Approximately 150 women from around the Diocese and from around the state attended the annual ECW Spring Retreat at Camp Weed March 19-21^st.  It was an awesome retreat; the participants were fed both literally and spiritually as our Retreat Leader, the Rev. Kurt Dunkle, from Orange Park developed the theme above…Holy food for holy people.  God created food for us and it engages all our senses.  The experience is both fact and poetry at one holy time and points to what Rev. Kurt calls a big “T” truth; God wants to feed us so that we become Holy People.  Rev. Kurt then fed us all homemade chocolate chip cookies.  I tried to remember if over the years, we had ever had a retreat leader come and use “food, and good food at that, to illustrate and lend “poetry” to the big “T,” truths.  Not to my knowledge has anyone ever so engaged our senses in tune with their topic!  That was just a foretaste of the food, both literal and figurative, that graced us over the weekend.  Father Kurt stated that just as touch is essential to a newborn’s existence, so is food essential on so many levels.  He might have been talking about food as sustenance, or fuel for the journey, but it was the “sherried strawberries made with powdered sugar, whipped cream and sherry, of course! that,” we were fed Saturday morning that really brought home the idea of holy food!   Food, he said is at the heart of mission, what we are called to do by Jesus Christ.  Holy food, the Eucharist helps us to assimilate ourselves into one body in Christ.  Holy Food is transformative and holy people help transform lives.  A great weekend concluded with such a Holy and Glorious Eucharist followed by that other nourishment, a wonderful fried chicken lunch!  Other activities during free time included workshops for ECW Presidents, UTO Best Practices, a workshop to make rosary kits for Camp St. Michael’s and a Prayer Shawl Ministry Workshop. Not only was there something for everyone on the weekend; there was also an abundance of Holy Food for Holy People.  Worship Leader Sue Carmichael provided Holy Music for Holy People both throughout the weekend and during a special prayer and healing service on Saturday evening when she played her harp and almost every song anyone requested.