Women’s Retreat

February 2-5, 2024

Spend a winter weekend at Holden Village this February for our annual Women’s Retreat. Through teaching sessions, group conversations, reflections, crafts, and outdoor adventures like snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, Women’s Retreat will provide opportunities to build new relationships, rejuvenate past relationships, reconnect with the self, and join other women in conversation and recreation.

Holden Village uses an inclusive definition of women and welcomes trans women and non-binary folks. Attendees only need to identify as a woman in a way that is significant to them.

Registration is now open. Make a reservation for Women’s Retreat on February 2-5, 2024!

What to Expect

After your boat journey up Lake Chelan, you will arrive at Lucerne, the port of Holden Village. A ten-mile trip with 2,000 feet of elevation gain will bring you to the snowy Village and a hot lunch. We open the retreat with a welcome session and orientation. You will have free time to settle in and explore before dinner. After dinner, we invite you to join Sacred Space. Our service will be Prayer Around the Cross, a contemplative time to sing, meditate, and pray together. Following Sacred Space, participants will gather for a welcome event; snacks and beverages provided! On Saturday, you can wake up with yoga with Gabrielle Wildheart or an espresso drink from Beanie’s Coffee Cart (or both!). The first teaching faculty lecture of the retreat is Rewilding the Sacred with Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton. This session will engage with women’s roles and contributions to the early church, Celtic Christianity, and theology of the Middle Ages. After lunch, join poet Michele Bombardier for a session on poetry & compassion, using the medium to open our hearts to new perspectives and revisit areas of challenges in our lives. Following the session, enjoy afternoon free time with weaving and an opportunity to make sugar scrub in the art studio, ceramic earring making in the pottery studio, ski lessons, and the many other ways to unwind in the Village. Before dinner, join Gabrielle Wildheart for Temple Dance, a guided flow of different movement styles, such as yoga, belly dance, chi gong, and somatic movement. Sacred Space on Saturday night will be a Holden classic, Vespers ’86. Wrap up your evening with a poetry reading by Michele Bombardier. On Sunday, you can join for another yoga flow with Gabrielle or opt for a slower morning with brunch served at 10:00. After brunch, Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton will present Rewilding Prayer, focusing on the essential nature of prayer practices, the structure of prayer, the role of prayer in personal and communal formation, and how women have contributed to innovative prayer forms within the history of Christian faith. In the afternoon, Michele Bombardier will build on her previous session on poetry and compassion with poems about small encounters with big impacts. Sunday afternoon will include craft circle, ceramic earring making (part II), another opportunity for ski lessons, and intuitive mandalas with Gabrielle Wildheart. Following dinner, we will share in a Eucharist service, which honors our Lutheran roots through the breaking of bread. Afterward, head to the dining hall for the time-honored Holden tradition of game nights with tea, toast, and time together. On Monday, we will send each other out with good courage through a brief liturgy and closing session with the opportunity to exchange contact information with fellow participants. The in-Village community will gather at the 10:00 am bus departure for a Holden goodbye!

Retreat Faculty

The Rev. Rachel Taber-Hamilton is the Rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Everett, WA and the Vice-President of the House of Deputies of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Rachel has a bi-cultural heritage as a Shackan First Nations person and Northern European lineage of settlers who first immigrated to these shores in 1629. With 30 years of experience in working with diverse communities, Rachel is a Board Certified healthcare chaplain and has facilitated journeys of recovery and healing with communities and organizations that have experienced organizational trauma. She is the founder of Circles of Color in the Episcopal Church in Western Washington and serves as chaplain to the Province 8 network of Episcopal Church Women.

Michele Bombardier is a Northwest poet whose work centers on connection, resiliency, and witness. Her debut collection, What We Do, was a Washington Book Award finalist. Michele holds an MFA in poetry from Pacific University. Her work has appeared in over a hundred literary journals such as Parabola, Atlanta Review, JAMA, Crab Creek Review, and many others. She is the founder of Fishplate Poetry, teaching workshops and leading retreats while raising money for humanitarian aid, specifically medical care for refugees in the Middle East and Northern Africa, partnering with SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society). Michele teaches poetry to all ages and is the inaugural poet laureate of Bainbridge Island where she hosts readings, open mics, workshops, and community events, including activities with high school youth. She’s finished her second collection and is at work on her third.

Gabrielle Wildheart is an award-winning muralist and movement artist who paints large-scale murals for urban spaces. Gabrielle received classical training in portraiture from the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, and an MFA from the University of the Arts, London.  Gabrielle’s practice is rooted in connection to the earth and a desire for social change. Her paintings feature imagery inspired by mystical traditions from around the world, as well as the artist’s studies in Yoga, Tantra, and Alchemy. Gabrielle exhibits her art nationally and teaches yoga and dance on Vashon Island, WA.