Retreat-Holidays
Make retreats a treat and holidays holy
Northern Cyprus programme
Thy Kingdom Come
Retreat leader:
Dr Stephanie Rybak
Director of Retreat-Holidays
and a former
County Ecumenical Officer
Day 1 - Wednesday
Travel
Day 2 - Thursday The Kingdom of God is like this...
Free day
Introduction to the retreat and to Northern Cyprus.
Earthly kingdoms come and go – as they have in Cyprus. What do we understand by the Kingdom of God?
The gospels contain 120+ references to the Kingdom and just 2 to the Church. Don’t we tend to get it the other way round? Shouldn't we focus more on the Kingdom?
The Kingdom parables of Jesus. Perhaps try writing a modern Kingdom parable of our own.
Day 3 – Friday You are my rock, my fortress
Psalm 31 – God as our fortress
Kyrenia for visit to Castle. Opportunity for lunch in the castle courtyard.
Shipwreck Museum in Castle with remains of 2400-year-old ship. Think of Paul’s shipwreck in Acts 27 – the ship is wrecked, but all the people saved. An image of Church and Kingdom? Do we treat our way of doing Church, rather than God, as our immutable rock and fortress?
What do we understand by “the Good News”?
How does it relate
a) to the Kingdom
b) to the Church?
Day 4 – Saturday This is my body
Visit to Bellapais Monastery in the charming village of the same name, where Laurence Durrell lived in the 1950s - see his book Bitter Lemons of Cyprus. Bellapais means beautiful peace.
What God gives to us, he wants us to give to others. Fed by the Eucharist, we are called to become bread for others. The monastery has given of itself - its stones - to feed the village. (Living stones?) The task of the Church is give itself to feed the Kingdom, not to protect itself as a fortress. Short drive to see Five-Finger Mountain – symbolic of open-handed giving.
Day 5 - Sunday Kingdom and Church
Opportunity to attend a church service in English - there is a choice of Anglican and Roman Catholic in Kyrenia. Opportunity to explore the harbour and environs and to have lunch there.
Again, “This is my body”. “We are the Body of Christ.”
The Gospel in both the Catholic and the Anglican services on Sunday 25 March 2012 includes ”unless a grain of wheat dies”. If we are following in our Saviour’s footsteps, we, the Church, will have to give something up – not just chocolate for Lent, but perhaps something much harder, to do with our perceived self-identity.
What do the three church buildings around the harbour say to us of Church? (The two active ones are not big enough for their present congregations; the other, larger one is derelict.)
Boats in the harbour – more images of Church? Maybe the harbour symbolises the universal Church, which embraces and shelters local churches?
What images do we have of the Kingdom?
Day 6 – Monday Barnabas and Ozymandias
Excursion with guide to St Barnabas Monastery, which was built on the site of the grave of Saint Barnabas, who is regarded as the founder of the Church in Cyprus. A collection of icons is displayed in the monastery church.
The cloister buildings now house an excellent little archeological museum with some very fine pots and statuary.
On to the extensive Roman ruins and the royal tombs at Salamis, the site of the martyrdom of St Barnabas.
And Ozymandias? Remember Shelley's poem, with the broken statue in the desert mocked by its own proud inscription:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
The fallen grandeur of another kingdom is symbolised by the ruins of Salamis. Do they say something to us of the choices we make between earthly and heavenly things?
As for the tombs, do they mark the vanity of power in this life or show people preparing for entrance to the next?
Day 7 – Tuesday Thy Kingdom come!
Rest day
Opportunity to read through retreat journal, reflect on the week, let it come together, perhaps with the help of a treatment in the spa. Alternatively, opportunity to visit somewhere else, depending on what excursions are available with other groups that day.
What has spoken to me this week about the Kingdom of God?
Has my understanding of the Kingdom changed at all this week?
What do I mean when I pray “Thy Kingdom come”?
Day 8 – Wednesday Transfer to Larnaca airport
The Vuni Palace hotel's own website