Click on the links below to see more information for each event. And keep your eyes out for more information coming soon on other great workshops… Meanwhile, you can let us know if you’d like to be on our e-mail list to receive updates… Hope to see you on the Hill sometime soon!
RETURNING TO SOURCE
YEAR-END SILENT RETREAT
with Johan Gace and Jenelle Troxell
December 27 – December 30 or 31, 2025
(Saturday through Tuesday, with optional additional night)
This retreat is an invitation to reconnect with source—however you understand it. This is threshold time: the year ending, the new year not yet begun. This is a container for releasing what’s complete and opening to what wants to emerge.
Click on the title link for more information.
PREPARING for WORSHIP
DEEP CALLS TO DEEP: Opening Our Hearts to the Living Spring
with Noah Merrill
January 2, 2026 (Friday 7-9pm)
Noah will offer a reflection and then invite Friends to share in small groups.
and
EXTENDED WORSHIP
with Michael Wajda and Jean Rosenberg
January 3, 2026 (Saturday 9am to 3pm)
Transformative experiences can happen when the Living Presence has adequate time to remove the spiritual cobwebs and to shine a Light on the deep calls that are beckoning us to change and to make the world a better place.
Click on the title link for more information.
PLAYING IN THE LIGHT
GODLY PLAY®/FAITH & PLAY™ TRAINING FOR QUAKERS
with Melinda Wenner Bradley
January 30-February 1, 2026
This experiential approach to religious education can transform your program
for children and nurture intergenerational spiritual community. Learn and practice a method of storytelling grounded in deep respect for children.
Click on the title link for more information.
VOLUNTEER WORKDAYS
dates tbd
Join your friends on the hill, rub elbows, whistle while you work, engage in wide-ranging conversation while tidying up the garden beds, stacking wood, deep cleaning, and generally sprucing up the place… We’ll shower you with gratitude and feed you a tasty lunch and snacks! And if you’d like to stay overnight, let us know to reserve a bed for you at no cost…
Click on the title link for more information.
OTHER UPCOMING TOPICS:
- Quaker Family Retreat (November 2026)
More details coming soon! (Let us know – by emailing margaret[at]woolmanhill.org – if you’d like to be notified when more information is available on any of these topics.)
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PAST OFFERINGS
POWER OF ENOUGH
with Traci Hjelt Sullivan and Jackie Stillwell
September 26-28, 2025 (Friday through Sunday)
How can we balance our use of time, energy, and “things,” to free us for action to do God’s work and to contribute to right order in our community? We’ll explore this question in various ways, and by the end discern concrete actions in which this “power of enough” can manifest in our day to day lives.
MAKING QUEER QUAKER HISTORY:
LEARNING, RESISTANCE & RENEWAL for QUEER QUAKERS AND ALLIES
with Brian Blackmore & Jennifer Newman
in partnership with Beacon Hill Friends House
October 17-19, 2025 (Friday through Sunday)
This retreat invites queer Friends and allies into a cozy, spacious gathering to share the untold histories of queer inclusion, struggle, and resilience within the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Together, we will honor the past, wrestle with the present, and imagine liberatory futures, while tending to our own spirits in the embrace of community and nature.
IF QUAKERS WERE WITCHES…
with Sara Jolena Wolcott, Hayley Hathaway and Elaine Emily
May 2nd-4th, 2025 (Friday through Sunday)
What are some of the resonances between Quakerism and pagan/animist earth spiritualities? Might such resonances deepen our spiritual journey? Join us to engage the historical and contemporary overlaps between these traditions through historical teachings, collective inquiry, worship sharing, arts, song, ritual, and a decolonial lens.
ON THE THRESHOLD OF THE NEW TOMORROW:
LESSONS FROM 5 YEARS IN THE COVID ERA
with Holly Baldwin
NEW DATES: January 31st – February 2nd, 2025 (Friday through Sunday) OR Saturday only
We are living in a liminal space – a threshold between the world as it was before the pandemic and the “new normal” we are creating together. This retreat offers a sacred pause to reflect on how these years have changed us and our world, and to discern our path forward with intention.
BEING GATHERED BY THE SPIRIT IN WORSHIP
with Marcelle Martin
January 3, 2025 (Friday 7:30-9pm)
Marcelle Martin will facilitate an exploration of what happens in a gathered meeting and how we can best prepare ourselves to be gathered by the Spirit in an extended meeting for worship.
and
EXTENDED WORSHIP
with Michael Wajda and Jean Rosenberg
January 4, 2025 (Saturday 9am to 3pm)
Transformative experiences can happen when the Living Presence has adequate time to remove the spiritual cobwebs and to shine a Light on the deep calls that are beckoning us to change and to make the world a better place.
END-OF-THE-YEAR SILENT RETREAT
with Andrew Grant and Maddie Grant
December 28-31, 2024 (Saturday through Tuesday)
Time for reflective silence in community as we mark the transition towards a new year. Andrew (father) and Maddie (daughter) are thinking of “generations” as a centering theme for our time together. In preparation, we are embracing all generations of life in the place on the Pocumtuck Ridge we call Woolman Hill.
GROUNDING THE NATION AND OURSELVES IN WORSHIP
DURING THE ELECTION
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, November 4-6, 2024
During a time of fear, divisiveness and anxiousness, we are offering the Woolman Hill campus and Meetinghouse as a space for grounding, prayer, meditation and worship. Individuals are welcome to spend time outdoors and in the Meetinghouse. We will also have limited overnight accommodations available for those interested.
ART CHURCH
with Maggie Fiori, Sal Link and E.C. Piper
September 6-9, 2024 (Friday eve through Monday midday)
A community-oriented artist retreat with a focus on creativity as a spiritual practice, and using Quaker tradition and practices to inform how we gather and make art together
ALTERNATIVES TO VIOLENCE
with Tim Dzurilla, Ashley Overstrom and Minga Claggett-Borne
June 10-12, 2024 (Monday to Wednesday)
This workshop will teach interpersonal conflict resolution skills through a series of step-by-step processes. These experiences in small groups and one-to-one interactions build a sense of community and trust through exercises focusing on affirmation, communication, cooperation and creative conflict resolution.
QUAKER FAMILY RETREAT
with Gretchen Baker-Smith, Jennie Isbell-Shinn, and Kristina Keefe-Perry
May 10-12, 2024 (Friday to Sunday)
Join with Quaker caregivers and kids for an opportunity to co-create an intergenerational Quaker retreat: a time of play-filled learning, in which adults can share joys and challenges of Quaker parenting-as-spiritual formation, and Quaker children can renew and deepen bonds with others. Participants will experiment, in embodied way, with being Quaker families, in a broader community of Friends. We are planning a weekend infused with joy, fun, music, crafts, and play.
EXTENDED WORSHIP
with Michael Wajda and Jean Rosenberg
January 6, 2024 (Saturday 9am to 3pm)
Transformative experiences can happen when the Living Presence has adequate time to remove the spiritual cobwebs and to shine a Light on the deep calls that are beckoning us to change and to make the world a better place.
END-OF-THE-YEAR SILENT RETREAT
with Genna Ulrich and Tom Antonik
December 28, 2023-January 1, 2024 (Thursday through Monday)
Extended silence in community can enable spaciousness, simplicity, deepening, and spiritual transformation. Consider this four-night opportunity upon a gorgeous hill, with surrounding woods, a quiet Meetinghouse, and shared meals together. Do you feel a nudge and rightness in your body, a hunger in your soul? Do you feel drawn to this opportunity?
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THE BIBLE AS A DOOR TO SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION
Peter Blood-Patterson and Adria Gulizia
NOTE: THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN POSTPONED, NEW DATES TBA
Please let us know if you’d like to be notified with updates about this program.
An irrelevant old history book. Made-up myths and fairy-tales. A list of rules and regulations. A catalogue of atrocities. These are ways many Quakers today view the Bible. But for early Friends like George Fox, Elizabeth Hooten and Mary Dyer, Christian scripture held the seeds of a new world order. As we explore a number of passages that were particularly important to early Quakers, we will seek ways to let the Spirit work in us to bring about courage, compassion and fresh spiritual life in our own hearts.
BETZAVTA: DEMOCRACY IN ACTION
Tali Padan and Sarah Freeman-Woolpert
NOTE: THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN POSTPONED, NEW DATES TBA
Please let us know if you’d like to be notified with updates about this program.
Tired of arguing over political ideologies? In this workshop, you can take a break from being ‘right’ and find out ways to move through diverse and conflicting perspectives in a productive and potentially enjoyable way. Take a weekend to linger in uncertainty rather than act in ways you already know. The Betzavta Method, designed to facilitate dialogue with youth in Israel-Palestine, is a method to relate the principles of democracy to everyday decision-making. The principles and concepts behind democracy—equality, freedom, majorities, minorities—are applied in the group context, allowing the individual to reflect on their role in a group.
PAST PROGRAMS
You can also browse through our other past offerings if you’re curious…