Why We Exist
The thing none of us are willing to say out loud is that we often forget to find joy in the presence of God. Not in a meeting, not in a service, not in a productive prayer time, but simply, wholly, in His presence. The kind of presence that changes you without your doing anything at all.
The Celtic Christian tradition has a name for the places where that presence is most easily felt: Thin places. Places where the distance between heaven and earth grows so small that you can almost touch what is on the other side. We started looking for them, and we found that they still exist. They are in places like the landscape of Ireland, in the stone walls of old estates, in the quality of dawn light on a canal you walk along in silence.
But we also found that you cannot stay in a thin place alone very long. The tradition never intended you to. The table, the community, the shared meal, the prayer spoken together and the prayer held in private; these are what make the thin place a home rather than a visitation.
Makom is Hebrew. It means "The Place". And in the rabbinic tradition, HaMakom, or The Place, is one of the names of God. Because the rabbis understood that God is not a being located somewhere in the universe. God is the ground in which everything exists. To find your place is to find yourself in God.
That is what we are building. A place. A gathering. A community of people who have decided, for a week, to be in The Place together.
We are glad you found us.
What is Makom?
What We Believe
A general statement of faith.
Makom is a Protestant Christian gathering. We are rooted in the evangelical tradition and in the conviction that God speaks through scripture, that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he died and rose again in history, and that his resurrection has present consequences for every person alive.
We say this plainly not to narrow the door but to make it honest. We believe that clarity before arrival is a form of hospitality and that knowing what you are coming to is part of the dignity of being invited.
We also believe that the evangelical tradition, at its best, is extraordinarily generous and rooted in grace, alive to wonder, suspicious of performance, and committed to the full flourishing of every human being made in the image of God. That is the tradition we are trying to inhabit at Makom.
Scipture is the Word of God.
We believe that the Bible is the inspired, authoritative word of God. It is given to us not as a rulebook, though it has some rules, but as a living text, read in community, illuminated by the Spirit, and capable of speaking freshly into every generation. We take it seriously because we believe God takes us seriously enough to have spoken.
The teaching at Makom is always rooted in scripture. Not because we are biblicists who treat interpretation as simple, but because we believe the text is inexhaustible and that no matter how long you have been reading it, it has more to say.
"The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." — Isaiah 40:8
The resurrection is an historical fact with present consequences.
We believe that on the third day, Jesus of Nazareth rose bodily from the dead. Not as metaphor. Not as spiritual experience. As an event that happened in history, witnessed by hundreds, that changed everything about the nature of reality and the possibilities open to every human being.
This is the hinge on which everything else turns. If the resurrection is true, then death is not the final word. Then the world is shot through with hope. Then joy is not a luxury but a theological obligation and the appropriate response of people who live on the right side of Easter morning.
We take this seriously enough to act like it. Which means that Makom is a place of genuine joy. Things like céilí dancing, the long table, the fire, and the laughter are not incidental to the faith. They are an expression of it.
"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead." — 1 Corinthians 15:17, 20
The Holy Spirit is actively present.
We believe that the Spirit of God is not a historical figure but a present reality that is active in the world, moving in communities, speaking in silence, interceding in prayer, and making the presence of Christ tangible to those who gather in his name.
We do not programme the Spirit. We do not manufacture spiritual experience. But we do create the conditions in which the Spirit can move through worship, through stillness, through honest community, through the thin places where the distance between heaven and earth grows small.
Some of what happens at Makom cannot be explained by the programme. We are glad of that.
"The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes." — John 3:8
Salvation comes through Christ alone.
We believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and that in him, God entered the human story, bore its full weight, and opened a way through death that was not available before. We hold this conviction with humility rather than triumphalism, because the gospel is news of grace freely given, not a credential for those who have earned it.
This belief shapes everything about how we welcome people. Salvation by grace means that nobody earns their place at the Makom table. Not the pastor with thirty years of ministry, not the executive with resources to spare, not the person who has their theology perfectly arranged. Everyone arrives the same way: in need of something they cannot produce for themselves.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." — Ephesians 2:8
Every person carries the image of God.
We believe that every human being regardless of background, belief, status, or story is made in the image of God and therefore carries inherent dignity that cannot be earned or forfeited. This is not a social conviction bolted onto the theology. It is the theology.
It shapes the room at Makom. It shapes the table. It answers why the scholarship guest and the premium cottage guest eat the same food in the same room at the same long table. It shapes the spiritual direction for why the director listens without agenda to whoever sits across from them. It shapes the welcome where the person who has doubts and the person who has certainty are both genuinely wanted here.
You are not a demographic. You are not a ticket. You are a person made in the image of God, and God willing we will treat you accordingly for the number of days you are with us.
"So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them." — Genesis 1:27
Rest is a design principle, not a reward.
We believe that the sabbath is written into the architecture of creation. We believe that on the seventh day, God himself rested, and that this is not incidental but instructive. The world was not made to run without stopping. Neither were you.
This is perhaps the most countercultural conviction Makom holds. We live in a world that treats rest as something you earn after sufficient productivity, as a sign of weakness, or as an indulgence for people who have their priorities wrong. The biblical tradition says the opposite: that ceasing is obedience, that stillness is not absence but presence, and that the person who cannot stop has forgotten something essential about who made them and why.
Makom is not a productivity retreat. It is not an optimisation programme. It is a sabbath where we practice an extended, intentional, communal practice of stopping. We believe that is a theological act, not a lifestyle choice.
"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested." — Genesis 2:2
What Makom Is Not
We think it is as important to say what Makom is not as much as what it is. Some boundaries are worth naming clearly.
Makom is not a therapy retreat. We are not mental health professionals. The spiritual direction available at Makom is pastoral, not clinical. If you are in a mental health crisis, please seek qualified professional support. We can help you find it, but we are not equipped to replace it.
Makom is not a prosperity gospel gathering. We do not believe that faith produces financial reward or that suffering is a sign of insufficient belief. We believe that the cross is at the centre of the Christian life, and that means suffering is real, named, and held, not explained away.
Makom is not politically aligned. We hold our theological convictions with seriousness and our political opinions with appropriate humility. The room will contain people across the political spectrum and we intend to keep it that way. We will not tell you who to vote for. We will not weaponise the pulpit.
Makom is not a place where you have to perform. You do not need to have your theology perfectly arranged before you arrive. You do not need to sing loudly or pray publicly or demonstrate your faith in any way. You are allowed to sit quietly at the back and watch. You are allowed to not know what you believe. You are allowed to arrive honestly with whatever is true for you.
If you are still finding your way.
To be clear, you are wanted at Makom. Not tolerated. Not a project. Wanted. We say this for a specific reason. The evangelical tradition has not always been good at holding the questions. It has sometimes treated doubt as a failure, uncertainty as a problem to be solved, and people in the middle as a category to be moved rather than a community to be welcomed. We want to be different.
Makom will not require you to declare anything you do not believe. The teaching is honest about hard questions. The spiritual director will sit with your questions without rushing you toward answers. The table is open to you exactly as you are, as Jesus taught us to be.
What we ask is that you come honestly with whatever is true for you, in whatever state it is in. We will do the same. And we believe that honesty, held in community, in a thin place, over a week, has a way of doing things that neither of us can fully predict or control.
We hope you come and see.
If you have any questions at all, please get in touch.
Contact us
"Surely the Lord is in this place — and I did not know it." — Genesis 28:16