About the REtreats
Ireland Retreats are led by northern Irish writer and peace activist Gareth Higgins and North Carolinian chaplain and spiritual director Brian Ammons, with guest co-facilitators. Not a typical “retreat” nor a conference, but an inner and outer journey of creativity, healing, courage and joy, these small group transformative story gatherings have been named by one participant as “on the short list for best experiences of my life”.
Over the course of a week we experience landscape and music, rest and walking, conversation and silence. We typically meet with people including grass roots peace activists, community leaders, historians, writers & artists all experienced in helping transform society for the better. Opportunities are offered to visit museums, interpretive centres and other spaces in which the cultural and political history and contemporary realities of northern Irish society are well-versed. One highlight of the trip is often a walk that encompasses the "two sides" of the socio-political conflict, making a journey that most people in Northern Ireland have not yet taken. And yes, we visit the Giant's Causeway as well as other beautiful features of the astonishing northern Irish coastal landscape!
Over the past eight years, over four hundred people have participated in our retreats, and many respond that the event both opened their minds and educated them about the possibility of learning how to live better as one diverse community in the US or wherever they may live, rather than many divided communities. We’d be delighted to welcome you.
Gareth Higgins, Ph.D. has been involved in peace-building and creative conflict transformation work for over 25 years. He is the co-author of Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland and Religion, Civil Society, and Peace in Northern Ireland, and has worked with the major peace-building organizations in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, including Queen's University Belfast, the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin, and the Corrymeela Community.
In 1998, he co-founded the zero28 project, a post-sectarian peacebuilding initiative seeking to change the story of division and conflict to one of collaboration and the common good. Mentored by the theologian and activist Walter Wink and the Celtic spirituality teacher John O'Donohue, Gareth co-founded the Wild Goose Festival, Movies & Meaning, the New Story Festival, and The Porch Magazine, all of which in their own way embody creativity and community, and seek the good of people and the earth through transforming the stories we tell.
His books How Movies Helped Save My Soul, Cinematic States, The Seventh Story: Us, Them, and the End of Violence (co-authored with Brian McLaren), and How Not to be Afraid are accessible and warm introductions to how the stories we tell shape our lives for better and worse. The Ireland Retreats are invitations to folk from overseas to visit Northern Ireland for a short immersion experience in landscape, storytelling, community, and learning from the stories of conflict and peace. Click here for more information on upcoming retreats.
Brian Ammons, M.Ed., M.Div., Ph.D. is an educator, spiritual director, coach, writer and ordained minister. A former faculty member in Duke University's Program in Education and for over eight years Chaplain & Director of Spiritual Life at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, NC, Brian was named Interfaith Youth Core Outstanding Educator in 2017. Brian holds a PhD in Education with a certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies from UNC-Greensboro, and is an ordained minister in the Alliance of Baptists tradition. Brian was trained as coach in an International Coaching Federation accredited program jointly sponsored by Pinnacle Leadership and The Center for Congregational Health and formed as a spiritual director through Shalem Institute’s spiritual guidance program.
Brian has written and spoken widely on themes of vocational discernment; interfaith work in higher education; and the intersections of gender, sexuality, and spirituality. Brian is engaged in a variety of community endeavors in Belfast and the north of Ireland.