Rivendell celebrates 25 years of retreats

Triratna’s Rivendell Retreat Centre is located on the edge of a small village in the East Sussex countryside a few dozen miles south of London. For over 25 years they've provided a place where the relevance of the Buddha's teaching in our modern world can be explored and experienced through a wide variety of retreats for men and women across all levels of experience. Now Viryapuspa writes with news of their 25th anniversary and all that’s been going on there over the past year. She says -

“In 2010 we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Rivendell Retreat Centre. The year has been one of significant change in terms of the team, how we operate and upgrading our facilities. It has also seen the launch of our fund raising appeal to raise £25,000 to improve our bathroom, toilets and bedroom accommodation.

“In order to improve our booking service a decision was made to relocate the bookings office from Croydon Buddhist Centre to Rivendell. As a result with a lot of help and assistance from friends in the Sangha we have now installed a new office at Rivendell.

“We are also very pleased to welcome Janis to the Rivendell team as our new receptionist, responsible for bookings and retreat enquires. From the beginning of October we have a new bookings line 01825 733764 open Mon-Fri 1.30pm to 5.30pm. We also plan to provide an on-line booking facility from our web site in early 2011.

“During the 2010 'Friends of Rivendell week', with the help from our generous volunteers, we completed the first phase of our 25th Anniversary building project. Building a corridor in the North wing between two bedrooms will now allow separate access to these rooms.

“Thanks to people's generosity we have so far managed to raise over £5000 for our 25th Anniversary Appeal in January 2012 we plan to use the funds raised so far to refit the bathrooms and add another toilet and shower in the North Wing. One of the major areas of feedback from retreatants is we need more bathroom and toilet facilities, and we really want to respond to this need. However, we still need further funds to complete this phase of the project. If you would like to help us and donate to our appeal please go to www.rivendellretreatcentre.com/donate.html.

“2010 has marked a significant point in Rivendell's history and we are sure these changes will enable Rivendell to flourish as a place of Buddhist Practice for at least another 25 years.

“To celebrate our anniversary we have an excellent retreat programme for 2011. Including retreats led by Vimalachitta, Nagabodhi, Paramananda, Atula, Vajradarshini, Kamalashila and Tejananda with a diverse range of themes from Feeding your Demons, Wabi Sabi, Arthurian legends to intensive silent meditation retreats.

“Full details can be found on our website www.rivendellretreatcentre.com, or to keep up to date with news and events you can also find us on Facebook Friends of Rivendell Retreat Centre”.

Triratna has eight retreat centres around the UK, and you can find full details of their retreats at www.goingonretreat.com