Are you an artist hungry for God? Do you desire to connect with God and others and grow more deeply in your faith? Does your creative practice stimulate, nurture, or frustrate your desire to connect with God?

Come and rest with other artists as we explore ways to grow in our faith.

The Invitation:

Whether you are a part-time or full-time artist, you are warmly welcomed to participate in a half day spiritual retreat designed specifically for artists. In conjunction with my Doctor of Ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary my hope is to provide spiritual practices to nurture artists and help you thrive. This retreat will:

• Assess the specific spiritual needs of you as an artist.

• Offer artists spiritual practices which will nurture and sustain your faith.

The Vision:

The goal of this project is to connect artists of all disciplines to spiritual practices which will help them grow in their faith. Churches have often been hurtful places for artists or, at a minimum, have sometimes been inattentive to their needs and talents. I hope to both provide spiritual resources to help sustain artists and create resources for churches to use to connect meaningfully to artists in their communities. I will lead this retreat from a Christian perspective, adopting spiritual practices from Protestant and Catholic traditions.

The commitment to the retreat is minimal. Delicious light refreshments and tasty beverages will be provided. My goal is to create a place for artists to rest, refresh, and receive so that they may connect deeply with God and grow in their faith.

The Details:

To participate in this retreat please:

• Click here to register. The retreat will be held Friday, November 18th, 2022 at Church of the Resurrection outside of Baltimore from 9 AM-12:30 PM.

• Once you have RSVP’d, a spiritual inventory form will be sent to you. Please fill out the anonymous spiritual practice inventory by November 11, 2022*.

• Before the retreat, please watch 3 short videos (Each video is 2-4 minutes in length. A link will be sent to you no later than November 1, 2022.)

• After the retreat, a very short anonymous survey will be sent to you.

* All information in the inventory and survey will be held in confidence and used only for the purposes of this project and paper outlined in the informed consent form.

**An informed consent form will be sent prior to the retreat along with directions and parking information.

My Background:

My name is Rev. Mary Amendolia Gardner. I am an Anglican priest, Spiritual Director with Coracle, and a Doctor of Ministry student at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Previously I worked in government and in Anglican churches in both England and the US. I trained for ministry at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Heythrop College, University of London. I earned an MA in Christian Spirituality with an emphasis on the visual arts and spiritual transformation and hold a BA in Art History. I speak at retreats, give art tours at local museums, enjoy international travel, and kayaking. Recently I curated art works by African American artists for "An American Lament" with the Repentance Project. In my own art, my principal media are photography and collage.

If you have any questions, please contact Mary via email.