An Invitation to The Gathering 2027

Dear Clergy Friends,

Does it feel like it is time for us all to gather together again? It does to me, so I want to personally invite you to attend The Gathering: A Retreat for Clergy on September 7-9, 2027. We will be in San Diego at the Sheraton San Diego Resort at Harbor Island. It is a beautiful facility.

You can find everything you need to know about cost, logistics, and registration on the event page of our website. I invite you to review it all, and I welcome you to reach out with questions.

Our theme for this Gathering is Healing the Storyteller, and that is really what I want to focus on in this invitation: what it might mean to explore our own stories, our own wounds, and discover where our own lives might bear witness to the grace we are called to share with others. Where might our own trauma, and our healing from it, bring light where it is needed?

Clergy carry not only their own history and heartache, but the history and heartache of those they serve. This is tremendous weight to bear, and I am hopeful that in gathering together in San Diego we will have cause to remember that we do not carry it alone. We carry it with one another, and with the assurance of the presence of the God who called us to this work in the first place.

I am eager for you to hear my fellow Kentuckian Silas House tell his story. I am confident Dr. David Wang will share helpful and healing words with us. I know for a fact the Reverend Virzola Jo-Nan Law-Allen will bring us a good word. And I look forward to singing with all of you as Andra Moran gathers us with music. These folks will all be a blessing — but the greatest blessing will be how we show up for one another.

Please consider joining us. The Gathering is just one piece of our overall clergy health and wellness program, but it is the one where we have the best opportunity to remember the mercy and hope that can be found in community, and where we have a chance to see the good news of shared journeys realized.

I hope you will join us. I would love to see you there. And I know you will be glad you came.

Blessings, and, be well,

Julie Richardson

Vice President of Development and Programs