The Repair Shop
Led by Brother Sam SSF
Before the Cross of St Damian Francis received the call to 'repair my house'. What are you being called to today? Perhaps it is repair in your own relationships in your family or local church/community. Perhaps the call is broader focusing on the needs of the wider church, country, creation ... As we engage deeply in the work of repair, we may find that we ourselves are repaired in the process. As we open ourselves to these possibilities before God, will the divine healing repair flow in and through us in this Lenten season? Explore with Brother Sam what it might mean to open ourselves to the pain and possibilities of a world where so many need houses repaired in the context of war or natural disaster, or closer to home where our minds, bodies and communities are strained in the face of pandemic and austerity.
This will be a silent retreat and include daily addresses, daily prayers, one Eucharist, and opportunity for 1:1 pastoral conversations with the leader.
Brother Sam SSF joined SSF at Hilfield Friary in 1974 after ordination and curacy in Liverpool. He has lived at a number of SSF houses (Glasshampton, Manchester, the Solomon Islands, Liverpool, Zimbabwe and Cambridge) but many of the past forty-five years have been spent at Hilfield Friary in rural West Dorset. He has served as Novice Guardian, Guardian and latterly as Minister Provincial, during which time the focus at Hilfield has been on seeking to put into practice an ‘integral ecology’. In 2017 he moved to the SSF house in Plaistow, East London, where hospitality is offered in a very multi-cultural city with huge challenges of homelessness, isolation and integration. As questions around the meaning and purpose of being human are increasingly urgent, he believes that the Way of Francis and Clare offers a radical re-orientation of relationship for us and for the world.
This event is open to everyone.
Arrival: 3 - 5pm
Mon 23rd February
2026
Departure: 10am
Fri 27th February
2026
Residential - £530 (20% ministry discount)
