Sacrista Prebend, Southwell, to be sold after Minster no longer able to fund retreat house
A Christian retreat house which closed it’s doors earlier this year could soon be sold, after a cathedral was no longer able to fund it.
For 24 years Sacrista Prebend, Southwell, acted as a spiritual retreat and hub of prayer and reflection for the Christian community.
However, it had been running at a loss and so was put on the market, and is now in negotiations over a potential sale.
Sacrista Prebend opened as a retreat house in 2000. It’s chapel, decorated with sculptures by artists including Peter Eugene Ball, was blessed by the Rt Revd George Cassidy, Bishop of Southwell, on May 21, 2000.
It provided a space for people to come and stay, to pray and reflect, and a base for visitors who wanted to share in the Minster’s life of worship and prayer for a period of time, and held a programme of day-long retreats, known as quiet days, on a variety of subjects around Christian spirituality, which attracted people from a wide area.
It was also a hub for Southwell’s Christian community, where people from different denominations and traditions could meet and form friendships.
Two ecumenical groups for quiet prayer met weekly at the house, as did study groups including a Theology Group run by the Minster’s Canon Theologian, Alison Milbank.
Each week Sacrista played host to services of Holy Communion on Mondays and Wednesdays, each followed by refreshments.
Whilst it was a popular resource for many, including members of the Minster’s congregation, there have been declining numbers of people taking residential religious retreats across the UK, and the house ran at a loss as a centre for religious retreats.
The Minster was unable to continue funding these losses, and now will instead focus its future plans on the Cathedral itself and the other buildings which surround it on the same site.
The final service of thanksgiving at Sacrista, on November 8, 2024, was attended by far too many people to fit into the chapel, so the congregation spilled out into the hallway and up the stairs — which was described as a fitting tribute to the impact that the house had had on the Christian life of the town.
