Kanuga Parish Retreat 2012

Join us for the Church of the Holy Communion's annual Parish Retreat at Kanuga Conference Center, March 2-4, 2011.  We will have a relaxing and renewing time in the beautiful North Carolina mountains, with enjoyable and edifying programs for adults, youth, and children.

What are you afraid of?
What do you depend on to keep your life under control?
How do you answer the question "I'll be happy when...?"
When you are at your worst, what is it that has your attention? 


Spot the idol.

 

For the early Church, becoming a Christian meant (as St. Paul put it) turning from idols to serve the living and true God.  In a culture built on idolatry, this sparked an explosive reaction which so radically transformed every institution that by the end of the second century the Christian apologist Tertullian could boast “we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.”

Eighteen centuries on, many Christians in the West seems to think of idolatry as the problem of ancients and primitives, while the Church emerging from ‘primitive’ cultures today is raising the alarm about the dangers of idols… in the West.   Many of these idols would be all too recognizable to the ancient Church.

One's own idols are the most difficult to see, because they are accepted as common sense.  Left unchallenged, they enslave us, exhaust us, paralyze us with fear and waste our lives.  The Good News is that our fathers found their way out, and left us a map for getting out ourselves.

On this year's Lenten retreat at Kanuga we will spend time thinking about the idols of our own culture and the grip that they have on us.  More importantly, we will see with God’s help how the power of Jesus Christ can free us from idolatry, enable us to share that freedom with others, and recover an ancient way of living and proclaiming the Gospel that will stir our own idolatrous culture into every reaction but apathy.

  1. Friday Night: Idol Curiosity
  2. Saturday I: Idols Around Us
  3. Saturday II: Idols Within Us
  4. Sunday: Idols Unmasked and Conquered

Our Speaker:

Rev'd Dr. Jeremy (Jay) Boccabello is a preacher, teacher, researcher, and Anglican deacon in addition to having built several businesses, served as a senior advisor to many government and corporate     executives, and flawlessly fulfilled his ambition to leave his extended family more confused about him after each successive reunion. He blames his apparent lack of focus partially on some Christians who taught him that the whole world belongs to Christ but he grudgingly admits that he was probably off doing something else he found interesting the day they talked about knowing your limitations. He also claims that he meant to do it all to help him learn to teach the Church to challenge idols, but the Church will have to be the judge of that. He holds a Masters in Divinity from Reformed Theological Seminary, a Masters of Philosophy (Judaism and Christianity in the Graeco-Roman World) from the University of Oxford, and has recently completed a Doctor of Philosophy in Theology from the    University of Oxford, where his research focused on the way in which the early Church challenged idols using the  stories pagans told each other about what was powerful in the world. He is currently engaged in a writing project similar enough to the subject of this conference that the rumours that he is still trying to get his students to do his work for him are understandable.  Jay lives in marital bliss with his wife Tricia in Charleston, SC and is loved by his teenage children William and Nancy despite being an endless source of embarrassment.

The Details:

  • Dates:  March 2-4
  • Cost:  Adults, $175; Youth (10-18), $95; Children (5-9), $55; Infants, $NC

  • Childcare is provided!

 Registration:


Entertainment:

In addition to the wonderful programs and beautiful surroundings, on Saturday night we'll enjoy the pop-tastic musical stylings of our brother Frank Royster and his band.  Dancing, swaying, singing, grinning, and possibly some head banging will ensue.  Not to be missed!

Listen to "Mr. Wonderful".


Attached Documents