News

As we look into the new year, we have decided to increase our rates, beginning in January. Our prices have stayed the same for a number of years, and out of an effort to remain comparable in cost to our neighboring retreat centers, we'll be adjusting the overnight rates and WindHill rental rates for 2023.

At GilChrist, we love a hearty gathering, filled with deep sharing and meaningful connections. A lot can happen when people get together for a day or a weekend or a week, and we're glad to be a part of it.

The results are in! Fetzer is excited to share news of 25 interventions that can help strengthen American democracy. This work, the Strengthening Democracy Challenge, took place over the past few years in a project we co-funded with our allies to support Stanford University’s Polarization and Social Change Lab. The challenge was designed to identify ways to  

The Fetzer Institute has long held an interest in the lived experience of democracy. So rather than focusing on issues, challenges, or policy, our work in this area addresses questions like How are we expanding the idea of “we” the people? What does it mean to build mutual respect and relationships across difference? How can we get better at sharing power?

"Welcome to GilChrist, a place where natural beauty strengthens our human capacity for compassion, gratitude, reverence, and creativity." So states our home page, which invites you to explore a

Scheduling group retreats for GilChrist and making decisions about what we can accommodate is a monumental task each year. The process is a complex overlay of practical, philosophical, and relational considerations. You should see our gloriously chaotic poster of sticky notes!

Biologos and the Center for Christogenesis might appear to be on opposite sides of the spirituality and science debate. Yet both organizations exist principally to help people of faith reconcile the two disciplines—positing that science and spirituality are not in opposition; but that they, in fact, complement each other. And that to understand the world in which we live, each must be taken into account. Both organizations describe this necessary reconciliation as “bridging.”

One of the ways that people deal with the stress of their everyday lives is through meditation. Globally it is estimated that 200 – 500 million people engage in this practice. In the United States, more than 14% of adults have tried meditation at least once, and since 2012, the number of people that has embraced this practice has more than tripled.

Humanity and the planet are going through a rite of passage where we’re being compelled to learn to live in new ways and get a sense of what matters most to us.
—M. Rako Fabionar, Program Director,
Innovative Living and Learning Institute

Findings from the 2020 launch of our Study of Spirituality in the United States revealed a stunning fifty percent of respondents said that they desire to be more spiritual. Respondents also identified peace and love as the top two benefits of a spiritual life. This narrative—that people are open to, and yearning for, a more spiritual way of being that is grounded in love and care for one another—is far different than what is in the headlines.