A Creative Kingdom Retreat for Everyone
June 14-17, 2019 – Cincinnati, OH
Cofferstowe has been cancelled.
Unfortunately, due to low registration, Cofferstowe 2019 has been cancelled.
What is Cofferstowe?
The trumpet of the imagination,
like the trumpet of the resurrection,
calls the dead out of their graves.
– G.K. Chesterton
Cofferstowe is a small gathering of fellow pilgrims called to rest in a restless world, to be surrounded by the most beautiful Story, to be renewed in our imaginations by the Holy Spirit, and given courage and vision to creatively manifest the Kingdom of God in this world.
This is not a conference; it’s a retreat.
This weekend is designed to be restful and rich. Come set aside a long weekend to behold the Lord’s beauty, feast upon his goodness, and be renewed by his truth. Take time with friends to be nourished by storytelling, live music, special speakers, and good food in a beautiful setting just outside Cincinnati, Ohio.
You are called to create.
We worship a Creator God, a loving Trinity who dreamed-up and crafted a Cosmos full of wonder and meaning for us to inhabit. Each of us is called to be joined to the Life of the Trinity – to become a co-laborer in the ongoing work of creatively manifesting God’s beautiful life in everything we do, making His Kingdom tastable, touchable, seeable, smellable, and hearable.
Only the lover sings.
When we stop long enough to rest our restless eyes on Jesus, in that beholding we discover ourselves to be held in love. Like the woman at the well we ask, “What did she see in that moment with Jesus that sent her shamelessly singing through Samaria?” This is where our call to manifest the kingdom is grounded – the truth of our belovedness in Jesus.
The Details
When
Friday, June 14th – Monday, June 17th 2019
The doors will open at 5pm on Friday, and dinner will begin at 6:30pm. We’ll end with lunch on Monday.
Where
The Jesuit Spiritual Center at Milford, Arrupe Retreat House
5361 S. Milford Rd.
Milford, OH 45150
Meals and Accommodations
Included! The Arrupe Retreat House at the Jesuit Spiritual Center will house and feed all Cofferstowe guests. The Arrupe Retreat House has a beautiful chapel for concerts and talks, a lovely Great Room with big windows looking out over the lawn, several break-out rooms and prayer rooms, bedrooms and a dining hall. The entire beautiful 37 acre campus will be available to Cofferstowe guests, including a prayer labyrinth, walking paths, a fire ring, and the Miami River.
A Note on Bathrooms and Showers: All rooms have a sink and mirror, but most rooms do not have a bathroom. Bathrooms and showers are located on each wing, and guests will be organized along a men’s wing and a women’s wing. Couples will be located so that women are nearest to the women’s bathrooms.
A note for couples: Most of the rooms are single occupant. There are a limited number of rooms with one double-bed. You’ll have the option at checkout to purchase two tickets for one shared room. Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to offer a couple’s discount, since the retreat center charges per person, not per room.
Cost
$450 per guest. This includes 9 meals beginning at dinner Friday evening and ending after lunch on Monday, all accommodations, access to the beautiful retreat campus, and all retreat content. It even includes recordings of the retreat talks and a few surprise goodies you’ll have to come to Cofferstowe to discover! Registration opens 10am, Saturday, March 2nd.
Airport Information
The Retreat Center is approximately 30 miles from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Int’l Airport (CVG). Google reports this airport as the cheapest to fly into in the United States. All you have to do is get to the retreat center and we’ll take care of the rest.
Limited Space
This is an intentionally small retreat. There are only 60 rooms, so when it comes time to sign up, I recommend not waiting too long. This weekend is designed to be high quality in content, and to protect the quality time and habitat it takes to rest and connect deeply.
Speakers
Image © Lancia E. Smith
Lanier Ivester
“[There is a] glorious, electrifying Secret that’s singing and thrumming and kindling in every corner of creation– That the Kingdom of God is already among us, and that this broken world is thronged with the glory of it. That no good thing will be lost forever. That no matter how we tally the facts of our lives, the equation will always ultimately equal Love.”
Lanier Ivester is a homemaker and writer in the beautiful state of Georgia where she maintains a small farm with her husband, Philip, and an ever-expanding menagerie of cats, dogs, sheep, goats, chickens, and peacocks. She is a regular contributor at The Rabbit Room, and she keeps a web journal at lanierivester.com, where she is also the proprietress of an online bookshop specializing in rare and out-of-print titles from a gentler era. A devoted Anglophile and lover of all things bookish, she is currently enrolled on a (mostly) distance-learning certificate program in English Literature at Oxford University.
Lanier says she loves “creating domestic spaces that nourish, refresh, nurture, and otherwise assist pilgrims on the Way.” She goes on,”I really do believe that the Lord is doing something very special on this front–the more homesick this world becomes, the more brightly all these kingdom outposts shine out against the darkness.”
Matthew Clark
Singer/songwriter/storyteller and Mississippi native Matthew Clark blends a thought-provoking narrative lyricism with well-honed guitar skills to craft songs that have been likened to the work of Andrew Peterson, Matthew Perryman Jones, and David Wilcox.
Each Fall Matthew loads up his tiny-house-in-a-van (a converted Dodge Sprinter dubbed “Vandalf the White”) and travels all over the country playing concerts in homes and churches. Matthew’s engaging conversational performance style has led concert-goers to comment that the stories between the songs are as enjoyable as the songs themselves.
Ultimately, Matthew’s music is about weaving the strung-out strands of our lives into a fabric of hope and belonging in God.
Image © Lancia E. Smith
Musicians and Artists
The Mosleys
Married songwriting duo Rachel and Stephen Mosley stumbled onto the scene after winning an open mic competition at Zac Brown’s Southern Grounds in Senoia, Georgia. The prize was studio time, and The Mosleys recorded their first EP at Zac Brown’s Crow’s Nest Studio in Atlanta. Since the release of Beneath the Trees and Stars in 2015, they have been busy playing festivals and stages, from the 30A Singer Songwriter Festival to the Chastain Amphitheater.
The Mosleys have quickly earned opportunities to share the stage with such talent as Leigh Nash, Liz Longley, Harpeth Rising, Air Supply, and many others. The Mosleys were recently featured artists on NPR’s Folk Alley and finalists at Eddie’s Attic Open Mic competition. Their new album Ordinary Time was released in late June 2017 and produced by Phil Madeira (Emmylou Harris, The Civil Wars, LeeAnn Womack), with the help of Jimmy Abegg.
Married for 16 years, Rachel & Stephen have five young children and lots of great stories.
Luke & Emily Ash
Husband and wife duo Luke & Emily weave songs and stories together with down home sincerity and a sound of reminiscent of Emmylou Harris, Graham Parsons, and Simon and Garfunkel.
With T-Rex (basically a tiny house on wheels) in tow, Luke & Emily tour the country playing in homes, listening rooms, and churches.
Traveling from town to town with their family of six, Luke & Emily share the good news of Jesus with a posture of humility and refreshingly transparent songwriting.
Anna Handelsman
Anna is an Ohio native who’s love for dance began at the early age of 4 on the ice rink. By the grace of God Anna ended up as a member of Ad Deum Dance Company in Houston which is where she first felt true revelation as an artist for the Kingdom of God. Ad Deum, or “Unto God”, was Anna’s first experience interacting with professional dancers who desired to worship the Lord with excellence in their craft
During this time Anna also had the opportunity to learn to teach dance as a medium for prayer and began sharing this gift with dancers and non dancers alike across the country and internationally. She has recently performed and taught at workshops and intensives in Houston, Chicago, Lexington, Cincinnati, Paris, Cambridge, Biel, Switzerland, Sofia, Bulgaria, and Dublin, Ireland.
Anna is inspired by the reality that Spirit-infused art can break down the most resistant of strongholds; it can be the gentlest yet effective weapon for the Kingdom of God. She hopes to continue to worship through this craft by cultivating beauty and truth through movement that honors the Creator of the Universe.
The Schedule
Friday, June 14th
5:00pm Arrival / Check-in
6:15pm Welcome and Orientation: Only the lover sings
7:00pm Dinner
8:30pm Concert: The Mosleys
Bedtime Story
Saturday, June 15th
8:00am Early Morning Prayers
8:30 – 9:30am Breakfast
10:00am Session 1: Matthew Clark – Bible Walk-Thru
12:00pm Lunch
1:15pm Session 2: Lanier Ivester: Poetry Workshop
2:15pm Freetime
4:30pm Optional Fun Session: House Concert Panel
5:30pm Dinner
7:00 pm Concert: Luke & Emily
9:30pm: Reveries: Bedtime Story
Porch Complines
Sunday, June 16th
8:00am Early Morning Prayers
8:30 – 9:30am Breakfast
10:00am Session 3: Lanier Ivester
12:00pm Lunch
1:15pm Session 2: Anna Handelsman – Dance
2:15pm Freetime
4:30pm Optional Fun Session: Praying through Dance
5:30pm Dinner
7:00 pm Concert: Matthew Clark & Friends
9:30pm: Reveries: Community Dance
Porch Complines
Monday, June 17th
9:00am Breakfast
10:00am Session 7: Hymn-Sing and Closing Thoughts
12:00pm Lunch
1:00 Bittersweet Farewells