Opening hearts, changing the world

CORNWALL — Although the Trinity Retreat Center isn’t expected to open until the summer of 2017, the campus is already buzzing with activity.  

After Trinity Wall Street put the property on the market in 2012, the secluded site in West Cornwall was left dormant for multiple years.

Recently re-secured by Trinity, evidence of the site’s reopening began early in the year with the installation of the Trinity Root sculpture remembering the attacks in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.  Earlier in the summer, two individuals, a husband and wife, moved into the Trinity Retreat Center and began preparing it for its return.

Meet Joseph and Heidi Rose, the center’s newest directors.  The couple is from Portland, Ore. Both have lived on the West Coast their entire lives.

In an interview with The Lakeville Journal, Joseph said that after graduating from college he considered the priesthood, but instead found a career in a more worldly occupation: journalism. 

Rose was a journalist for more than 20 years and wrote for Portland’s daily newspaper, The Oregonian. He gained attention for writing “Faces of Meth” in 2004, a story that offered a stark documentation of Portland’s drug abuse problems.

But for him, journalism wasn’t just a job.

“Journalism was a spiritual journey,” he said — a journey that complemented his Episcopalian roots.

Rose was also engaged with the educational component of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, leading several “alternative liturgies” in which participants joined Rose in finding the “sacred in the profane.” The group explored spiritual messages that could be gained from popular music artists such as U2, Radiohead, Bruce Springsteen and David Bowie.

Heidi, like her husband, was a professional journalist with a strong commitment to Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. In 2004, she started allocating donated food from local stores and food banks to provide weekly meals at the church for Portland’s homeless population. Over time, Rose’s four-course, restaurant-caliber meals became a huge success, serving upward of 200 people each week.

She “built a community to serve a community,” Joseph said about his wife’s work. He described her efforts as creative and resourceful.

In 2014, Rose was awarded the Father Abbott Social Services Award for her volunteer contributions to her church and community.

The move to West Cornwall

Joseph and Heidi were first notified about the director position at the future Trinity Retreat Center through the Rev. William Lupfer, who served as dean in Portland and is now rector of Trinity Wall Street.

After making three visits to West Cornwall, the Roses decided to commit themselves to managing Trinity’s new operation. In late June, the couple arrived (with their daughter, who now attends Kent School) and immediately got to work.

The couple has spent the summer months actively involved in remodeling efforts occurring across Trinity’s campus.

Changes

Looking forward, the organization will function differently.

First, it will be a retreat center, not a conference center.

Heidi Rose discussed the conference center’s previous emphasis on hotel-like services. The new operation will be more inclusive and spiritually centered in its programs.

“It is a mission property,” Heidi said, “and we are here for the Cornwall community as well as for groups that want to come in and have a spiritual retreat.”

“We envision a place that is a place of refuge, prayer, creativity, peace,” Joseph added. “I mean these are the things that the world could really use right now.”

The couple described a farm-to-table focus for the center, both in terms of connections with local farms as well as an on-site garden.

On Sept. 15, Joseph shared Trinity Wall Street’s announcement that a priest (the Rev. Daniel Simons) will serve as Trinity Retreat Center’s full-time director of spiritual formation, beginning in January.

Heidi and Joseph regard their new positions as a spiritual calling. 

“This is mission work,” Joseph said. “We approach it with grace, energy, open hearts and open arms, excited to serve the community and the church—and, hopefully, to change the world.