By Rev. Roslyn Taylor
Women from across the Swedenborgian and New Church communities gathered September 25–28, 2025 for the international women’s retreat Gathering Leaves, at the beautiful Temenos Retreat Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The theme, “Remaining Rooted Through Adversity,” framed a weekend filled with worship, learning, creativity, and sisterhood. Thirty-six women from North America attended in-person, while another fourteen joined virtually from the United States, Canada, and Australia, bringing total participation to fifty women. The hybrid format helped create a warm sense of connection across distances and Swedenborgian affiliations.
The retreat opened with keynote speaker Dr. Soni Werner on conflict resolution and compassionate communication, followed the next day with a plenary session led by Rev. Sage Cole, who introduced her “Be Love, Be Honest, Be Useful” initiative. Her presentation invited participants to approach both personal relationships and community life with compassion, authenticity, and intentional service. Throughout the weekend, women also took part in workshops on spiritual growth, communication, creativity, spiritual tools for positivity, trauma-informed Bible study, women’s ecclesiastical leadership, and self-care. Music, worship services, Sister Circles, and outdoor shared meals offered many opportunities for reflection and meaningful connections.
Other highlights included chair and restorative yoga, a healing gong sound bath, along with an old-fashioned hootenanny around the fireplace, and an outing to the prominent du Pont family’s magnificent former home and gardens. Some of the du Pont family had been members of the Swedenborgian church in nearby Wilmington, Deleware. The retreat concluded with gratitude for the friendships and encouragement that emerged over the weekend.
Women have gathered for Gathering Leaves retreats eight times since 2004. The theme of the ninth retreat will be “Be Still and Know,” held at the peaceful Mary and Joseph Retreat Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, in Los Angeles County. We hope to be able to include women from the western USA and Canada, who have mostly been unable to attend in person in the past, in this wonderful opportunity for spiritual sisterhood. The retreat will run from Thursday afternoon, May 6, 2027 until after worship service on Sunday, May 9, 2027. Muriel Morgan, former Media Coordinator for General Conference and Purley Chase, is leading the Steering Committee for Gathering Leaves 2027. Save the date!
Read the full September 2026 issue.
Meet Rev. Roslyn Taylor
Rev. Roslyn Taylor is a minister with the Swedenborgian Church of North America, living in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. She has been the spiritual leader of the Home Church in Bryn Athyn since 2003. She was the editor of a volume of essays by Swedenborgian authors, published in 2005 as Healing Words: A Sampler of Wholeness Theology. More recently, she founded the Deborah’s Tree ministry in 2021, which promotes the work of female Swedenborgian scholars, writers, clergy and artists, and is currently serving as the Interim Minister at the Temenos Church. Rev. Taylor has been active in the Gathering Leaves retreats for Swedenborgian/New Church women since 2004, and chaired the Steering Committee for Gathering Leaves 2025.
