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in Salisbury’s Cathedral Close
You can visit Sarum for a self directed break, or plan a more structured programme to include retreat, study, sabbatical, spiritual direction, supervision, mentoring, a course, or a combination of elements.
Enjoy use of the library and its reading rooms, an ensuite bedroom and freshly prepared food by our onsite catering team. You can choose to participate in the community life of a thriving college as much or as little as you wish.
You may wish to include one or more additional elements, depending on the purpose of your visit
One of our team will discuss your visit and help you to include the resources you are looking for. You may be able to plan your visit to include an event already scheduled in our programme.
Sarum College is set in the glorious Salisbury Cathedral Close, just steps away from the medieval cathedral with the tallest spire in England.
Our residential packages include use of the many facilities in our heritage buildings where people have been reflecting and studying theology since the first students arrived in 1861.
Browse the course & event calendar
Need financial assistance?
Browse the list of grantmaking trusts for Christian education
You can arrange a private retreat, to include Cathedral services, or prayers at one of the many places of worship in Salisbury. There are many local walks, and access to the library in College. Spiritual direction or accompaniment can be arranged to suit you.
We usually run themed individually guided retreats during advent and in the summer.
As members of the Association for Promoting Retreats, we have access to bursaries for retreatants. APR bursaries can cover up to 50% of retreat costs, to a maximum of £200.
View our course calendar to check dates
Find out why Salisbury is called the City in the Countryside
Pastoral supervision is available to support ordained and lay ministers in a wide variety of contexts. Individual or group supervision is available for those engaged in spiritual direction. Supervision is also available for those engaged in pastoral ministries of accompaniment or care.
Spiritual Direction can be booked as part of your stay. This might be one or more conversations depending on the length and focus of your time here.
‘Mentoring is a social relationship one person shares with others so they flourish with well-being and success.’
– Walter Brueggemann
Mentoring is available to support you during times of challenge in your ministry and/or discernment for work role changes.
We offer consultation with an experienced mentor who will help you reflect about your ministry and vocation. The mentor may also suggest readings to help define the structure and purpose of your stay.
You may wish to visit Sarum before or during your sabbatical or study leave. We offer mentoring at any stage to support your planning, progress and review.
We can help you develop a focused area of study including tutorials with one of our academic staff who will guide your study and reading.
You can explore whether you want this to lead to credit-rated postgraduate study or to enrolment on one of our master’s degree programmes. Sarum College has experienced tutors in the fields of spiritual direction, spirituality, liturgy, ministry, leadership, doctrine and the Bible.
You may be able to receive financial assistance. Browse our list of grantmaking trusts for Christian education to review the options.
If you’d like to make a retreat part of your stay, ask us about the bursary programme through the Association for Promoting Retreats. APR bursaries cover up to 50% of the retreat cost, to a maximum of £200. Email cnc@sarum.ac.uk for information.
If you have a particular date in mind, you can check availability online or contact a member of hospitality to enquire. Alternatively, if you are in the early stages of planning, contact us to explore the options for accommodation and accompaniment. View the facilities on our hospitality website
If you would like accompaniment, mention this and your email will be passed to the team. We will then contact you to coordinate your visit and suggest an accompanier. You can then discuss your visit directly and make arrangements for meeting times.
To keep the options as flexible as possible, costs are variable and can always be adjusted to meet your needs.
The basic structure is:
£137 for a 24-hour visit including lunch, supper, bed and breakfast in a single ensuite room with one hour of accompaniment or mentoring;
£147 for a 24 hour visit as above but with an additional lunch;
£215 for a 48-hour visit with two lunches, two suppers, two nights bed and breakfast in a single en-suite room and an hour of accompaniment or mentoring.
You may wish to additional nights, meals and accompaniment sessions. Spiritual direction, supervision and mentoring conversations at a rate of £60 per hour can be taken in one-hour or 30-minute sessions to suit you.
Some charitable trusts offer grants for vocational and professional development. View our list of Grantmaking Trusts
If you’d like to make a retreat part of your stay, and need financial help, ask us about the bursary programme through the Association for Promoting Retreats. APR bursaries cover up to 50% of the retreat cost, to a maximum of £200. Email cnc@sarum.ac.uk for information.
We are a diverse community and those able to offer accompaniment include James Woodward, Julia Mourant, Jayme Reaves and Keith Elford.
We are also able to draw on the skills and experience of our wider network of visiting scholars and associate tutors. We will put you in touch with the most appropriate person so that you can discuss your hopes directly.
How do cultural tropes, like those found in Black Mirror, help bridge the gap between what academic theology espouses and what the everyday Christian believes? In his research as a student on the MA in Theology, Imagination and Culture, Peter Butchers explored platonic philosophy, digital theology and eschatology, and pastoral practice around death and dying.
The Revd Greg Syler, is Rector of Ascension & St. George’s, Resurrection Parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC USA, spent part of his ministry sabbatical at Sarum College in spring 2022.
His account of the experience begins: ‘I loved spending nearly three weeks of my ministry sabbatical at Sarum College earlier this year.
Not only did I rest, and rest well in the comfortable care of the Sarum College staff, I experienced very significant renewal and fresh insights.’
January 2022
Five years ago, I told my Warden of Readers that I would not be renewing my licence when it expired in 2019, as I thought my faith was becoming too unorthodox for a Church of England licensed lay minister. As someone who knew me well, she challenged me to actively explore what I did still believe. Thus started the journey that ended last August with the dissertation completing my MA in Theology Imagination and Culture (MATIC) at Sarum College.
The opportunity for clergy to get away occasionally from their own context, to have an overnight stay in the beautiful setting of Sarum College and all that the Salisbury Cathedral Close offers is hugely valuable. All the clergy I have suggested who have spent 24hrs at Sarum College have benefit greatly from the experienced mentoring where they can talk, reflect, think, plan and pray.
The support and encouragement they receive is excellent and has a positive on their on going ministry. This is something the Diocese of Rochester encourages and supports financially in preparation for their clergy preparing for Extended Ministerial Development Leave (Sabbatical).
— Canon Christopher Dench, Diocese of Rochester Director of Formation and Ministry
When I arrived, exhausted and sensitive, I was grateful not to be asked by Reception were I came from, whether I had had a good journey etc. That was the kind of hospitality I needed: a non-intrusive welcome that was found in ancient cultures and still survives in some societies today, where the host asks questions about a stranger and his journey only when the visitor has rested and been given food and drink.
— guest on a private stay
I just found it very refreshing – as a leader of a church I don’t get as many opportunities to step out and do courses (my fault, not the church!) and so I loved it. I think it was run really well online – which is a difficult medium to work with.
Pádraig Ó Tuama (pictured) was outstanding in his balance of getting us to engage and sharing his learning. Also the quick availability of resources provided by Sarum College Librarian Jayne Downey was excellent.
— course participant, Story Theology: Narrative Approaches to Scripture
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