Liturgical Direct Action: A Discernment Retreat

With Bill Wylie-Kellermann, Naomi Washington-Leapheart and Nichola Torbett

November 14 - 16, 2025

A line of people hold three banners that read "Break Bread not Bodies" and "Christians for a Free Palestine."

Date and Time Details: Check in will be from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm on Friday, November 14th. The first event will be dinner at 6:00 pm. The retreat will wrap up after lunch on Sunday, November 16th.

Location: Turning Point

Address: 2495 Fox Gap Road, Bangor, PA, USA

Contact: Logan Rimel
loganr@kirkridge.org

  • Commuter – $215.00
  • Turning Point Private Room – $475.00
  • Turning Point Shared Room – $375.00

How is direct action or civil disobedience altered when framed in prayerful worship? What dimensions of freedom are then embraced? When public witness tells the story of faith and marks a feast or season, what new depth of communication is opened? When nonviolence is practiced in sacramental forms, how is liturgy itself enhanced? 

With examples from the freedom movement, antiwar movements, anti-imperial and decolonizing struggles, and more, this retreat will offer opportunities for the imaginative work of movement action from a Christian perspective. 

Join practitioners in re-discerning your own local work. Come as a group to think it through together in story and silence, prayer and listening. Come on your own to connect with like-minded others and find inspiration for bringing folks together back home.

About the Leaders

A headshot of a white man with a white mustache and glasses in a blue shirt.

Bill Wylie-Kellermann

Bill Wylie-Kellermann is a nonviolent community activist, writer, and United Methodist pastor living in Wawiatanong/Detroit. He is also is part of the Community at Kirkridge. Bill was a friend of William Stringfellow’s and has done several books on him, including A Keeper of the Word: Selected Writings of William Stringfellow (Eerdmans, 1994), William Stringfellow: Essential […]

Learn more about Bill Wylie-Kellermann
A Black woman with medium-length, curly brown hair smiles at the camera. She is wearing silver hoop earrings, a grey shawl over a black top, and is standing in front of an arched stone doorway.

Naomi Washington-Leapheart

Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart is a Black queer preacher, teacher, strategist, and justice advocate. She is an adjunct professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and the Government Fellow for Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School. Rev. Naomi also serves as the first-ever Strategic Partnerships Director at Political Research Associates (PRA), a […]

Learn more about Naomi Washington-Leapheart

Nichola Torbett

Nichola Torbett is a white, queer, raised-working-class spiritual seeker, recovering addict, gospel preacher, racial justice podcaster, and nonviolent direct action trainer. She grew up in a sundown town in Ohio and had no consciousness of racism until she was nearly 25. She is grateful to the powerful BIPOC-led movements of Oakland and San Francisco, California, […]

Learn more about Nichola Torbett

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