Tower and Town, November 2017 (view the full edition)A Memorable Retreat At St Non’sOur party of sixteen, led by Anglican Licensed Lay Minister Sarah Musgrave, arrived in Solva on 12th September and set off on a windswept four mile walk along the rugged Pembrokeshire coastal path to the remote Retreat Centre at St Non's. We were four Quakers, a small cohort of Anglicans, one 'Quanglican', two Roman Catholics and one or two borderline Agnostics. A warm welcome by the three resident Irish Sisters of Mercy set the tone for four days of simple creature comforts and wholesome meals; all enjoyed in peaceful surroundings with mercifully no access to IT or the news media. The days that followed were devoted mainly to earnest group discussions interspersed with quiet reading in the library and long walks together along the breathtakingly beautiful coastline. Our contemplations were predictably stimulating between men and women from a fairly wide range of former working backgrounds including the church, medicine, academia, non-governmental organisations and the military. Being all of 'a certain age' however we focused very much on the present, discussing (and at times agonising over!) our faith and our proper role in a rapidly changing and bewilderingly uncertain world. Not surprisingly perhaps, we also turned our thoughts briefly to death and the unknown hereafter. Possibly the most impassioned discussion of all revolved around individual and collective forgiveness. A good deal of soul-searching led to some emotional, even fraught, moments which Sarah, calling on her experience both as an LLM and a professional psychotherapist, was able to allay with commendable skill and understanding. A choral evensong in St David's 12th century cathedral, with its unique sloping nave and magnificent ceilings, was for many of us a very special act of worship, not to be forgotten. Likewise the meditation walk on the last morning, led by Dr Barney Rosedale, and followed by a brief Holy Communion service, conducted by the Revd Henry Pearson, in the diminutive Retreat Centre chapel, both within sight of the ruined shrine on the spot where the good St Non supposedly gave birth to St David. 'Requiescant in Pace' Jeremy York |