Season of Listening · 2026

The ARC Retreat Community stewarded a vision of renewal for fifty years. Now that the ARC property has been sold, we are listening for how to forward our legacy.

Join us as we shape what comes next.

Be part of the listening.

Receive updates from ARC's Season of Listening — results from our Friends of ARC survey and Listening Circles — and stories from ARC's growing digital archive.

Be part of the listening.

Receive updates on the August Listening Sessions, the Saturday stories beginning August 1, and the seasons ahead. Add your voice to how ARC ends well.

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What we hold

Action · Reflection · Celebration

ARC stands for

Action · Reflection · Celebration

Contemplative retreats offer time and space apart for the body, mind and spirit to rest, listen, pray, and renew. As a society, we have never been in greater need of this renewal.

Vision

A transformed world in which all people embrace and cultivate the spiritual nature of life through healthy, loving relationships with self, others, planet earth, and the Divine.

Mission

To serve individuals and groups seeking time apart for rest and spiritual renewal. An interspiritual retreat community embracing people in their full diversity, founded in the spirit of ecumenism.

Practice

Balancing Action, Reflection, and Celebration — connecting retreat to daily life so the journey inward inspires the journey outward, in the quest for harmony, peace, and justice.

Where we are

Listening together · 2026

The land that held ARC for fifty years was sold last fall. We are discerning how the impact ARC has had on many individuals can be carried forward. What we honor, complete, and support through ARC's remaining funds will follow the stirrings of those ARC has inspired and impacted — investing in ways that carry ARC's legacy forward, shaped by the very influence ARC has had on them.

ARC is poised to listen — broadly and deeply. We are engaging the community in this season — and invite you to contribute your voice to our discernment.

This season we practice letting go — trusting the seed of ARC to take root and flower through the vision and commitment of others it has inspired.

Listening Circles

One More Contemplative Listening Circles is scheduled for October 13 6;30 to 8:00 — on Zoom (Tuesday) Open to all friends of ARC

Add your voice to the discernment

The Season of Listening survey have been extended through through October 15. We are asking for your wisdom and lessons from the land ARC stewarded for fifty years. What might it look like for ARC's legacy to carry these gifts forward? This survey takes about 10 minutes.

Complete the survey →

on Tuesday October 13th we will hold another online Listening Session (our 4th)

One story or memory posted twice monthly starting in October — from Friends of ARC, longtime retreatants, the ARC Legacy Task Force, and guest writers. The first will be Ruth Halvorson reading from her writing on retreat. Four stories now, with more to come over the next year — stories that encourage the power of listening, retreat, silence, and contemplation.

Carrying the mission forward

"ARC was created as a hospitable and welcoming place apart for individuals and groups to experience solitude and silence, guiding individuals into a deeper understanding of themselves, the world around them, and the God within."
— Ruth Halvorson

In October 2025, ARC sold the land and lodge that had fostered this community for nearly fifty years. What we carry forward now is the mission itself — through the creativity and commitment of everyone the seed of ARC has inspired. A fiscal agent and a Legacy Fund will be established this fall to steward ARC's remaining resources in a way consistent with what we hear during this Season of Listening. Sign-up updates are coming this Fall 2026. Sign up for ARC's email list →

Support our Season of Listening

Listen · Connect · Stay Involved

As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, ARC depends on the generosity of friends, retreatants, and supporters. Join our email list to hear when giving opens, and stay close to the community ARC continues to be.

Join the ARC Email List → See the Gatherings →