About us

What is the Retreat Association?

The Retreat Association is a national Christian organisation set up to help people find ways of exploring and deepening their journey with God through spirituality and prayer.

We are an ecumenical organisation supporting those from both inside and outside the Church in the following ways:

• Finding a retreat - we promote retreats through:
  > personal advice;
  > Retreats - our annual journal listing 230 retreat houses and their programmes.
• Spiritual direction - we help people find a spiritual director or companion.
• Resources - for those wishing to deepen their prayer life.
• Events - national and regional events with a focus on spirituality.
• Training including:
  > courses in spirituality and spiritual direction;
  > leading retreats and quiet days.

History

The Retreat Association as we know it today, has been promoting and encouraging retreats and Christian spirituality across the denominations since the late 1980s.

The organisation has its origins in the Anglican Association for Promoting Retreats, founded in 1917. This was joined by the Catholic National Retreat Council, founded in 1967 and the Methodist Retreat Group, founded in 1979.

Today the Retreat Association is fully ecumenical and represents four denominational groups.

Two of the key activities of the Retreat Association are rooted in its history:

• the annual Retreats journal which was first published as The Vision in 1920;
• the Retreat Association conference which first took place in 1969.

Over the years, the Retreat Association and its founding groups have enabled many people to discover and explore the life-changing benefits of going on retreat and exploring their own spiritual journey.