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From The Times

April 11, 2009

A spiritual retreat in Leicestershire

Why not head to an abbey and try a spiritual spa or a spot of 'internal tourism' - it is Holy Week after all

Stephen McClarence

Somehow I got it into my head that this was going to be a silent retreat, with not a syllable spoken: - a potential challenge for interviews. A whole new world of Marcel Marceau journalism seemed to loom ahead.

In the event it was silent (for some of us) only during meals at Launde Abbey, the Leicestershire retreat centre near Melton Mowbray. Almost hidden in a landscaped park, it lurks down twisting, hawthorn-hedged lanes that become narrower by the half-mile. Sheep graze in the park, geese bustle around the ponds; the only noise is birdsong. Idyllic? Absolutely.

Despite its name, Launde is no longer an abbey but a honey-stoned Elizabethan country house. It runs residential retreats throughout the year, for individuals and groups; many have a Christian basis, others (walking, painting, photography) do not. There is no need to be a “believer” to join them. Someone coined the term “spiritual spa” to sum it all up: taking care of the mind and the soul rather than the body. People who have been there say that it's a sort of internal tourism, a journey into yourself.

“Modern spas are doing what we've been doing for centuries,” says Canon Beryl Wood, the deputy warden. “We're giving people a chance to leave their normal lives behind for a few days and chill out. People just push and push themselves these days, so the first challenge is learning how to stop and how to rest, reflect and just ‘be'.”

Stressed businessmen and women come here for the peace and quiet, reassured that mobile phone reception is variable and that there are no televisions in the comfortable bedrooms. Some guests bring deckchairs and sit out on the lawns all day. One Danish couple comes three or four times a year.

It clearly works. Launde won the silver award for Best Tourism Experience in the East Midlands 2007 Enjoy England Excellence Awards. The winner was a preserved steam railway. I have joined a two-night retreat for first-timers. The 22 of us, largely Christian, have come from as far away as Carlisle, Brighton, Cornwall and Swansea. The retreat, focusing on the life and work of the 20th-century theologian Thomas Merton, is led by Esther de Waal, a leading Merton scholar who describes retreats as being “about confronting the solitary side of ourselves, letting go of the lists and the commitments...it's very important to get off the merry-go-round”. Modern life, she tells the first session, is “so cluttered with words that we don't know how to handle silence”. With that in mind, perhaps, 16 of the group vote to have their meals in silence. The rest of us talk.

Down the table Iris West, a retired office worker from Spilsby, Lincolnshire, says that she is enchanted by Launde. “You really are away from it all here,” she says. “It's like a little world of its own.”

Next to her, Gordon Eggerton, a transport manager from near Kettering, is a regular retreat-goer. “They can give you a sense of family and community,” he says. “It's like spiritual recharging, to recharge your batteries. For me, it's a chance to allow myself to do nothing. And that's a great luxury in life now, isn't it?”

Early in the first session de Waal urges us to take an “awareness walk” - “slow, careful, meditative walking” - and exits ethereally through a French window. Off we go, making our slow-motion way across the park with great deliberation, studying the flowers. The feeling of self-consciousness soon subsides.

Walking occupies much of my visit. As a non-Christian I avoid the religious services and some of the discussions and take long walks in the rolling Leicestershire hills, through meadows of cornflowers and buttercups, past copses and spinneys: it's exhilarating walking country, with a spirituality of its own. I stray beyond Launde rather apprehensively, though, fearful of breaking the spell that its tranquil atmosphere casts.

I have brought a briefcase full of work with me but, in the event, never glance at it or make phone calls. On the second night I wake at 4am, worrying that I have forgotten what I ought to be worrying about. The retreat has done its job and I go soundly back to sleep.

Need to know

Launde Abbey (01572 717254, www.launde.org.uk), East Norton, Leicestershire, LE7 9XB.

Launde Abbey

ABOUT LAUNDE ABBEY

Launde Abbey is set within 440 acres of beautiful Leicestershire - Rutland farmland estate, including 10 acres of landscaped gardens; yet it is only 30 minutes from the city life of Leicester in Britain. The Abbey consists of a Tudor - Elizabethan house and a converted Georgian stable block surrounded by beautiful and graceful gardens - radiating peace and stillness. At the heart of the Abbey is the stone Chapel, dating mainly from the 13th and 14th centuries, and which was a part of the original Augustinian Priory Church. It is a perfect place for heartfelt prayer, inner reflection, and communion with the God of your heart. The Abbey is staffed by a community practicing a regular pattern of prayer. The Abbey's prayer life consists of Morning Prayer, daily Eucharist, Evening Prayer and Night Prayer. Everyone is most welcome, irrespective of personal religious belief, to join in this cycle of prayer in our beautiful Chapel.

As a residential Retreat House, Launde Abbey offers true Christian hospitality to all people. The Abbey is a rare oasis in an overly busy world, providing tranquility, community, support and an opportunity for honest inner work. Both individuals and groups have plenty of time to reflect upon the particulars of one's life and how to use them for spiritual growth in today's ever-changing world. Here is a place where people can come to safely learn about themselves and others. It is a place which many recognize as a 'sacred space' enabling people to attend to a personal retreat so to find meaning, grounding, a sense of the holy and encounter the God which lives within all hearts.

The accommodation at Launde is divided between the Main House with 22 bedrooms, the Old Diary with 3 bedrooms, and the newly (2007-2008) refurbished and enlarged Stables which has 19 en-suite bedrooms. The Brew house which contains an en-suite twin bedroom also has an attached lounge and kitchen making it ideal for longer individual retreats and sabbaticals giving the Abbey in total 45 bedrooms.

TIM BLEWETT

Tim Blewett is an Anglican Priest and has been Warden of Launde Abbey since 2004. Prior to this, he was Canon Residentiary of St. Asaph Cathedral in Wales with responsibility as: [1] Diocesan Officer for Ministry, [2] Advisor for Continuing Ministerial Education and [3] Diocesan Director of Ordinands. Between these posts, he was mobilizedby the British Army to serve as military chaplain in Iraq from December 2003 to June 2004. He also served in the British Army for October 1997 to May 1998 in Bosnia and Croatia, prior to becoming Canon of St. Asaph Cathedral. He has also served as a parish priest.

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