Gaunt’s House

I spent two years in an online interfaith seminary based in London. Because of Covid, we did not meet in person which was good for me, because I live in California. For graduation however, I decided to go to the last retreat and ceremony in person. Incidentally, three weeks before my fly date, my landlord sent me a text giving me 30 day’s notice to quit, which meant I had to very quickly pack up my whole life and put everything in storage while packing for the trip and tying up all the loose ends. It was quite stressful. But the silver lining was that I had no ties, and could go wherever I wanted without worrying about “home.” So off I went. My classmate Melanie picked me up from Heathrow airport and took me around London for two days, which was exhausting but also thrilling. Then we drove down to a place called Sherborne in Dorset, which was such a sweet little town I wanted to stay there! We stayed there for a couple of days and then went to the retreat venue called Gaunt’s House in Dorchester. 

Why our seminary staff chose this place is beyond me. They talked it up and said how amazing it was but what I saw was a run down old house with stained rugs, gaps in the tile, half the showers didn’t have hot water, and the quality of the rooms were wildly different. Half the rooms in the main house were what the English call “posh,” large rooms, well decorated with en-suite bathrooms. The other half (including the one I was in) looked like a boarding school room, sparse with shared bathroom and shower facilities. The rest of the poor souls in our class got sent to the stables, which also had wildly varying qualities of accommodation. One lady said her room was so moldy she couldn’t sleep in it. I also killed a centipede in my neighbor’s room and dealt with a plethora of flies, a bee, and spiders in my own. Ick! If I were booking accommodations for a class of 35, I would make sure all the rooms were of equal or at least similar status. 

Then we get to the food. It was supposed to be a vegetarian place, which I have no problem with. I have had phenomenal vegetarian and vegan food, even though I am neither myself. What we had instead was poorly cooked food, and not enough of most things. I was hungry quite often the first few days until I figured out how to find snacks and use the tea service to get me through to the next meal. There were a couple of good meals, for example, one night we had ratatouille with baked potatoes and cheese for the non vegans. That was actually really good! One night we were served rice which had been massively over cooked and was mostly a mush with some loose rice around the edges and something unidentifiable which was basically a broth with some chickpeas and tomatoes floating around. And naan. That was way too many carbs for me but I had no other options. Which led me to an epiphany. The next time I am asked about dietary restrictions, I am going to say that while I don’t mind vegetarian/vegan options, I personally need protein. I would have been happy with steamed veggies or lentils, it didn’t have to be animal protein. 

Anyway, after all that, one of the ladies came into session and warned people that she had found several ticks on her body(!) During the next day or so, a few more people found ticks as well. That for me was the absolute last straw. Ticks can be extremely dangerous, and can carry Lyme disease, which can cause lifelong disability. I fully understand that it’s not possible to eradicate them, but the grounds should have been kept better and we should have been warned to stay out of the grasses. Completely unacceptable. As far as I can tell, I escaped tick-free (fingers crossed) but then again, I mostly stayed in the house. 

After all that madness, we actually did have a beautiful and inspiring ordination service and I have achieved my goal of becoming a Reverend!! It was just a bit of a rough road to get there.