Morning Silence
2025-11-19 08:00, 2025-12-03 08:00, 2025-12-17 08:00, 2026-01-07 08:00, 2026-01-21 08:00 - 09:00, 2026-02-04 08:00, 2026-02-18 08:00 - 09:00, 2026-03-04 08:00 (America/New_York) and 13 more dates
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.

Seasons Within
2025-12-21 15:00 - 21:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
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The darkness invites our curiosity to rest in what we don’t yet know, and listen with compassion. On the longest night of the year, we’ll gather to ground, breathe, and remember that faith lives in the body. Together, we’ll witness ourselves and each other, honoring this sacred pause as the light begins to return.

Come as you are. Leave as you will.

We will gather from 3:00pm – 9:00pm to explore standing meditation, gentle movement, and restful reflection. Bring a yoga mat, blankets, pillows/bolsters, and a journal to support your practice. Dinner is provided around 5:30pm.

Facilitator: Shakira Bethea

The winter retreat will be led by Shakira Bethea. With over a decade of experience as a licensed massage and bodywork therapist, Shakira’s deep commitment to embodied living has evolved over time, shaping her brand Rhythmic Bloom.

She guides others on a transformative journey of spiritual and personal growth, helping them reset after grief, depression, and life’s hardships. Through loving honesty and mindful movement, she supports individuals in finding resonance, reclaiming their rhythm, and embracing a life of deeper connection and purpose.

You can learn more about her work at www.rhythmicbloom.com.

Seasons Within is a quarterly retreat series to celebrate the equinox and solstice sponsored by Peace Hill at Avila.

Elder Spirituality
2026-02-14 09:00 - 2026-02-15 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
The Possibilities of Now

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Rescheduled from original dates (Jan. 31-Feb. 1) due to inclement weather.

Our spiritual lives change as we age and as our circumstances change with it. In this retreat, we will explore our spiritual journeys in the context of our later years, when there is more time in the rearview mirror than on the road ahead. What changes and losses are you grieving? What new opportunities, gifts, and invitations are you noticing? What are you yearning for? What signposts of wisdom are you noticing within yourself? Through creative activities, contemplative prayer, and reflective conversation, we will journey together through this elder land, discovering what might be possible and what we may need to leave behind.

The retreat begins at 9:00 am on Saturday and ends at 3:00 pm on Sunday. The registration fee of $225 covers lodging, meals, and the retreat program. A limited number of commuter tickets are available, and a discounted rate will be available to those opting to share a room. Scholarship assistance is available to those with financial need. Please email information@peacehillavila.org to request a scholarship.

Retreat Facilitators

Cate Alexander

Cate Alexander is a spiritual companion/director and contemplative group leader, who currently facilitates a contemplative eldering group at the Center for Action and Contemplation, where she completed three years of study. Recognizing that the spiritual journey is lifelong, Cate enjoys accompanying others in the sacred work that is uniquely theirs to do, and in gathering the wisdom of their lives, so that they might pass freely the gifts of the journey. Based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, her training encompasses spiritual formation, contemplative practice, Ignatian spirituality, discernment for major life decisions, grief support, trauma-informed companionship, Christian and wisdom traditions, and social justice. Cate holds academic credentials from the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor (sociology/political science), Johns Hopkins University (communications), and George Mason University (conflict resolution).

Mary Kay Glazer

Mary Kay Glazer is a true friend, a calm, non-anxious presence, and a creative and quirky soul. She typically brings her whole eclectic self to the variety of things she does, including her work as an ordained interspiritual minister, spiritual director, retreat leader, Life-Cycle Celebrant®/ceremony specialist, and writer. Having been raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, she has been a Quaker since 1989. Her background includes a master’s degree in Spiritual Formation and Leadership from Spring Arbor University, Shalem Institute’s Spiritual Guidance Program, and School of the Spirit’s Spiritual Nurture Program. She was once a television news producer, then worked in public relations for a variety of places, including the Susan B. Anthony House in Rochester, NY. She lives in Eastern NC with her husband. Learn more at www.mkglazer.com and www.soulsongceremonies.com.

About the Retreat Setting

Avila Center for Community Leadership

The retreat will be held at Avila Center for Community Leadership, a rural setting 20 minutes north of downtown Durham. Originally a Carmelite monastery that has since been transformed into a center for community organizing, Avila offers private and shared accommodations nestled into the woods. The 50-acre property includes trails, a labyrinth, as well as numerous spaces for conversation and quiet moments of contemplation.

Nourishing meals featuring local ingredients will be provided by Chef Netta of Netta’s Pantry, including lunch and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and lunch on Sunday, and plenty of snacks and beverages.

Sponsored by Peace Hill at Avila.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation requests must be received at least 30 days prior to the retreat in order to receive a refund, less a $25 processing fee.

Public Talk with Lama Rod Owens
2026-03-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Eno River Unitarian Church, 4907 Garrett Road, Durham, NC, 27707, United States
Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, Durham NC

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As the land around us awakens, we will settle into community practice, grounding ourselves in an awareness that helps us meet the world’s unraveling with clarity and compassion.

This ticket option is for the Saturday evening talk only. If you would like to attend the March 8-10 retreat, please apply at this link. Please note, registration for the retreat includes Saturday admission.

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

Learn more about Lama Rod Owens here.

Awakening into Spring
2026-03-08 15:00 - 2026-03-10 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Avila Center for Community Leadership, Durham NC

Retreat Application

We are excited to once again offer a retreat with Lama Rod Owens March 8-10. As the land around us awakens, we will settle into community practice, grounding ourselves in an awareness that helps us meet the world’s unraveling with clarity and compassion.

A retreat allows us to do the deep work and healing that our minds, bodies, spirits, ancestors, and the earth are calling for so strongly. It is a gift we can give ourselves which also affects all the lives we touch.

If you are new to practice with Lama Rod or new to meditation retreats, you are most welcome. Also most welcome are those who have formed community during last year’s retreat at Avila and previous retreats with Lama Rod.

We will meditate together and engage in movement, compassion, and earth-based ancestor practices and rituals. Both residential and commuter opportunities are available, and we have scholarship assistance. There is an application process and BIPOC and LGBTQ+ folks will have priority.

The retreat begins on Sunday, March 8, and ends on Tuesday, March 10. Lama Rod will also offer an evening talk that is open to the public on Saturday, March 7, which is included with retreat registration.

If you have any questions about the registration process or about the retreat center, email Elaina at elaina@peacehillavila.org.

If you have other questions about the retreat, email Karen at BhumiDurham@gmail.com.

Learn more about Lama Rod Owens here.

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

REGISTRATION PROCESS:

There is an application process for this retreat. Please note, you must have an approved application in order to register. To apply, please fill out the form at this link:

Retreat Application

We expect this retreat to be oversubscribed, so preference will be given to BIPOC, LGBTQ people, and those who have been studying with Lama Rod. Admissions will continue until the retreat is full, after which applicants will be added to a waiting list. Often, there are last-minute cancellations which allow those on the waiting list to be admitted.

TICKET PRICING:

Residential retreat (includes single-room accommodations and meals): $500

Pay-it-forward Residential retreat (help us provide support to other participants): $600

Non-residential retreat (commuter ticket includes meals but not overnight accommodations): $350

Pay-it-forward Non-residential retreat (help us provide support to other participants): $400

All ticket options include the March 7 evening talk.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

The retreat containerAfter the opening program on the first night until the noon meal on the third day, everyone is invited to enter into silence throughout the buildings and grounds. At times, such as the Q&A sessions, silence will be lifted in the meditation hall.

This supportive silence invites all yogis to refrain from verbal and written communication with others, including telephone calls, texts, and emails. There will be an emergency number for emergencies.

MealsCoffee and tea will be available during the retreat. Meals will be vegetarian. Please let us know allergies and food intolerances on your application form. We can usually accommodate dietary restrictions.

LodgingAll rooms are single, and some are more accessible than others. Please let us know your accessibility needs on the application form. Some of the rooms that require stairs are large double rooms, and a limited number of these can be shared at a lower cost upon request.

Accessibility Please help us make this retreat as accessible as possible by telling us about your accessibility needs on the application.

Location of the retreat The retreat venue is Avila Center for Community Leadership, a 20-minute drive from downtown Durham and a 35-minute drive from the Raleigh Durham (RDU) airport.

Avila is a nonprofit community center, where people and groups connect, deepen their work and rejuvenate. The mission of the center is to support and connect community organizers and leaders working together for systemic change in the South and beyond. The buildings are surrounded by 50 acres of green space and trails.

You can learn more about Avila at this link.

If you have questions about this retreat, please contact Karen at BhumiDurham@gmail.com

What's Love Got To Do With It?
2026-03-12 09:30 - 14:30 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
How to love ourselves and each other in a divided world

Photo by Angie Wright

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This day retreat at Avila Center for Community Leadership will invite participants into one of the most challenging and transformative teachings shared across many spiritual traditions: the call to love one’s enemies while also learning to love oneself with honesty, dignity, and care.

Rather than treating these practices as opposite, we will explore how they are deeply connected and mutually empowering. What does love look like? What does love require of us? How can we embody love in the midst of discord and division?

Rev. Angie Wright and Rev. Dr. Cathy S. Gilliard will guide participants as we explore personal challenges, unhealed wounds, and hopes for moving forward with greater intention and grace.

Sponsored by Peace Hill at Avila and RCWMS.

Retreat Facilitators

Rev. Angie Wright

Rev. Angie Wright is the author of Loving My Enemies & Other Outlandish Pursuits, a memoir of family, faith and power. Angie is a retired UCC pastor devoted to the pursuits of justice and mercy. She has two splendid sons and one precocious 8-year-old grandson.

Rev. Dr. Cathy S. Gilliard

Rev. Dr. Cathy Gilliard is a retired United Methodist Church pastor, having most recently served as senior minister at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, New York, NY. She is the proud mother of two wonderful sons and six amazing grandchildren.

Loving My Enemies & Other Outlandish Pursuits

This memoir of faith, family, and power follows Rev. Angie Wright’s commitment as an activist and pastor to stand against hate without indulging the temptation of hating the haters. In her story, spirituality meets social justice, and betrayal pushes against the ethic of forgiveness. Rev. Wright probes questions most of us have to face at times in our lives: How do we reconsider our relationship with people we’ve been taught to hate and fear? And when others wreak harm on us or our communities, can we respond in ways that summon their humanity while protecting our own?

Purchase the book here.

Seasons Within
2026-03-20 09:00 - 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Spring 2026

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“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”

― Maya Angelou

What changes are you being called and invited to experience, explore, embrace, and embody in these seemingly turbulent times? How are you reacting or responding to the realities of change at this present time? What beautiful and wonderful things may be, or already are, the product of these changes?

As spring begins again, join us to come together to hold a space for each other to discern what nature may have to teach us about change.

Facilitator: Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board of Directors

Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board Secretary

Phil Mathews worked in pastoral ministry for over 30 years, including serving as HIV/AIDS Chaplain, Program Director for AIDS Interfaith Network of North Texas, and a variety of roles at the Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). While Associate Pastor at MCC of Washington DC, he led mission teams in the Dominican Republic. His last service in professional ministry was as Pastor of Imani MCC of Durham NC. Peace Hill has become one of his “faith communities” since retiring from ministry in the church.

Seasons Within is a quarterly retreat series to celebrate the equinox and solstice sponsored by Peace Hill at Avila.

"Etty," A One-Woman Play by Susan Stein
2026-04-17 19:00 - 21:00 | NorthStar Church of the Arts, 220 W Geer Street, Durham, North Carolina, 27701, United States
Susan Stein, founder of Etty Project, in “Etty”

NorthStar Church of the Arts, Durham NC

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Standing alone on a bare stage, Etty Hillesum speaks directly to the audience as she wrestles to write the life she is living–her loves, her work, her sense of humor, her knowledge of self in this moment in history. She loves much of her life in 1942 occupied Amsterdam and even later in the Westerbork concentration camp, yet she also finds it horrifying. In her gentle yet forthright way, Etty asks us not to leave her at Auschwitz but to let her have a bit of a say in what she hopes will be a new world.

A disarming one-woman play, Etty invites the audience to be part of her intimate struggle to find a freedom within herself as the world closes in around her. Music from Westerbork’s cabaret weaves into Etty’s sharp accounts of the transports, the image of a guard picking purple lupines, and the shape of her lover’s mouth. The second act invites the audience to join the conversation Etty begins.

In addition to her performance of Etty at NorthStar, Susan will be leading a weekend retreat at Avila April 18-19.

Presented by Peace Hill at Avila.

Learn more about Etty Project here.

Finding the Jasmine Again and Again
2026-04-18 09:00 - 2026-04-19 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
A weekend retreat with the words of Etty Hillesum, led by Susan Stein

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“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.”– Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum, circa 1940

What begins for a young Dutch Jewish woman, Etty Hillesum, as part of her therapy―recording her thoughts in a diary―evolves into one of the most harrowing, moving, and beautifully written documents to emerge from the Second World War. Etty Hillesum was a sensuous, intelligent, and poetic young woman searching for the meaning of her life–and all life–during the terror of Nazi occupation. In the midst of two separate love affairs, she “happens upon” prayer, discovers a reality that she calls God, and opens herself to the power of being fully alive and present, bearing witness, even to the catastrophe unfolding around her. Etty writes frankly and with compassion–even for the enemy. She talks about wrestling with life and love, about unflinchingly staring down reality but not allowing others to make one a victim, about claiming what comes in life and finding meaning in it. Her diaries were published in 1981 in Dutch as “Het verstoorde leven” (An Interrupted Life), and an English version followed in 1982.

During this weekend retreat, we will engage with Etty’s writings and her remarkable sensibility. Led by Susan Stein, we’ll witness her act of becoming and her spiritual transformation, exploring how Etty’s diary invites us into our deepest selves. Through close readings, aloud and in silence, and sharing, we will work to understand Etty’s writing as her interior preparation for standing truth to power, and we’ll experience her silent strength as an example of her collaboration with the world.

Retreat participants will embark on both an individual and collective journey, involving silence and solitude as well as communal time and conversation. We will write, share from our experience, and listen deeply to each other and ourselves.

The retreat begins at 9:00 am on Saturday and ends at 3:00 pm on Sunday. The registration fee of $250 covers lodging, meals, and the retreat program. A limited number of commuter tickets are available at the rate of $175 per ticket, and a discounted rate will be available to those opting to share a room. Scholarship assistance is available to those with financial need. Please email information@peacehillavila.org to request a scholarship.

Retreat Leader

Susan Stein, founder of Etty Project

Susan Stein

Susan Stein, founder of Etty Project, is an actor, playwright, and teaching artist. She has spent the past eleven years touring her original, one-woman play, Etty, to major theaters, universities, schools, and prisons around the country and internationally, as well as leading accompanying educational workshops. Venues where Stein has performed Etty include: 59e59 Theaters, NYC; Next Theater, Chicago; Kravis Center, North Wall, Oxford, UK; Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland; Philly Fringe Festival; Bowery Poetry Club; Yad Vashem, Jerusalem; Fort Monmouth Army Base, NJ; The Museum of Jewish Heritage, NYC; Smith College; Anne Frank Center, USA and UK; the Etty Hillesum Centre in Deventer, The Netherlands; and the University of Ghent, Belgium. Stein co-teaches “Performing History” at Duquesne University as part of the Inside/Outside Prison Exchange Program and has been an Artist/Scholar in residence at Cambridge University, Duquesne, Boston College, Vanderbilt, and Chapman University. Stein’s acting work includes Neil Simon’s Broadway Bound, Dominique Morisseau’s Pipeline, Meridith Friedman’s The Luckiest People, and Wendy Wasserstein’s The Sisters Rosensweig. Stein leads workshops in playwriting, writing, and acting throughout the US and UK. Stein studied acting at NYU Graduate School and SUNY Purchase and received a Master’s in Writing at Wesleyan University. She taught at Princeton Day School for thirteen years.

Retreat Agenda

To begin, we will bring Etty’s voice into the room through a spoken word exercise in response to one of her letters from Westerbork Concentration Camp. Saturday will be spent closely reading Etty’s writings, involving reflection, sharing, and time in silence. During the evening, we will consider Etty’s writing as an act of resistance. Susan Stein will perform some of her play, Etty, and we will engage in conversation after the piece.

On Sunday morning, we will look more deeply at how Etty’s writing prepares her for standing truth to power, and the retreat will close with lunch.

About the Retreat Setting

Avila Center for Community Leadership

The retreat will be held at Avila Center for Community Leadership, a rural setting 20 minutes north of downtown Durham. Originally a Carmelite monastery that has since been transformed into a center for community organizing, Avila offers private and shared accommodations nestled into the woods. The 50-acre property includes trails, a labyrinth, as well as numerous spaces for conversation and quiet moments of contemplation.

Nourishing meals featuring local ingredients will be provided by Chef Netta of Netta’s Pantry, including lunch and dinner on Saturday, breakfast and lunch on Sunday, and plenty of snacks and beverages.

Sponsored by Peace Hill at Avila.

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation requests must be received at least 30 days prior to the retreat in order to receive a refund, less a $25 processing fee.

Register

Seasons Within
2026-06-21 09:00 - 15:00 | Avila, 711 Mason Road, Durham, NC, 27712, United States
Sweet Summer Days

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“This is the time to fly, to create, to investigate, to listen, to invent together. Start each day with a new heart and a new mind.”

― Bayo Akomolafe

On this first day of summer 2026, we’ll come together to remember and explore summers past. Summers of playing in the park all day, visiting family farms, summer camp, and family barbeques with homemade ice cream are just a few childhood memories. We’ll share this day with the hope and intention of praying and playing our way to joy-filled days in the summer of ’26.

Facilitator: Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board of Directors

Phil Mathews, Peace Hill Board Secretary

Phil Mathews worked in pastoral ministry for over 30 years, including serving as HIV/AIDS Chaplain, Program Director for AIDS Interfaith Network of North Texas, and a variety of roles at the Cathedral of Hope Metropolitan Community Church (MCC). While Associate Pastor at MCC of Washington DC, he led mission teams in the Dominican Republic. His last service in professional ministry was as Pastor of Imani MCC of Durham NC. Peace Hill has become one of his “faith communities” since retiring from ministry in the church.

Seasons Within is a quarterly retreat series to celebrate the equinox and solstice sponsored by Peace Hill at Avila.
