CHHSM-Led Retreat for UCC Education for Faithful Action Team Allows Time for Reflection, Discussion, and Renewal

Sometimes, a pause is the best prescription. The UCC’s Education for Faithful Action Ministries (EFA) team leaders recently took the opportunity to take a breath, reflect, and renew their commitments to their work and each other, thanks to a one-day staff retreat led by CHHSM.

Held June 29, 2026, team members gathered with CHHSM’s the Rev. Dr. Elyse Berry, associate for advocacy and leadership development, the retreat—planned by Berry and team leader the Rev. Dr. Bentley deBardelaben—was a welcome space during a time of transition and change. The day included reading, music, art, reflection, and discussion.

For the Rev. Amy Johnson, minister for sexuality education and justice—gender and sexuality ministry, a discussion on impermanence was particularly timely and relevant. 

“The team has had several folks transition over the past year, and so has our unit,” Johnson said. “In addition, we are welcoming a new [UCC] associate general minister—someone completely new to the national setting. Exploring the concept of impermanence and how it exists in nature, and then discussing ways to thrive in it in our context was right on target.”

Berry began the retreat with a quote from Returning Home to Our Bodies by Abigail Rose Clarke: “We can’t find ourselves if we aren’t willing to be exactly where we are.” 

“I’ve used this quote many times, as I so often find with groups—just as I do with myself—that we want to jump ahead to what’s next and ‘getting things done,’ but we are so often putting the old cart before the horse. Life and work and the world move so fast, and I find church and our CHHSM folks working harder than ever to keep up with a pace that doesn’t match the realities of space and time for humans. And sometimes within that pace, we’re all going on so many different journeys and experiences that we can assume we know how we fit into the group mission or work. And yet, when the “we” is ever shifting, it can help to begin by grounding and noticing and taking in where and who we are right now first. And then we can move forward together.” 

“All of us are bringing so much with us that need time and intention to honor, bear witness, and accompany each other in the reality of this unique moment of coming together,” Berry added. “It always moves me to see how powerful that simple practice can be.”

The Rev. Seth Wispelwey, minister for economic justice, noted that some team members came to the day with skepticism. 

“We came in a bit skeptical—not about Elyse’s skillset and collegiality, but more from a place of fatigue with the world and the challenges of our work during extremely volatile times,” he said. “What would be offered that could really be a salve amidst everything? To be led by her the way we were through genuinely centering body-breath practices, mindful reorientations towards our ‘why,’ and a wide array of creative offerings that stimulated intellect, emotions, and body-sense was the perfect combination for what was a true ‘retreat’ in our office—one that we quickly recognized was going to benefit us in ways we needed.”

Berry intentionally ran the retreat at a slow pace to allow for the reset and re-centering of participants. The Rev. Dr. Velda Love, minister for racial justice, particularly appreciated the open and safe space for discussion the retreat provided.

“I was grateful for the space to be with colleagues, listen, observe, and learn new things about them,” Love said. “Each activity during the retreat led to hearing peoples’ passions, frustrations, challenges, and joys. I wish more spaces within the UCC national ministries had space for down time with our colleagues, reflecting, sharing, and creating together without an emphasis on passive engagement.”

Johnson concurred. “The retreat was tailored to our needs as a team, creative, reflective, and opened space for honest conversations,” she said.

The final activity of the day before the closing ritual was an art project called “Crafting Constellations of Connection.” Based on the myth of the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades constellation, participants created individual art projects with images and words representing seven aspects of their “constellations”—e.g, a value, behavior, place, community, name, adjective, etc. that together make up their ministries. 

For some participants, it was their most meaningful experience of the day, but for vastly different reasons. Wispelwey appreciated that “it helped access a part of my brain and body that historically I’ve thrived on (creative expression) but which gets so little time and space these days with work, parenting and more demands.”

Conversely, Love was surprised at how much she enjoyed the constellation exercise. “There was time to select items I was most drawn to,” she said. “This activity was also the most challenging since I do not usually create art. However, given the pace and ease of our day, I was able to lean in and use the items which stirred my imagination towards a theme. The final product ignited a passion for more creativity, given my daily work projects are creative but lean towards an academic and intellectual process.”

During the constellation exercise, Berry played crystal singing bowls and other sound-healing instruments to that participants could be immersed in a sound bath while they crafted. 

“I loved seeing how the unique constellations came together for everyone,” she said. “I particularly loved seeing folks simply engage in the act of making them even more than the finished product.”

The singing bowls “set a tone, literally and figuratively, for participants to simply be with their thoughts and images on their own first. Folks afterward shared how that really did help them to be more in the flow of the moment, and how rare that kind of experience can be. It was so beautiful to see these ministers truly pray in this way, for themselves.”

Several participants came away from the retreat, like Love, wishing there was more space for creative expression and conversation within the UCC work environment.

“I appreciated the breadth of activities,” Johnson added. “The variety is what makes Elyse’s retreats so enticing and special.”

Wispelwey imagined expanding the retreat’s impact. “I sincerely believe this retreat offering would benefit every single employee of the UCC National Ministries,” he said, “and I would even recommend that it be incorporated somehow into annual team retreats/planning/onboarding across all levels of staff—that the spirit of it is something that should infuse how we are led as a whole staff as well.”