Holden village generates its hydro-electrical power with a Pelton water wheel generator. The water that spins the turbine is diverted from copper creek, 638 feet above the power plant. This high elevation drop allows us to produce power with a relatively small flow of water. Copper Creek is an ideal source for hydro-electric power as [...]
Read more...The toll of a bell is a familiar sound at Holden Village. A bell calls us to greet, eat, meet, worship, and depart. Ringing the bell brings joy and pride to children and adults alike during the summer and its echo through the valley has become an integral part of our community’s liturgy. Recently at [...]
Read more...My first instinct is to call it a maze, but it is not. A maze is designed to tease and trap the mind: one way in; a different way out. False passages. Dead ends. You can win or lose when you engage with a maze. A labyrinth, however, begins and ends in the same space [...]
Read more...As has become tradition,Father Jim and the Spinning Sisters visited Holden last week, February 14-18, bringing to us gifts of spinning, felting, spiritual direction, and Benedictine psalmody. With spinning wheels arrayed in the dining hall and a felting station set up on a nearby table, staff and visitors alike were privileged to participate in these [...]
Read more...Check out the Holden Village Clove, an alternative-press news source reporting on Village life: “All the news that’s fit to print, reduced to a thick cream, and served with gnocchi.”
Read more...Becky Woods Sellers, Village carpenter/posti, became an official citizen of the United States on Wednesday, January 26th after completing an on-site naturalization ceremony at the Lucerne dock. Woods Sellers took her oath of allegiance from Keith Brown, who first visited Holden during last summer’s Abriendo Caminos week. A whole busload of Villagers attended the ceremony, [...]
Read more...This weekend, the Holden Village Board of Directors journeyed across the lake for a time of retreat, fellowship and visioning. As well as providing a time of strategic planning for Holden’s future, the Board Retreat was an opportunity for Board members to reconnect with one another and experience Holden’s winter community. Board members were welcomed [...]
Read more...Alan Storey, a beloved member of Holden’s summer teaching staff in 2008 and 2010, will be leading a retreat at Assisi Heights Spirituality Center in Rochester, Minnesota, February 25-27th, 2011. Storey, anti-apartheid activist and ordained minister of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, will be using Dan Erlander’s book Manna and Mercy to present biblical [...]
Read more...At 8 AM on December 31, the air outside is crisp and cold, as Gerda sits down with her knitting needles and begins to cast on. With her air of determination and calm demeanor, no one would guess the struggles that Gerda has overcome to bring her to this day of the Holden Olympiad; no [...]
Read more...In addition to the nativity scene described in our last blog, there have been many moving advent tableaus this year at Holden. December 13 marked our annual Santa Lucia celebration, complete with candle-topped wreathed young women and boys bearing candles. The Village children served up plates of Swedish tea rings and coffee for guests and [...]
Read more...Feb. 10, 2012 – “That’s interesting … That’s really interesting,” I said in response to her, my friend, who was telling me, “I don’t believe in God.” This occurred three weeks ago up on the Goat Trail. For me this situation may have been similar to what my sister-in-law talks about when she tells this [...]
I read this week in the Village Voice an invitation to share “Holden Stories.” I’d like to use Matins this morning to tell part of ours. I learned on Monday from the J-term students that Holden’s original name was Holden Village: A Place Apart. When life up this mountain includes power outages due to avalanche [...]
