Couples and singles of all ages and lengths of relationship experience attend Celebrate Marriage!. The Sunday morning outdoor campfire breakfast and church service is a highlight of the program when held at Cedars Camps.
In April of 2010 Dick will be doing a half-day program at the Annual Meeting of the Christian Science Institutional Service Committee of Oregon addressing character education through the healing of relationships. No topic could be more central to the heart of Christian prayer and spirituality. Mary Baker Eddy, on page 9 of her foundational work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, states the test of ALL prayer is not about physical healing, or individual peace and joy. It is about how we answer "Do we love our neighbor better because of this asking?"
A study of the primitive Christianity in the New Testament points to the healing work being constantly in the context of restoring dysfunctional social relationships. People's illnesses estranged them from normal relationships and social interaction, from community. The restoration and healing described in the New Testament was not just...or even primarily...of an individual body but of relationships and community.
Scholars go further to emphasize that virtually every first century figure central to a religious following had miraculous healing power attributed to him or her. The tradition of Jesus' healing, recorded in the gospels, is never repeated by Paul and appear extraneous to his message. Acts reports that healing was happening every where in the early church, but nowhere in Acts, the Gospels, or in Paul is a crowd told that healing is a reason to follow Christ, believe their message, or join their community. Jesus had reflected his great concern over those who came to him primarily for signs or healing miracles (loaves and fishes). He rebuked those who tried to make discipleship just about healing physical needs.
In John 13:35 Jesus mentioned only one criteria by which he said his followers would be known -- their love for each other. The non-Christians of the first century are on record noting that this was the distinctive and unique aspect of the Christian faith, and they commented "Behold how these Christians love one another." Healing is only an element of reinstating primitive Christianity, and it is enabled by binding up the broken-hearted which is a precondition to healing. When relationships and community are functioning rightly, healing happens and much discord is averted.
 There is no more sacred and foundational relationship than that of marriage. 1 Peter 3:7 says to be careful how you treat your spouse lest your prayers be hindered. Dick's marriage renewal weekend, Celebrate Marriage, takes a gentle and profound look at how we might enrich our understanding of marriage. Open to singles and couples, inclusive of partners of any religious background, this deeply biblical and Christian exploration has been offered in the past at Principia Summer Sessions and Alumni Weeks as well as in Adventure Unlimited Adult programs from coast to coast. Celebrate Marriage has a tradition of 16 years of fall renewal weekends at Cedars Camps outside Lebanon, Missouri in the foothills of the Ozarks. The next dates for Celebrate Marriage! at Cedars Camps will be in the fall of 2011 (there will not be a marriage weekend in 2010). Registration, links, and cost information will be available on-line in 2011 under the adult programs at www.cedarscamps.org.
Some people elect to ride horses up to the breakfast site at the Cedars Camps Celebrate Marriage Weekend
An Adventure Unlimited Celebrate Marriage weekend in southern California
Higher Ground Relationship Programs always focus first and throughout on the relationship with God. Our human relationships provide a laboratory for what we really understand, not just profess, about our relationship with God. In like manner, the grounding of our life in God sustains our capacities to forgive, grow, share, and hope in our human relationships.
Dick has a long record, and hundreds of alum, that bear testimony to the impact of his relationship renewal weekends
 Along with the return of Celebrate Marriage, a new relationship renewal weekend will appear in the fall of 2011 designed for men. While there are several special renewal and bonding weekends for women around the Christian Science movement, none exists specifically for men. This weekend will involve activities that may be of interest to many men -- like a City Slickers cattle drive experience from the neighboring property to Cedars and some fly fishing opportunities. Most of all, though, there will be rich opportunities for sharing and exploring biblical and Christian roots of manhood in the 21st century. It should be an encouraging and affirming experience for all men who attend, and a blessing for those whose lives they touch.
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