Shepherds Dene rededication

22/06/2009

Shepherds Dene entered a new phase of its life on 17 June with a service of rededication in the chapel and a supper to celebrate its reopening after the recent refurbishments.

Welcoming friends and guests to the ceremony was the chair of the Shepherds Dene trustees, Alison Moore, who was also introducing the Revd Gill Henwood, new chaplain at the retreat house, and George Hepburn, due to take up his post as full-time director of the house in September.

Groups of guests were taken on a tour of the freshly-painted house, showing off the new en-suite bedrooms – six in all – and the improvements to disabled access and facilities before the Eucharist in the chapel began.

Chaplain, Gill Henwood told the assembled worshippers that in celebrating the reopening of Shepherds Dene, those present were the inheritors of many who’d had a vision of the house over the decades as a place of 'God’s gathering love'.

Drawing on biblical images of the sheepfold and the shepherd, and recalling a recent trip into the Coquet Valley where she’d seen sheep on the hills and in the folds, she said that the images spoke of “shelter, of a gathering together, of warmth and safety”, all ideas that were appropriate for Shepherds Dene. The retreat house was in many ways like a sheepfold, she said, a staging post on the journey, a meeting point for members of the flock.

Later Alison Moore praised the staff at Shepherds Dene, as well as Manager Peter Dodgson, for their dedicated work during the difficult period of the refurbishment, and welcomed both Gill Henwood and George Hepburn to the next era in the life of the house.

“So many people see Shepherds Dene as a special place,” she said. “They say things like: ‘that’s where my life changed’, or ‘that’s where something really important happened to me’. You know that many people have prayed here, and you also know that people have met the spirit of God here. You can feel it all around you.”

Alison acknowledged that many retreat houses had fallen upon hard times, but that there was optimism and determination that Shepherds Dene would prosper. “This is a channelling place, a transforming place,” she said, “And don’t we need that!”

Radical decisions had been taken about staffing and restructuring, and the Friends of Shepherds Dene would be reborn shortly in a bid to marshal the interest of all those who loved the house and wanted to support it.

“Our thanks go to all the trustees, the volunteers, and the people of St. James Riding Mill,” Alison said.

GEORGE HEPBURN

For the first time in its 60-year history, Shepherds Dene has a director in charge of operations – George Hepburn OBE, who leaves his job as head of the Community Foundation this autumn after 21 years.

George is well known to many in the area through his work for the Foundation, a philanthropic body which makes grants to community projects and organisations from funds contributed by profitable companies and wealthy families throughout the North-East. Last year the Foundation distributed more than £5m to some 1,600 different projects.

He is moving to the Shepherds Dene job because he decided it was time to do something new, because he wanted a new challenge, and because he loves the house and all that it offers to visitors.

The terms of that offer will, it’s clear, be consolidated under George’s direction. “I want visitors to feel they can enjoy Shepherds Dene and that potentially they can have a life-changing experience here,” he says. “I want them to go away feeling comfortable, well fed, and well looked-after.”

Retreat houses throughout the country have fallen upon hard times lately, and finding out why has been George’s first task. He has been working part-time at Shepherds Dene in the run-up to his departure from the Community Foundation, and he’s been looking at other houses to assess what makes for sustainability, and what signals decline.

“The retreat houses that do best are the ones that stick to the nitty-gritty,” he says. “And that’s what we must do at Shepherds Dene. Everything should reflect the fact that this is a Christian house, a place of prayer. Spirituality is what we do, and people need to know that by coming here they can deepen their relationship with God.”

George plans to develop to community life of Shepherds Dene with regular services in the chapel “so that if you work at Shepherds Dene, or if you’re a trustee or a volunteer, you share in the worship and you pray for the work of the house,” he says. “We need a shared prayer life, and we need to focus on our purpose which is to help people get closer to God. If we’re not doing this, then the game’s up.”

Beyond this he’ll be looking for new ways to encourage use of the premises in addition to the courses and parish weekends that make up its usual programme. “Anything to do with art, photography and music,” he says, “And there may be personal occasions for which people would like to hire Shepherds Dene, for the renewal of wedding vows, for example.” Wedding receptions are already part of the package, and he hopes to encourage these too.
His brief, he says, is “to put Shepherds Dene on the map” and he’ll be doing that by making more of what, in essence, it already is. “It’s not a hotel or a conference centre,” he says, “We won’t be letting it out simply as accommodation. It’s a place for stepping back, for escaping the pressures of the world, and for giving thanks.”

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