01300 341345 hilfieldssf@franciscans.org.uk
The Friary, Hilfield, Dorchester, Dorset, DT2 7BE
Donate Registered Charity Number 236464
Br John, our Guardian writes: ‘This year we are offering a very varied programme with some familiar activities and some innovations. We hope you will be blessed in mind, body and soul, whether learning a new skill or reconnecting with past joys.’
As always please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for any of the events.
Bread and Jam 1
Tuesday 25th to Friday 28th February
PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE
Join us for an enjoyable stay looking at the relationship between Franciscanism and food, both from a theological aspect and a practical application. Just 5 spaces left.
The Hilfield Community prides itself on using available foodstuffs in our day-to-day lives but our staple has to be bread and jam as any of our teatime guests will tell you!
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Lenten Quiet Day
Saturday 8 March
Join a group of fellow pilgrims in a day of reflecting on the Christ’s call to take up our cross and follow him. This is the foundational call to discipleship, and the way we embrace it can make a big difference in our work to make the love of God shown in Jesus Christ known in the world around us.
The suggested donation for the day is £25 to include a simple lunch of soup and a roll.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Spring Folk Weekend
People, the Beautiful, the Brave and the Bizarre
Friday 14th to Sunday 18th March
This is the 16th year in which Gill and Alan have been running the popular Folk Weekend at Hilfield Friary. Please bring your voices or instruments, songs to share. We will provide plenty of music.
If you wish you are most welcome to bring any songs or tunes relating to these types of people. (Spring Folk Weekend)
If you like singing or playing folk music (or just listening) this is for you. Musical contributions are welcome but not compulsory.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Holy Week and Easter at the Friary
Tuesday 15th to Sunday 20th April
Join us as we celebrate Holy Week and Easter at Hilfield: Journey with the Community as we join Christ through His crucifixion, burial and on to the joy of his Resurrection.
The suggested donation for the week is £320 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
The Franciscan Repair Shop
Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th May
‘The mission of St Francis began in response to the call ‘Repair my House’ which he heard in the tumbled-down church of San Damiano outside the walls of Assisi. However, it soon led him with his brothers and sisters to join in a much larger project – that of God’s ‘Repair Shop’ – through which individual lives, the life of the Church, and the life of communities were repaired, renewed and transformed.
In this weekend, led by Br Samuel and members of the Hilfield Community, we will be looking at how ‘God’s Repair Shop’ is active today through community and through creation. We’ll be reflecting on our own call to join the Repair Shop and on how, through it, we ourselves discover renewal and transformation’.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Reconnecting to the
Sacred Nature 1
Friday 9th to Sunday 11th May
“Reconnecting to sacred nature 1” is a retreat running at Hilfield Friary on Friday 9th (from 12pm) to Sunday 11th (3pm) May 2024 geared at those of different spiritual traditions and none enquiring into the sacredness of nature in the midst of the ecological crisis.
The retreat has four aims:
1 To help participants develop a deeper connection to and love for the beauty awe and sacredness of nature.
2 To honestly face the environmental crisis with hope, courage and a sense of personal agency.
3 Become part of a wider movement for positive, regenerative change in our society
4 Learn to know, honour and protect mother earth, allowing all life to flourish.
The retreat will immerse participants in the beauty of creation in the Dorset countryside – slowing us down to nature pace.
Providing time for reflection, meditation and stillness inspired by nature. It will draw upon the philosophies and writings of different world spiritual traditions, the principles of Joanna Macy’s book “Active Hope”, as well as earth sciences and evolutionary biology.
The cost per person for three days, two nights and all meals is £260 (including VAT).
To secure your booking a £100 deposit (including VAT) (non-refundable and non-transferable) is required at the time of booking.
To book a place on the retreat please contact Mike Mullins at
Email: mikemullins@soulrewilding.co.uk
Mobile: 07973 642 875
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
1st Craft Week of the year
Wednesday 21st to Sunday 25 May
Come along and enjoy the week with like-minded crafters.
Bring old projects to finish and try new ones with friends, drink lots of tea and laugh a lot!
The suggested donation for the week is £260 to include all food and accommodation.
If you would like to arrive on Tuesday 20th June to relax before you start crafting, please contact Suzi. There would be a suggested extra donation of £60.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the week.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Reconnecting to the
Divine in Nature
A repeat of the May weekend
Friday 27th to Sunday 29th June
A repeat of the 9th to 11th May weekend led by Mike Mullins and Jonathan Herbert.
The cost per person for three days, two nights and all meals is £260 (including VAT).
To secure your booking a £100 deposit (including VAT) (non-refundable and non-transferable) is required at the time of booking.
To book a place on the retreat please contact Mike Mullins at
Email: mikemullins@soulrewilding.co.uk
Mobile: 07973 642 8756
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Stone Carving Weekend
Friday 4th to Sunday 6th July 2025
Join Lindy Cameron on a practical stone carving experience. Learn to carve or increase your skills while exploring with others how ancient stone and spirituality might work alongside each other in a relaxed environment where all are welcome. Tools provided but if you would like to bring your own then please do. Come and enjoy the rhythm of life at the Friary and meet others as we journey together over three days.
The suggested donation of £180 includes a stone for sculpting. This weekend is limited to a maximum of 8 people.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Young Adults Week
with Amy and Luke
Tuesday 8th to Sunday 13th July 2024
A week to invite young adults (18-30) to come and experience community life here at the friary. We create a space for conversations about the highs and lows of living in community, and work alongside community members to get a taste of our day to day life here. An opportunity to relax in nature, getting to know the rhythms of the Friary and embrace the joys of community life.
The suggested donation for the week is £125 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Poetry Weekend
with Elizabeth Cook
Paradise Lost
Friday 18th to Sunday 20th July
Paradise Lost, some of it composed during the years of the English Civil Wars and first published in 1667 after the Restoration, is an epic poem on epic subjects: the interrelated stories of the insurrection and expulsion from heaven of Satan and his fellow rebel angels, and the temptation and Fall of Adam and Eve, banished from their Paradise in Eden. Theology, politics, and poetics are deeply interrelated in this work.
This poem has had a profound influence on later English writers including Alexander Pope, William Blake, John Keats, Geoffrey Hill, and Philip Pullman. It speaks from and to a world in which the concept of salvation is urgent and important. Alongside its great subject, the poem is suffused and informed by Milton’s personal grief at the loss of his sight and of his hopes for the republic he had worked towards.
During the weekend we will be reading aloud and discussing selected passages from Paradise Lost as well as looking at short extracts from Milton’s prose and other poetry.
There are many reasonably-priced editions available (but please don’t buy one that is ‘simplified’ or ‘modernised’!) and there is an excellent Audible recording. Paradise Lost merits being read aloud and heard. The language is sumptuous and fiercely accurate; the process of listening to it will often clarify what can seem obscure when read in silence. The strength and visual clarity of the blind Milton’s imagined worlds are astonishing.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Hilfield Families Camp
Saturday 26th July
to Sunday 3rd August 2024
Every summer, Hilfield Friary hosts The Hilfield Families Camp (usually late July / early August).
The Family Camp involves a week of sharing the life of the friary with adults and children (new young families are always most welcome) with Worship Work and Fun!
For more details please contact stuarthutton@me.com
for more details.
Please visit their website for more information and to book:
Hilfield Youth Camp
Saturday 9th to Sunday 17th August 2025
Every August Hilfield Friary hosts the Hilfield Youth Camp. Organised by experienced volunteers, HYC offers up to 50 young people aged 13 to 17 years the chance of a of low cost, fun holiday in stunning surroundings over a week, while exploring a Christian theme. The Youth camp is built on friendship, community and faith.
Please visit their website for more information and to book:
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Creative Farewells
with Rev’d Juliet Stephenson
Friday 29th to Sunday 31st August
Rev Stephenson is the C of E Vicar of Holy Trinity Weymouth ‘The Harbourside’ Church. She comes from a background of extensive funeral ministry experience. Juliet has worked on the Archbishops’ Council for Life Events, also as Chaplain to the National Association of Funeral Directors. Most recently she was the Director of Funeral Ministry in Liverpool Diocese and is a current member of the Churches Funerals Group.
The weekend is designed to open up discussions around the ritual of saying farewell. With music, poetry and creative liturgies, participants will be able to explore what it means to have a ‘good funeral’. There will be contributions from others in the funeral industry, and although the theme is around ‘sister death’, it is NOT our intention to be sad! Participants of this weekend will come away with a renewed sense of what it means to be in control of our last farewell, as together we explore the traditions surrounding funerals. It is hoped that by stripping everything back to the heart of what it means to say goodbye, we can build bespoke and creative ways of honouring a person’s life and acknowledging grief whilst giving thanks to our Creator. This weekend is not intended to be in any way bereavement care or support. The themes of death and dying, funerals and farewells will affect everyone in particular ways. Therefore, please be mindful of this when you consider booking.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Young Adults Weekend
Friday 12th to Sunday 14th September
A weekend to invite young adults (18-30) to come and experience community life here at the friary. We create a space for conversations about the highs and lows of living in community, and work alongside community members to get a taste of our day to day life here. An opportunity to relax in nature, getting to know the rhythms of the Friary and embrace the joys of community life.
The suggested donation is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Franciscan Weekend
Friday 3rd to Sunday 5th October
Join us as we focus on the life of St Francis and his Brothers and how he still inspires people centuries after his death.
Over the weekend at Hilfield, we will be focusing on Francis’ life and use his example to help us enter more deeply into a pattern of loving attentiveness to God in the world today.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Autumn Folk Weekend
Led by Gill and Alan McIntosh
Friday 17th to Sunday 19th October
SONGS OF REFLECTION to harmonise with the ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.’ (John Keats) Please bring any songs, tunes or requests relating to this autumnal season.
If you like singing or playing folk music (or just listening) this is for you. Musical contributions are welcome but not compulsory.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Mandalas
with Hillary Bond
and Jonathan Herbert
Friday 7th to Sunday 9th November
‘Mandalas are a visible sign of deeper truths’
A weekend using the ancient symbol of the Mandala and Franciscan Spirituality to take us on an inner journey from gratitude through lamentation, to seeing anew, to living more boldly. We shall be gathering natural materials from the land to create a big outdoor mandala.
The suggested donation for the weekend is £160 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Bread and Jam 2
A Franciscan Approach to Food
Tuesday 11th to Friday 14th November
Join us for an enjoyable stay looking at the relationship between Franciscanism and food, both from a theological aspect and a practical application.
The Hilfield Community prides itself on using available foodstuffs in our day-to-day lives but our staple has to be bread and jam as any of our teatime guest will tell you!
The suggested donation for the stay is £200 to include all food and accommodation.
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Pre-Advent Quiet Day
Saturday 22nd November
Join us for our annual Advent Quiet Day. A chance to retreat from secular society as we prepare for the birth of the Christ Child, the Light of the World.
The suggested donation for the day is £25 to include a simple lunch of soup and a roll. Please donate on the day.
For more information and booking please contact Suzi at Hilfield on 01300 341741 or email hilfieldssf@franciscans.org.uk
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Pre-Advent Quiet Day
2nd Craft Week of the year
Wednesday 27th November to
Sunday 1st December
Escape from the run up to Christmas craziness! Join us to craft, chat and learn from one another in a friendly environment.
Bring old projects to finish and try new ones with friends, drink lots of tea and laugh a lot!
If you would like to arrive on Tuesday 26th November to relax before you start crafting, please contact Suzi. There would be a suggested extra donation of £60.
The suggested donation for the week is £250 to include all food and accommodation.
If you would like to arrive on Tuesday 26th November to relax before you start crafting, please contact Suzi. There would be a suggested extra donation of £50.
For more information and booking please contact Suzi at Hilfield on 01300 341741 or email hilfieldssf@franciscans.org.uk
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Celebrate Christmas 2025 at the Friary
Monday 22nd to Saturday 27th December
Join our Friary Family where we await the birth of the Christ Child.
Our celebrations begin on Christmas Eve as we come together to decorate the Friary and celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Suggested donation £320 to include food and accommodation. Please let Suzi know if you have any dietary requirements.
For more information and booking please contact Suzi at Hilfield on 01300 341741 or email hilfieldssf@franciscans.org.uk
Please contact Suzi to check availability and avoid disappointment before registering for the weekend.
Hilfield Friary is part of the Society of St Francis, a worldwide Anglican
Religious Order. Visit their website: https://www.franciscans.org.uk/
Hilfield Friary Group Booking Cancellation Policy
We have a Community day off every Monday. In an emergency please
phone 01300 341345 and leave a message.
SOCIETY OF ST FRANCIS SAFEGUARDING POLICIES