Andrea Corrie and Linda Sewell invite you to join this retreat to seek out positive strategies to support you with your bereavement or life-changing loss through a significant change in your circumstances.
This is an encouraging, sensitively led retreat and its content will be tailored to the needs of the participants who at liberty to join in any or all of the programme, without pressure.
We will include faith-based prayer exercises, writing creatively with Scripture and simple crafting activities. There will be a walk of remembrance and a candle-lighting service, as well as free time for reflection, prayer and exploration of the beautiful environment around Lee Abbey. We will look at ways in which we can safely rest in the shadier times as well as embrace the mourning light with hope and joy.
Who's speaking?
Andrea Corrie
Bampton-based author Andrea Corrie realised the power of writing as a tool for processing grief following the loss of her nineteen-year-old son James to accidental drowning in 2005. She has published two books, Into the Mourning Light in 2014 and Living in the Mourning Light in 2020. The positive narration in both books focuses on the attributes of hope, light, love, faith, resilience and joy. Andrea offers secular and faith-based presentations, retreats and writing workshops. She has completed training in spiritual direction for the Exeter Diocese and recently co-led an Alpha course. Andrea was honoured with a British Empire Medal in 2023 in recognition of her work as a water safety advocate with key organisations, raising awareness of water safety and drowning prevention. She views this with great pride and as a poignant element of James’s legacy.
Linda Sewell
Since losing her nineteen-year-old son Tom to an accident in New Zealand in 2008, Surrey-based Linda leads a bereavement support group for The Compassionate Friends charity (TCF) and has retrained as a professional independent celebrant. Linda offers a high level of pastoral care to all those with whom she comes into contact and her kind empathy is very supportive. Together Andrea and Linda will provide led sessions, creative writing based on Scripture and simple craft activities. There will also be time for prayer and quiet reflection, exploring the territory of grief and how best to navigate it. We will look at ways in which we can harness light and colour in our lives, especially as we face the shorter days of Autumn and Winter.
