Council for Ecological Discipleship
A MINISTRY OF
ST. COLUMBA'S INVERNESS
COUNCIL FOR ECOLOGICAL DISCIPLESHIP
INVITES YOU TO
Earth, our Common Home
a RESTortive Retreat
October 16-18, 2025
Thursday — Saturday
with
Payton Hoegh—Program Director, The Center for Spirituality in Nature | Spiritualityinnature.org
Fr. Vincent Pizzuto—Vicar St Columba’s Inverness; Professor, University of San Francisco; Author | Vincentpizzuto.org
Penny Washbourn, Sylvia Timbers, Steve Lyman, Ann Hall, Anna Haight—Members of St. Columba’s Council for Ecological Discipleship
Come for RESToration: by healing our wounds, learning from the land, feeding our souls and bodies to build resilience, and hope. This is a journey towards Regeneration through Lament, Listening, and Learning to Love.
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“Nature is not a place to visit: It is Home” — Gary Snyder
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“The quality of our relationships with soil and water, flora and fauna in the arena where we are doing this work that dictates whether we will have bounty or scarcity…How do we apply the lessons of Nature that teach us to create the strategies we need for today?” — Doria Robinson
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This interactive retreat is for all who are fearful or in despair about the current state of our climate crisis, our future and the suffering of the Earth and her species.
Embracing Grief as an Expression of Love
As our retreat unfolds, we will journey together through the tender landscape of our heart’s grief, grief for the profound pain and loss in both our human and natural worlds. Rather than turning away, we will honor this sorrow as a reflection of our deepest care. For at the root of all grief is love. In sacred community, we will gently turn toward that love, allowing our pain to be held and transformed by the resilient life force of creation that lives within each of us.
Drawing on the deep wisdom of the Desert Mystics and Scriptures and contemplative practices, and from the grief work of Joanna Macy, we can acknowledge our pain for what is lost in a place of stillness and peace among the trees and beauty of St. Columba’s.
What can we learn from stories of healing degraded soils and water and building a sense of interconnectedness with our Sacred Earth that will build right relationships in all our communities, both human and more than human?
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Tending the Heart of the World
As we acknowledge how the changes, wounds, and needs of our world resonate in our hearts, creation holds wisdom and offers profound invitations for healing and building resilience. Through guided meditation, contemplative wandering to connect with our local ecosystem, ritual, and rich spiritual practice, we will explore the gifts of the wilder world to accompany us in grief, rekindle our imagination, and equip us to join all creation in the restorative work ahead.
Though joy can feel distant in times of sorrow, it quietly emerges when we gather in Beloved Community for the most beautiful purpose: to serve ourselves, one another, and all of life. In this shared purpose, joy becomes a companion to courage—the kind of courage that rises from the heart. And as we align our lives with the healing and transfiguration of our world, we may discover the peace and vitality that come from walking the path of Love, together.
Payton Hoegh is the program director of the Center for Spirituality in Nature. A transitional deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, his ministry is rooted at the intersection of creative community building, contemplation, ecology, agriculture, advocacy, justice, and equity. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Claremont School of Theology and is a certified California Naturalist. Payton writes extensively, including contributing two sessions for the Episcopal Church's Love God, Love God's World curriculum, and presents on various topics related to spiritual ecology, faith and environmental action, and nature-attuned mindful practice.
Father Vincent Pizzuto, PhD is Professor of New Testament Studies and Christian Mysticism in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the (Jesuit) University of San Francisco. He received his doctorate in New Testament Exegesis from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium (2003) and has since published and presented internationally in the areas of New Testament christology, ecological discipleship, marriage equality, inter-religious dialogue, Christian mysticism and contemplative Christian spirituality. In 2018 he published his second book, Contemplating Christ: The Gospels and the Interior Life with Liturgical Press; translated in Spanish, Contemplar a Cristo: Los Evangelios y la vida interior, (Desclée de Brouwer) in January 2022. As an Episcopal priest Fr. Vincent serves as Vicar of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and Retreat House in Inverness, California. Working for the advancement of contemplative Christianity, he has reinvigorated the mission and ministry of St. Columba’s through the introduction of contemplative eucharistic liturgies, public lectures, online courses, directed retreats, thought provoking sermons, and an online blog. He founded the Council for Ecological Discipleship in 2018 and has regularly preached and led retreats with leaders on issues to address climate change, and on environmental issues and faith, including Bishop Marc Andrus, The Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll and Dr. Brian Swimme.
