Hosting an Emmaus Walk

In many other Emmaus communities, local area churches rotate and allow Emmaus to use their facilities to host Emmaus weekends. In this community, we typically host all of our Emmaus Walks at Bethelwoods Camp and Conference Center, located in York, South Carolina. Bethelwoods has hosted us for many years and is a wonderful place that allows pilgrims to feel removed from their busy life while attending their Emmaus Walks but, as a community, we must always be open to hosting these weekends at another type of location in case that need may arise.

During an Emmaus weekend, we do require a certain amount of exclusive access while we would occupy a facility. This is both to respect the privacy nature of the discussions that will take place and to build a closeness among our participants that is shared but not meant to be viewed by spectators.

The logistics of an Emmaus Walk also requires that we have a certain minimum amount of space for the varying events that will take place at different times over the weekend. Below is a list that outlines each of these needs according to our own minimum recommendations for an Emmaus Walk to feel comfortable enough for a successful weekend. If you know a church or camp/conference facility that might be willing to host an Emmaus weekend and if you think your facility could meet our list of needs below, then we would love to hear from you!

In order to host an Emmaus Walk, this is a description of our minimum space requirements:

• Conference room: the primary room we will meet in, large enough for about 4-6 large round tables plus another set of 3 standard rectangle tables along a back-wall area, and space for a podium or lectern. Needed from Thursday evening through Sunday at 2:45pm.
• A medium-large sanctuary or chapel, enough for about 100-200 people for us to occupy on Sunday from 3:45pm until about 8pm.
• More details to come...