Peace Hill at Avila

Breathing Space
2024-06-14 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-07-12 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-09 16:00 - 17:00, 2024-08-23 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Participants will come together to hold a space for each other where we can stop, breathe, enter the stillness, and experience the moment-to-moment awareness that can lead to healing and wholeness. We will open to these possibilities through the use of meditation, prayer, nature walks, noble silence, reflection, music and other methods.

Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself thatthis very moment is the only one you knowyou have for sure.
Oprah

Morning Silence
2024-06-19 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-07-03 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-07-17 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-08-07 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-08-21 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-09-04 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-09-18 08:00 - 09:00, 2024-10-02 08:00 - 09:00 and 5 more dates
Morning Silence is an ongoing event that occurs on zoom on the first and third Wednesdays of each month from 8-9 am. Rotating facilitators provide a few words about the theme(s) for the day to introduce each session. 2 sessions of silence (20 minutes) follow with a brief time of stretching in between. The time concludes with 10 minutes of sharing from the participants. To be added to the notification list, please go to contact us page.

Seasons Within
2024-06-20 09:00 - 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
A quarterly retreat series in 2024to celebrate the equinox and solsticesponsored by Peace Hill at Avila

Register Now

Participants will gather together each solstice and equinox to acknowledge, integrate and celebrate the silent changes in nature and within our own beings. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience transformation through silence, stillness, journaling and sharing during these gatherings.

Facilitator: Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board of Directors

Seasons Within
2024-09-22 09:00 - 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Register Now

A quarterly retreat series in 2024to celebrate the equinox and solsticesponsored by Peace Hill at Avila

Participants will gather together each solstice and equinox to acknowledge, integrate and celebrate the silent changes in nature and within our own beings. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience transformation through silence, stillness, journaling and sharing during these gatherings.

Facilitator: Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board of Directors

gOD Talk: A Black Millennials and Faith Conversation
2024-10-18 18:00 - 20:30 | Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Join us for a special event celebrating the launch of gOD-Talk – Black Millennials and Faith Conversation!

Register Here

gOD-Talk is a groundbreaking project led by the Center for the Study of African American Religious Life in association with Pew Research Center. Featuring leading millennial voices, gOD-Talk amplifies their individual and shared experiences in a curated conversation streamed to audiences online across the United States and around the world. The rise of the “spiritual but not religious” designation has led to a decline of millennial participation in mainline religious traditions with many questioning the relevance, mission, and overall purpose of organized religion in the 21st century.

Join us for a film screening, followed by an engaging panel discussion and light refreshments.

Date: Friday, October 18th

Time: 6 – 8:30 PM

Location: Hayti Heritage Center | 804 Old Fayetteville Street | Durham, NC 27701

Registration Link

Don’t miss out! Bring your friends to explore this spectacular project together!

Treasure Buried in a Field
2024-10-25 16:00 - 2024-10-26 16:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, North Carolina, 27712
Contemplative Practices and Insights from the Celtic Christian Tradition

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An overnight 24-hour retreat for participants to rest, replenish, and rejuvenate, drawing upon the deep well of practices and insights from Celtic wisdom traditions.

Treasure Buried in a Field offers participants an opportunity to slow down their pace, gather for thoughtful listening to each other and the natural world, enjoy nutritious communal meals, and restore energy for engagement in the world. Teaching and practices grounded in the Celtic traditions of spirituality serve as source material for the retreat.

The retreat facilitator will be Terry Allebaugh, a graduate of The Living School Program of the Center for Action and Contemplation and currently a participant in John Philip Newell’s The School of Earth and Soul. By the time of the retreat, Terry will have recently returned from a pilgrimage week with Newell at Iona, Scotland, the historic center of the Celtic Christian tradition. Multiple members of the Peace Hill Leadership Team will lead participants in body movements, prayers, and chants associated with Iona and the tradition. For an example, follow this link to watch a variation of the Sun Salutation done on the island of Iona by Ali Newell, a wisdom teacher in the Celtic tradition and spouse of John Philip Newell.

Suggested reading: Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World by John Philip Newell

Meals are provided by Pat Eder, including Friday supper, as well as breakfast and lunch on Saturday. Fruit, snacks, and beverages will be available. Please note any dietary requests when completing registration.

Overnight lodging options:

Single room with a shared bath ($150)

Double rooms with a shared bath can be booked individually ($200) or attendees can elect to share a room ($150)

We have a limited number of scholarships available. To request a scholarship, please contact us at information@peacehillavila.org.

Register

Lama Rod Owens - Day 1
2024-11-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Friday: Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Going to the Edge: Exploring Chaos & Radical Resiliency

Online Registration is now closed, but there will be registration at the door if you missed the deadline and would still like to attend.

Ticket Pricing

Friday evening price: $10

This ticket option is for the Friday evening talk only. If you would like to attend the Saturday daylong retreat, please register at this link. Please note, registration for Saturday includes Friday admission; no need to register for both events.

Presented by Bhumi Durham in partnership with Peace Hill at Avila.

We are living through an apocalypse, a period of deep truth unveiling. The world is unsteady and chaotic. We find our lives completely disrupted again and again as we are confronted with the reality of death in a way we never imagined. Many of us are struggling to make sense of the impact we are experiencing in our personal lives, relationships, and communities. In the face of all this, it is hard to maintain our physical and emotional balance.

Resiliency is such an important skill to develop right now. Resiliency is about how well we are able to meet the challenges of our lives with a sense of openness and curiosity that helps us to regain our balance. Balance means understanding how to return back to a sense of being grounded in order to meet challenges directly.

To move through this period, we must rely on our capacity to grieve, to touch into the sadness of change and loss and tend to it with compassion. In this compassion we can allow our hearts to break and in the breaking be held by the understanding that we are not alone in this grieving. Once we allow ourselves to be in relationship with our grief, then it can begin to teach us how to move through sorrow and hopelessness into clarity and connectedness. Yet most importantly, our relationship to grief through compassion opens up the space for joy and gratitude.

Join Lama Rod Owens as he explores this liberating relationship with grief through the radical practices of skillful mourning, self-care, and refuge. We will also engage in discussion and guided contemporary tantric deity practices along with meditation, movement, and pranayama. This experience will move us into the edges of our practice with support and care in order to be resilient in the face of chaos and uncertainty.

Learn more about Lama Rod Owens here.

Lama Rod Owens - Day 2
2024-11-02 09:00 - 16:00 | Hayti Heritage Center, 804 Old Fayetteville St, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Going to the Edge: Exploring Chaos & Radical Resiliency

Online Registration is now closed, but there will be registration at the door if you missed the deadline and would still like to attend.

Ticket Pricing

Saturday standard price (includes Friday evening talk): $115

Saturday Pay-It-Forward price (includes Friday evening talk): $225

Through the support of those who select the Pay it Forward registration option, we have a limited amount of scholarships available. To request a scholarship, contact BhumiDurham@gmail.com.

Presented by Bhumi Durham in partnership with Peace Hill at Avila.

We are living through an apocalypse, a period of deep truth unveiling. The world is unsteady and chaotic. We find our lives completely disrupted again and again as we are confronted with the reality of death in a way we never imagined. Many of us are struggling to make sense of the impact we are experiencing in our personal lives, relationships, and communities. In the face of all this, it is hard to maintain our physical and emotional balance.

Resiliency is such an important skill to develop right now. Resiliency is about how well we are able to meet the challenges of our lives with a sense of openness and curiosity that helps us to regain our balance. Balance means understanding how to return back to a sense of being grounded in order to meet challenges directly.

To move through this period, we must rely on our capacity to grieve, to touch into the sadness of change and loss and tend to it with compassion. In this compassion we can allow our hearts to break and in the breaking be held by the understanding that we are not alone in this grieving. Once we allow ourselves to be in relationship with our grief, then it can begin to teach us how to move through sorrow and hopelessness into clarity and connectedness. Yet most importantly, our relationship to grief through compassion opens up the space for joy and gratitude.

Join Lama Rod Owens as he explores this liberating relationship with grief through the radical practices of skillful mourning, self-care, and refuge. We will also engage in discussion and guided contemporary tantric deity practices along with meditation, movement, and pranayama. This experience will move us into the edges of our practice with support and care in order to be resilient in the face of chaos and uncertainty.

Learn more about Lama Rod Owens here.

Seasons Within
2024-12-21 15:00 - 21:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Register

A quarterly retreat series in 2024to celebrate the equinox and solsticesponsored by Peace Hill at Avila.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding. -Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu

On the day of the year with the longest night, for our last Seasons Within of 2024, we will come together in the evening hours to explore and experience what darkness has to teach us. During this period of sharing meditations, music, silence, and reflections, we will seek not only to embrace the darkness but to also allow ourselves to be embraced by it. Please join us as we seek to enter “the gateway to all understanding.”

Facilitator: Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board of Directors

Morning Silence
2025-02-05 08:00, 2025-02-19 08:00, 2025-03-05 08:00, 2025-03-19 08:00
Morning Silence is an ongoing event that occurs from 8:00 – 9:00 am on Zoom on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Rotating facilitators provide a few words about the theme(s) for the day to introduce each session. Two sessions of silence (20 minutes) follow with a brief time of stretching in between. The time concludes with 10 minutes of sharing from the participants. To be added to the notification list, please go to contact us page.

Anger: Yours, Theirs, and God’s
2025-03-13 08:30 - 14:30 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Quandaries & Conversations for Clergy

Location: Avila Center for Community Leadership, 711 Mason Rd, Durham, NC 27712

Register

“I know that compassion is all out of fashion and anger is all the rage.“
-David Wilcox

Ours is certainly an age in which “anger is all the rage.”

Consider these questions:

Rev. Dr. Paul Lang, Pastor of Cary Presbyterian, will facilitate this timely conversation with area pastors serving in an array of ministries.

† While it seems that scripture on the whole counsels against having and harboring anger — it is also true that there are moments when God is overcome with wrath. How do we understand God’s anger?

† Can anger ever be the source of virtue?

† In the current US culture, many seem to feel that their anger is justified and, in fact, is indicative of their righteousness. Can that be true?

† What are we to do with anger … ours and theirs … personally and pastorally?

This will be the first of three gatherings in 2025 with the intent of providing helpful space and time for clergy conversation and camaraderie.

Registration is limited. A healthy lunch, drinks, and snacks will be provided. For scholarship requests, please contact elaina@peacehillavila.org.

Sponsored by Peace Hill, RCWMS, and Duke University Chapel.

Telling Our Stories: Blessings and Trials
2025-03-16 15:00 - 2025-03-18 10:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
“Ruth and Naomi” by Luba Lukova www.lukova.net

Location: Avila Center for Community Leadership, 711 Mason Road, Durham NC 27712

Register

You are invited to Telling Our Stories: Blessings and Trials, a time of retreat and reunion, honoring the 50th anniversary of founding the Women’s Center at Duke Divinity School and the herstories embedded in that ministry!

Several alums are preparing a time and a space for stories of our lives to be told and heard, for alums and students to meet, and for renewing ties with classmates and with the institution we share.

We will focus on…

REFLECTING – how women-centered thought and action took place 50 years ago in DDS and in the five decades since.

CONNECTING – renewing ties of friendship, meeting new friends and colleagues, engaging DDS alums from diverse generations.

HONORING – Women’s Center student coordinators and their faithful work, as well as faculty and staff who have mentored and advised them.

ARCHIVING – gathering stories of our lives as students and as graduates, in written and oral forms, to add to the historical record of women at Duke Divinity School.

Welcome to Peace Hill at Avila!

Our host for the gathering is Peace Hill at Avila, a 25-year-old community whose mission is to nurture people working toward a more compassionate and just society. With original buildings dating from a mid-20th century Carmelite monastic group and lodgings added to enable Avila Retreat Center to operate in the 1980s, the setting is conducive to group meetings, walks in the surrounding forest, convivial meals, and quiet contemplation.

Accessible rooms are adjacent to the central gathering spaces. Meals will be coordinated through local caterers, with attention to dietary preferences. Plenty of “grazing” options will be available at all times.

The cost of this event is partially underwritten by the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South.

Ticket options:

Full tickets include overnight lodging, food, and program: $195

Commuter tickets include food and program (no lodging): $125

Student tickets include meal and program (no lodging): $25

Starting time: 3 pm on Sunday, March 16Ending time: 10 am on Tuesday, March 18

Tentative Schedule

Sunday, March 16, 20253 pm-6 pm Welcome, move in/set up supplies, orient to spaces and natural setting at Avila4-6 pm Welcome and introduce yourself to Minoka Yonts, Director of Alumni Relations!4:30 pm Recording session times available5:30 pm Happy Hour, followed by 6pm Evening meal in Dining Room7:30 pm Talk with Susan Thistlethwaite about 50+-year history of women in seminaries in historicaland cultural context9 pm Evening prayer, quiet time

Monday, March 17, 20257 am-8 am Morning silence (chapel, library, outdoors)8 am Breakfast in dining room. Welcome Chinwe Edeani and Mia Lee, current WC coordinators!9 am-12 noon Circle of story-telling and listening (may record)12:30 pm Lunch, walk, recording session times available2-4 pm Café table conversations reflecting on what we’ve heard and what we want to share withothers (such as hopes and recommendations for action) arising from the time together4:00 pm Welcome Dr. Jerusha Neal, faculty advisor for the Women’s Center!4:30 pm Recording session times available5:30 pm Happy Hour, followed by 6pm Evening meal in Dining Room7:30 pm Liturgy of thanksgiving, lament, restoration9 pm Quiet time

Tuesday, March 18, 20257 am-8 am Morning silence8 am Breakfast in dining room, with blessings on the time together9 am Prepare to leave (check-out time is 10 am).Car-pool to campus/Divinity School for 11:45 worship at Goodson Chapel, followed by lunch withMinoka Yonts (MDiv’17), Director of Alumni Relations.

YOUR PARTICIPATION is sought even if you are not able to attend the March 16-18 gathering! Our goal is to gather stories from our time as divinity students and after, and to share these stories with a wider audience by placing them in the University Archives. You are invited to write or record stories that respond to prompts – or to use whatever focus you wish.

Here are some possible prompts:

How did you decide to attend Duke Divinity? Did the decision fit the existing contour of your life or represent a new direction?

As you reflect on your life story and the social, political, cultural settings of your life, what place does your time as a Duke Divinity student occupy in your story?

In what ways did the Women’s Center at Duke Divinity influence your life and studies?

Tell about Women’s Center colleagues, faculty, staff/administrators or others who influenced your faith and vocation at Duke Divinity.

What other stories would you like to tell?

We invite you to bring your stories to the gathering or email them to planners.

We hope to be able to make video and/or audio recordings of your stories during the gathering. Stay tuned for further information about this.

Contact: nrosebaugh@hotmail.com or bettylwolfe@gmail.com
