Building Communities for Lament and Hope

Thursdays, October 16-November 20, 2025, from 7:00 - 8:00 PM. ET.

This program takes place online via six one-hour Zoom meetings.
The live sessions will not be recorded.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Come as you are. Together we will build a community for both lament and hope.

Our ancient heritage of communal lament can draw us closer to God. Listening in community and staying together with the grief will create an experience of communal lament and God’s Presence therein.

From that place of closeness with God, we can choose to access the hope which is in our God.

Together, we can become Hope: Hope walking in the world, Hope as healing presence, and Hope as resistance.

This circle will be led by Francie Thayer and Heather Strang, Co-Directors at The Retreat House, an intentional community with a mission to share God’s abundant love in the world by holding sacred, compassionate and inclusive space.

This event is brought to you by the department of Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary in conjunction with the Retreat House.

Contact us (LifelongLearning@vts.edu) if the cost to participate is a barrier for you.

Questions? Email LifelongLearning@vts.edu.

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Francie Thayer is a spiritual director and graduate of Virginia Theological Seminary. Together with Heather Strang, she codirects the Retreat House which she calls “an 11-year adventure of following the Holy Spirit into relationships and collaborations that bring transformation of the heart.” Since 2019, Francie has also been a facilitator of Sacred Ground Circles.

Heather Strang is a spiritual director formed at Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. As codirector of the Retreat House, she brings a lifetime love of listening with the heart which began with the study of literature and continues in small circles for truth-telling and spiritual companioning.