As part of the 25th Anniversary celebrations for the N.E.W. Koinonia, a living rosary was prayed outside. (Photo credit: Michele Stewart)
Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald Staff
This September marks the 25th anniversary of the North East Wisconsin (N.E.W.) Koinonia group, which offers retreats primarily in the Diocese of Superior. From the Greek work for “community,” Koinonia retreats bring adults together to celebrate the Paschal mystery.
Developed out of the TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) program, Koinonia retreats were organized for adults supporting TEC retreats who wanted a similar experience for themselves. As Dcn. Craig Voldberg, spiritual director for N.E.W. Koinonia, said, “It brought the excitement of TEC for the adults, with two big benefits: We didn’t run ‘til 1 a.m., and we got to go home and sleep in our beds.”
In September 1999, 18 candidates attended Koinonia #1 in Park Falls. Initially offering two to four retreats annually, the number of retreats settled at two in the early 2010s.
The model of taking these retreats to parishes and using their facilities has been the standard for N.E.W. Koinonia. Dcn. Voldberg noted, “We weren’t expecting people to come to us … We could turn anything into a retreat center.”
After only one retreat was held in 2017 – #48 in Hayward – the group adapted to offering retreat days for Koinonians who had previously participated in the full weekend event.
Chairperson Bluette Puchner shared that she had many requests for this day “to gather the flock together” before it was finally organized. They are numbered in sequence conjointly with the weekend retreats, giving a sense of continuity and belonging to something bigger than a parish event.
Since the first of these day retreats was offered in Tony in January 2018, numbers have increased consistently from two dozen to more than 40.
Puchner and Voldberg, along with Melissa Wiener of Holy Rosary Parish in Mellen, acknowledged the COVID-19 pandemic added to the generational shift; younger adults do not appear as interested in gathering as a group for these types of experiences.
Recognizing the “end of an era,” which in some ways paralleled the fizzling out of Teens Encounter Christ retreats because there weren’t enough committed adults to keep it going locally, all three reflected that the needs of people to encounter Christ in community haven’t changed, but they have had to change how they go about facilitating it.
“It’s that whole mission concept,” Dcn. Voldberg said. “It used to be that people would come to us” for their spiritual needs, but now “we need to go out.”
He used the example of popular events like Theology on Tap, where people gather at a bar to discuss theology and have Q&A sessions with priests. He said maybe people are more comfortable in a bar than at church and feel they can ask their questions. The recent example of the interaction between Fr. David Neuschwander and comedian Charlie Berens was given as an example of meeting people where they are.
That said, Dcn. Voldberg added that many young people are increasingly more interested in the older and more traditional forms of worship and gathering. “They’re looking for peace and quiet, serenity and a lot of silence.” He wondered where and how often these opportunities are being offered for those ready and hungry for it.
Speaking of a personal experience on a silent, Ignatian-style retreat, he emphasized, “It takes you out of this world … but you have to go somewhere” outside the diocese for that experience. “We need to offer time to just be and commune with the Creator at times.”
Puchner and Wiener added that the N.E.W. Koinonia has always adapted and adjusted, particularly trying to offer more quality-than-quantity content. All three affirmed the need to meet people where they’re at, introducing them to topics of faith and transcendence starting with the activity and shorter bursts of information to which adults are increasingly accustomed.
Dcn. Voldberg reflected on taking that even further, inviting participants in deeper experiences. “We focus on ‘let’s do’ instead of ‘let’s be’,” he said, and added that the greater need is for an opportunity to encounter God personally and as a community rather than filling time with fun and activities.
He shared his experience of quiet reflective time as a farmer, “I get hours and hours – running a sawmill, shoveling a calf pen… What an absolute gift! You can get a lot done and not be mentally present to that fork and wheelbarrow.” Physical labor allows for a more contemplative mindset, he said, and noted that the church is always evolving with the faithful as the world they live in changes, growing ever faster.
Puchner shared the importance for Koinonia to stay true to their basic identity but also adapt. “If there was ever a retreat that reflected constant change and shifting,” she said, “It was the last Koinonia we did.”
Koinonia #65 held earlier in 2024 had only three candidates, “but we don’t look for numbers,” Dcn. Voldberg said.
Puchner said the focus is, what are the people looking for? What are they seeking? “And for the most part, they don’t know,” she said. Not until the retreat gets underway and they allow the process of encounter to unfold, as with one of those three participants who had a truly transformational experience the second day after thinking she really didn’t know why she had come.
“At every retreat, there is someone,” Puchner said. “And if one person is touched that deeply, we’ve met our goal.”
The group noted how difficult it can be to justify the effort and commitment needed to put on a retreat for so few, especially when parish leaders are looking a data-driven and evidence-based evaluations of what works and what doesn’t for evangelization.
Sharing form his experience of this last retreat, Dcn. Voldberg spoke strongly about “the yearning for conversation” and growth in community he witnessed. Great presentations and meditations have their place, he said but being able to grapple with concepts and hear from others how they can be applied to life has a longer-lasting effect.
He said with so many resources and Catholic formation tools out there, many literally in people’s pockets on smartphone apps, parishes can’t necessarily compete when it comes to content. But, as is often the case with the liturgy, “we’re still basically spectators, receivers,” the deacon said.
“When you move to being a participant,” he added, “What a difference!”
Participation is what these reflective conversations encourage – allowing for points made and counterpoints offered, aligning one’s own understanding and breaking down how it can be applied in daily life.
The interviewees all said Koinonia offers that community. These retreats offer content and reflective space and time for good and transformative conversation.
As N.E.W. Koinonia celebrates 25 years, leadership is holding on to their original idea, to start a fire and then fan the flames in one’s home parish. They hope that Koinonians would start building these blazing communities in their own parishes.
Wiener noted the imported dynamic of the “Wheat Team,” where people who have been on a Koinonia retreat come back to help facilitate retreats. One contribution are their “wheat letters” that share with participants another witness of encounter with Christ and fanning the flames.
“We’ve lit 775 fires,” Puchner stated, “Not counting those that come back. 775 is the number of people who’ve been through the program since it started.” They are spread out all over the Diocese of Superior.
“Koinonia today is not the Koinonia I attended in the beginning,” she said, adding, “Oh my gosh, it’s a good thing.”
Dcn. Voldberg commented how they have needed to adapt to including more lay leadership, as the diocesan and international priests have so many demands on their time. Wiener added that they are always working around other events a parish might have going on over a retreat weekend.
Puchner summarized, “We’re on God’s time. And the greatest gift that anyone of us working a Koinonia can offer is to listen with your heart,” to see each participant as a person God wants to touch and heal and invite to deeper intimacy. Being part of that process, she said has been “deeply touching” for her own life and faith.
Wiener admitted to times she has helped facilitate a retreat feeling like it was more of “an obligation to keep the retreat group going.”
“It never fails,” she continued, “that once the retreat has finished, I could see the reason why I needed to be there. How the stories come together” of facilitators and participants, providentially brought together by God for what ‘just one person’ needed to hear.
“It’s just an honor to serve,” she said.
