MONCKS CORNER--The congressmen who visited Mepkin Abbey for a retreat this weekend didn't wake before dawn or follow a code of silence like the monks there.

And they didn't pray all day, either.

They bonded.

"In Congress, we don't have that much opportunity to have personal relationships," Republican Rep. Henry Brown said. "Here, we're trying to get a better understanding of each other."

Brown and fellow South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn hosted this year's faith-based Congressional retreat, an annual bipartisan event sponsored by the Washington, D.C.-based Faith and Politics Institute. The event had two main purposes: to encourage congressional representatives to ponder issues of faith, politics and history, and to allow them to become better acquainted.

It's the fourth such retreat put on by the Faith and Politics Institute, and the first to take place in South Carolina.

Clyburn, a Democrat, described it as a success because it allowed representatives to get past trite sound bytes and to the heart of their thoughts on faith and politics. He described the recent rhetoric regarding faith and politics as problematic because few people fully contemplate and discuss the issue.

"Our society has moved away from the deliberative," he said. "What a setting like this allows is for people who are getting caught up in the sound bytes to sit down and be reflective."

The retreat provided the representatives with a refuge from the lobbying and political wrangling they deal with daily in Washington as well. At Mepkin Abbey, they focused on one another's spiritual perspectives.

"This conference drew us apart from the usual process where there's a lot of debate and confrontation," Brown said. "It gave us a chance to look at the inner person."

The Rev. Douglas Tanner, the institute's co-founder and president, said that was his intention, and he put a particular emphasis on dealing with issues of race. This retreat specifically dealt with healing wounds. "We have a special sensitivity to building a bridge across racial and other divisions, and we depend on the values of faith to do that," he said.

Doing so in small groups is effective, Tanner added. He said that while all members of the House of Representatives were invited, only seven participated.

Some of Mepkin Abbey's monks also got involved, if only in a minor way. They dined with the representatives, slightly altering their regimented lives to do so. The Rev. Aelred Hagan said that he and the other monks usually eat in silence while listening to someone read a book.

This weekend, they talked.

"All of the meals are in silence," he said, "but because the congressmen visited, we wanted them to be able to meet us, and we wanted to be able to meet them."