anchorholding transforms any place— the classroom, the online meeting, the parkbench— into one of creative possibility.
A modern interpretation of an ancient tradition
A traditional anchorhold, as experienced in the Christian tradition during the 12th-16th centuries, was a cell-like dwelling built on to the side of a church. The anchoress or anchorite retired from society to live a life of intense prayer and spiritual practice, ultimately serving the public as spiritual guide.
We reimagine the tradition of the anchorhold beyond its Christian origin and physical confines. Moving from noun to verb, anchorhold to anchorholding, we propose a process of rooting into our gifts through active contemplation and practiced compassion, allowing new creative thought to emerge. Contemporary anchorites might be public servants, therapists, academics, social justice advocates, political strategists, mindfulness practitioners, teachers or influencers. They might be restaurant owners, poets, wanderers and wonderers, farmers and foragers. They might be you.
Our Story
Decades ago, Candice was a television producer/director creating environmental programs for young people. Deep in the old growth forests of northern Ontario, she heard a new language - one redolent of a deep hospitality that knew no boundary between creature and leaf, spirit and body. Chasing after this new dialect, she followed the mystic’s journey of study, service and contemplative prayer, finding, in the end, she held only one credo. ‘Love is the measure.’
As a philosophy student, Madelaine spent twelve years volunteering in a Toronto based charity that challenged mental health stigma through the development of long-term companionship between people of differing health and socio-economic backgrounds. Continuing her studies in the field of technology ethics, Madelaine continues to be guided by those years of radical hospitality and the defiant cry of a friend confined to a psychiatric hospital, “Intellect without love is nothing.”
Anchorholding emerges from Madelaine and Candice’s long years of formal study and community service where radical caring and beauty are so often absent. They search after, and offer, an emerging landscape rich in possibility and fully alive, offering new ways of seeing through eyes schooled in the ways of love.
Our Vision
We offer a nuanced lens, and the skills to develop it, to any individual or group who has a vision for a more beautiful, comforting and vibrant world, one accessible to all people learning to live in kinship relationships. We do this through the offering of workshops, retreats, narrative and digital chaplaincy, speaking engagements, and writing.