Dear Friends,

As the new year begins and the season of winter invites us to slow down and enjoy the stillness of shorter days and longer evenings. It is a good time to look back on what has been and to invite ‘newness’ ‘freshness’ and ‘hope’ into our lives especially when we see the violence of war and in the human heart, taking thousands of lives. Can we choose love to lead us in 2024 and how can we do that?

In a poem, Franciscan sister Ilia Delio writes:

“Love alone is the guide of the

Universe and the whole universe

Is in the human heart.

Tend to the heart and the power

Of love will name itself as God.”

May each of us give time in 2024 to tend to our hearts for human flourishing and a new type of planetary community.

We have come to the end of the Fall 2023 program at Springbank. It has been a wonderful experience journeying with 10 sabbatical women from the USA, Jamaica and Canada and others who joined the various programs we offered.

All participants were greatly enriched with the quality of presentations, the friendly and caring team, the good, healthy food, the beauty of 80 acres of live oaks, walking trails, labyrinth, cosmic walk and 12 step path that helped make everyone’s stay here a memorable and healing experience.

Thanks to the generosity of the Wheaton Franciscan Sisters Ministry Fund and the Adrian Dominican Ministry Trust, the beaver dam in our Swamp Sanctuary is in the process of being repaired. Swamps or wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forest and coral reefs. What is very exciting and important is that the beavers are back and humans are complementing the work of the beavers. What a wonderful partnership! Since we are able to take a canoe out into the wetland, it is becoming an amazing space for quiet contemplation and reflection. A board walk into the Swamp Sanctuary is part of the design.

Thank you Beavers for returning, thank you Joshua Robinson from Robinson Engineering Design for sensitively designing an eco-friendly plan for the Beaver Dam Analog – perhaps the only one in South Carolina - with no damage to the natural habitat, thank you Nick Wallover and team from Shoreline Restoration Group for working with the beavers.

We warmly welcome Tom Keith to the Springbank Board of Directors. Tom retired recently after being the CEO and President of the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina for 26 years. He has received the Order of Palmetto, South Carolina’s highest civilian honor in recognition of his extraordinary achievement, service and contribution on a national and state wide scale. Even when he was with the Sisters of Charity Foundation, Tom extended his friendship, wise leadership and energy to help Springbank.

Thank you Tom for accepting our invitation to serve on our Board of Directors. We are honored to have you.

Garvin Design Group has been contracted to make a feasibility study to recommend short and long range campus improvements that will strengthen Springbank’s commitment to eco-spirituality and care of Earth . The process will be shaped by a sustainable design that is both integrated with the natural environment and conducive to spiritual growth and well being.

We look forward to your support in this important task that the Board of Directors and the Springbank team have decided to undertake.

Fr. Jim Conlon, our teacher, writer and poet in residence has published two more books, Springbank Papers Volume 3 and a new edition of At the Edge of Our Longing; Fresh Wisdom for Tomorrow. Through his writings Jim invites readers to “awaken to something entirely new, a time to make possible a world of beauty where each human and other-than-human can flourish and thrive.”

Congratulations Jim!

Volunteer Day

We are deeply grateful to friends like you who love Springbank and our ministry. Your financial support can help Springbank’s important mission of transforming human consciousness to “live simply, to create beauty, to respect Earth and all beings, and to share the learned wisdom as co- creators with the Divine for a sustainable future”. We need your help to support our committed staff, update our website and social media platforms, develop new programs and plan for long range infrastructure developments to meet the needs of our guests and participants.

As the New Year starts, would you consider becoming a monthly donor – no amount is too little as every dollar will help make a difference.

May love lead you in your decision to support Springbank.

Below is a beautiful song composed by Susan Lincoln, one of our presenters who leads a Hildegard of Bingen women’s retreat here at Springbank.

May every blessing be yours this Christmas and in the year ahead.

With love and gratitude from the Staff and Board of Directors at Springbank,

Sr. Anita Braganza IBVM

Executive Director