St. Paul UMC Church Retreat
Friday Evening - 6pm
Pizza, Praise and Prayer Night
We will start off with Pizza and Board Games in
the Fellowship Hall followed by praise music, prayer and sharing in the Sanctuary.
Saturday Morning – 8:30AM – Noon *
Registration will be at 8:30. Session will begin at 9:00.
Contemplative Outreach of Lexington will
facilitate an Introduction to Centering Prayer.
This style of prayer is connected to the
Contemplative Christianity of the 2nd-4th centuries
and is still practiced by many today. This is an
introductory presentation broken down into 10-20 min.
segments for information and questions with several breaks
throughout. As part of this presentation, there will be t
one 10-min. Prayer, and one 20-min. prayer. You should
not expect to spend three hours in prayer.
Lunch Break
Saturday Afternoon - 1pm-5pm * *
Several activities going on:
You are free to be at the church all afternoon,
however, this is not required. If you would like to go home
and rest before returning for the Saturday Evening activities that is completely fine.
-In the Sanctuary at 1:00 , we will have The War Room playing on the screen. -
You are welcome to watch as long or as little as you like. .
At 3:30, we will show the Hee Haw Dinner theater.
-In the Fellowship Hall, we will have a Labyrinth. At 1:00, we will have
sign-up sheets to select the time you would like to participate
(walk the Labyrinth). Please sign up in advance.
We will have information available for each
person participating on how the ancient Christians used the
Labyrinth in their Christian practices. The idea of putting a
Labyrinth on our grounds was part of our Dream Session 2025,
and this portable Labyrinth will help us to see what it is like to
have this available for ourselves and the public.
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Saturday Evening: 5:30pm-8:00pm
BBQ and Bluegrass
-At 5:30 pm, we will enjoy Richard Tanner's amazing BBQ! For anyone new
to our congregation, Richard is locally famous for his BBQ, and we are
very lucky to have him provide this for us. We will have traditional
BBQ sides, and beverages. If anyone is interested in bringing a dessert,
please let Kristi know.
-At 6:30 Paul Cable's Group will put on a concert for us. We will have
a break in the middle of the concert with a short Bible Trivia round.
This should be a fun night of food, music, trivia and even prizes!
Sunday AM
Weather permitting, we will enjoy our worship service outdoors in the
Prayer Garden. Bring your lawn chair and enjoy. After service, ,
Linger together over a fellowship meal.
We will have sign-up sheets for each activity in the Narthex.
Contact Kristi if you don’t sign up. We need to know how much food to .
order, attendees to plan on, etc. Please pray that this weekend will be a \
be a blessing to our congregation.
*Snacks and drinks are provided in the narthex. Please do not take
them in the sanctuary.
**Don’t enter the fellowship hall during the labyrinth sessions.
Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop
Saturday, September 27, 2025
8:30 am – 12:00 pm
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
1800 Louisville Road
Frankfort, Kentucky
Contemplative prayer is God’s personal and unique gift to us and has been a part of our Christian heritage for centuries. If we are open to the gift of contemplation it may profoundly affect our daily life. The Centering Prayer Introductory Workshop explains the gift of contemplative prayer and deepening our relationship with God. The method of Centering Prayer, as taught by Fr. Thomas Keating of Contemplative Outreach will be presented and time will be allowed for the practice of the prayer.
The program will be presented on Saturday, September 27, 2025 from 8:30 am to noon. Come discover the meaning of Psalm 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”
The book, Open Mind, Open Heart, 20th edition (2019) by Thomas Keating is very helpful in learning this practice and is sold widely at popular online stores. We recommend that you bring a copy to the workshop.
For information or to register, contact Jan Carter at Coutreachlex@yahoo.com . Donations to Contemplative Outreach of Lexington (CO-Lex) will be accepted at the workshop. All are Welcome!
Jan Carter was born in Fukuoka, Japan and grew up in Texas where she became a statistical research professor and consultant. She learned Buddhist meditation when a friend, who had also lived in Japan, invited her to an 8-day silent retreat. Later, Jan's Education for (Lay) Ministry mentor introduced her to Centering Prayer through a Contemplative Outreach Introductory Workshop much like the one to be held here at St. Paul’s UMC. She has been actively involved with Contemplative Outreach since 2000, and is delighted to share this prayer practice. She is married with two adult daughters, and her favorite pastime is learning about the wonders of the night sky.
Helen Satkowski is a native of Massachusetts, but after living in Lexington for 42 years she would like to consider herself " almost" a Kentuckian. Helen retired after working 40 years as a Physical Therapist Assistant, the last 6 years at the Medical Center in Frankfort. Her journey to Centering Prayer has been a lifetime of searching for God with many starts and stops. She finds Centering Prayer a method that stills and grounds her and has been beneficial during these troubled times. She has been practicing for 5 years. In her retirement she enjoys spending time with her 3 grandchildren, gardening, reading, attending a Jump Start class at 6:00 a.m.at the YMCA and taking the occasional nap. She attends the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, and has served on the vestry , is involved in the flower and altar guild and Black Soil ministries.
Rob Spencer currently teaches English for the community college system. After returning from a Centering Prayer retreat 10 years ago, he approached his priest about starting a group at the parish. Expecting the priest to agree to lead the group or to recommend someone else to found the group, he was surprised (and overwhelmed) when the priest suggested that he start such a group. Nonetheless, he is happy to report that despite initial growing pains, the group is still going strong and meets in person weekly. Currently, he is recovering from hip replacement surgery and is anxious to regain his stamina and to start hiking again. He is in training to become a commissioned Center Prayer presenter. He describes himself as “all in” on Centering Prayer and looks forward to sharing the practice with more people in the future.