1680 - 373rd Avenue NE, Stanchfield, MN 55080     763-689-3540    arcretreat@hotmail.com
  (Located 8 Miles Northwest of Cambridge, MN)                 Click here for directions.
Please note: Construction and detour are currently slowing traffic on Hwy 95 between I-35 and Cambridge. Alternate routes available with directions.

Community Openings - Apply now for Winter, 2010

The ARC Retreat Community is currently inviting applications for short-term volunteers for Fall, 2009 (as little as a day, or up to three months) and year-round residents for Spring, 2010. Volunteer community members welcome retreatants and share a simple, sustainable, spiritual lifestyle. Room and board with optional stipend are provided for volunteers up to three months; stipend and health insurance are available for longer-term residents. Contact us through the "Contact ARC" page or call 763-689-3540.

ARC Wish List

 (Most are tax deductible. Ask your tax advisor.)

IF - Cover article from the most recent ARC newsletter. See the entire newsletter here.

by Jan Wiersma, ARC Director

“If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I would plant an apple tree in my garden.”
Martin Luther, visionary, reformer (1483-1546)

IF you could stake a claim for the future, where would you place your hope? If you could pass your wisdom to the next generation, what values would you teach? What ethical legacy would you leave? Without a vision for what may be, what has been loses value.

Three decades ago, hope was that ARC would “grow like an oak,” slow and strong, and so it has. And growth continues. Thirty-two years only mark the end of infancy in the life of an oak, which may live as long as 800 years. ARC is just coming of age.

A member of a group retreating here for the first time took me aside to say, “I felt as though the ARC itself became another member of our group, with its own personality and presence. Just being here deepened the experience for all of us.” 

 Many who love ARC see the next 30 years as a time of increased maturation, of quickening response to the spiritual hungers and social ills of today—and of tomorrow. For this reason the Board has launched the ARC: Our Next 30 Years fundraising initiative to provide the kind of financial stability needed to ensure ARC’s continued existence. Phase One, begun last September, was successfully completed by last year’s end. Phase Two, building regular monthly contributions and pledges, is currently underway.

Despite difficult economic times, we have experienced an amazing response. One friend of ARC accompanied her generous donation with the comment, “I know there are a lot of people who are not able to give right now—so I’m giving more, because I can.”

But economic security is only part of the picture. The Board of Directors invites you to join them in a vision quest this fall and winter, exploring ARC’s potential by pondering two questions:  “What do you value most about ARC?” and “What is one wish you have for ARC’s future?”

If the world still turns in 30 years, what qualities do you hope will be preserved here? The beauty of the physical environment? The sense of the sacred that enfolds you? The acceptance of spiritual diversity? The warmth of being welcomed “home” into community? The values that are modeled by those who live here? What makes the critical difference for you?

These questions will be explored at a series of visioning summits to be held throughout the fall and winter. All those with connections to ARC are invited to participate. In addition, a series of focus groups and interviews will be held with past and potential retreatants, reflecting as much diversity as our society offers. If you would like to “plant a tree” for ARC in this way, please contact us!

“If the only prayer you ever said was ‘Thank you,’ that would be enough.”Meister Eckhardt, mystic (1260-1328)

IF you gave thanks for the things that really mattered to you, what would they be? The future is always uncertain and so gratitude focuses on what is, or what has been. Like a sapling reaching for the sun but fed by the earth, hope reaches toward the future but is fed by the past.

Scientists have found that oaks grow best with a layer of oak leaf mulch around their base. Microorganisms in the fallen leaves help release nutrition for the tree slowly, as it is needed. In much the same way, those who have loved and tended ARC in the past leave a legacy that lives on in the traditions and beauties that still guide and nourish us. In these pages, we express our gratitude for the many people, past

and present, who have furnished ARC with a such a rich layer of “mulch”: our founders, of course, and Ruth Halvorson in particular, whose original vision remains so vital and resilient. Our current Board comprises a remarkable constellation of hard-working, generous, visionary individuals dedicated to nurturing ARC into the next generation; they stand on the foundations laid in the past.

Donors’ monetary contributions make up as much as 40% of our operational costs; some of them are honored here. Not listed by name are dozens more who came bearing gifts in response to our expressed needs: books and hand-made items for the bookstore, hostas and other plants, lamps, computer equipment and expertise, woodcutting skills to cut and carry the great oaks that warm us through the winter. We are grateful, too, for the Caritas Vocal Ensemble whose exquisite concerts benefit ARC and other non-profits. And there are many more whose contributions, large and small, were noted and appreciated. Jan Hunter, pictured below in the John L. Sullivan Memorial Garden, is just one of nearly a hundred volunteers who collectively donate the equivalent of two full-time staff positions each year. Our resident community, of course, makes the welcome happen. And where would we be without our guests, for whose sake it all exists? To all of the above, thank you, thank you, thank you!

Jan Wiersma, Director