retreats Work at Iona House

Retreats at Iona House are an opportunity for guests to enter into the ongoing daily rhythm of life that already exists at Iona House. This rhythm of life includes fixed hour prayer times (9am, noon, 4:30pm), study & learning, manual labor / serving, rest, silence & solitude, as well as fellowship.

Our retreats come together in two ways:

1) Iona House announces a theme-related weekend. Whoever is interested signs up through our website interest form. It’s first-come, first-served.

2) The Iona House leadership team partners with a person (someone who is known and trusted by the Iona House leadership team) who acts as a “convener” - gathering a group of friends, a small group, or some other socially connected group to come experience Iona House together. The Iona House leadership team works with the convener to find a date and a theme or content that would be most helpful to the group.

Note that we do not offer Iona House as a place to host your own off-site, retreat experience, or content. We are not a conference center or an airbnb. Instead, we provide a full retreat experience for your group that coheres within the rhythm of life already transpiring on the campus.

We can recommend other conference centers if you are looking for a place to convene your own retreat.

 

  • A sample schedule for a typical Friday-Sunday Iona House Immersion Retreat

    Each retreat is built within the same essential ethos and rhythm of life. However, the content or teaching focus will change each retreat.

  • We have room for approx. 10-18 people each weekend (a few more if we include children) depending on various factors. In addition to the overnight guests, retreats are attended by on-campus residents, local community members, and staff. This typically puts the total group size at 15-30 people on campus.

  • No. We usually punctuate each month with three types of weekends:

    1) Iona House Immersions (see above)

    2) Community Days (which focus on Saturday day use, with a some guests attaching a personal retreat to these weekends)

    3) “Quiet Weekends” in which the rhythm of life continues at Iona House, but there is no teaching or meals provided. Guests can come as individuals or as convened groups for a Quiet Weekend, which we would treat as essentially a personal retreat experience entered into by groups.

  • Wonderful. We would like to talk with you. Let’s schedule a chance to do a call together. Please email ryan@ionahouse.org