Loving, Listening, Learning, Discerning: A Couple Enrichment Retreat
April 14 - April 16
$500 – $750
An in-person weekend program with experienced Couple Enrichment Leaders Mike and Marsha Green, Kirsten Brink, and Andrew Dembski
As a couple in a committed relationship, you and your partner face many decisions on a daily basis. They can range from the everyday (who’s picking up the kids from school?) to big life questions (what sort of community do we want to build around us?); from questions with quantifiable answers (how much money shall we spend on a car?) to philosophical questions (what does hospitality look like for us?). Each decision has its own context: Is this urgent? Who will it affect most? What information do I have or need? To top it off, we bring with us into our relationships how we witnessed decision-making in our families of origin. So making decisions can get complicated!
We invite you to a weekend to explore with other couples our patterns of decision-making in a spirit of experiment and curiosity. We will explore how decision-making can affirm our strengths, how conflict is an opportunity to deepen intimacy, and how we can uphold integrity, equality, and peace-making when we consider the questions before us. Bring with you at least one question that you and your beloved are currently sitting with – be it profound or mundane – so that we can learn together and, God willing, experience where Spirit takes us.
Friends Couple Enrichment (FCE), founded by Quakers over 50 years ago, is a proactive ministry to release the full potential of relationships both for the benefit of the couple and also for a world begging for examples of honest, loving, joy-filled relationships. This ministry is open to all couples, regardless of length of time together, marital status, gender identity, age, race, or faith. Indeed, our retreats are enhanced by our diversity. At the heart of any FCE event is an introduction to Witnessed Couple Dialogue, a spiritual practice of deep listening. This retreat will include lots of time for couples to dialogue in the loving witness of others as well as in private. Be assured that you will not be asked to share or participate in activities beyond your level of comfort.
Still unsure whether this is for you? Then visit FCE’s website, watch its QuakerSpeak video, and even better, come to a 90-minute online Taster scheduled for Sunday, February 26, 2023, at 8pm Eastern Time (US & Canada). At the Taster, you will meet the facilitating leader couples, hear more about FCE and this retreat, and have time to ask questions. Register for the Taster here.