Programs

Receiving Autumn’s Gifts: Reflective Sauntering and Contemplative Practices

Fall is a time of preparation, integration, relinquishment, and release. We will spend a few hours walking in nature as we reflect on how these processes create nourishment in nature and in ourselves. How might what is happening in the natural world give you insight into this season of your life?  We will link times of engaging in spiritual practice and dialogue while walking the trails with seasoned nature observers.  Sauntering for the day will not exceed 3 miles. Led by Julie Miller, Mindy Braun and Laurie Hartmann.

Julie Miller is no stranger to the Ranch as she serves as a Ranch host and leads our spring and fall hikes. A former park ranger, a nature guide, retreat leader and spiritual director, Julie’s love for connecting people to the natural and cultural stories of place is reflective and infectious.

Mindy Braun serves as Executive Director of the Journey Center, a Christ-centered contemplative home for spiritual exploration and reflection. She is a spiritual director, Wild Church leader, naturalist, retreat, and group facilitator who loves to weave the Sacred with the natural world.

Laurie Hartmann loves sharing the experience of finding beauty in nature with others. She is a spiritual director, retreat leader, and therapeutic musician and treasures the experience of the convergence of nature, music and spirit.

Spend a Saturday walking the trails of The Bishop’s Ranch and explore how autumn is demonstrating itself on the landscape. We will cover 4-6 miles on this moderate hike through rolling topography with a stop for a bagged lunch. Situated on rugged terraces above the Russian River, the Ranch lies between conifer forests to the west and north and the heavily cultivated river floodplain with remnant riparian forest to the east. The hills and ridges offer spectacular views of the river valley’s unique geography, and Ranch staff member, Julie Miller, will guide this rambling walk with a special eye towards the natural history and viewpoints from which to enjoy the autumn scenery.

Come to the Ranch in the Fall for our Loose Threads Quilt Retreat! Finish a project or start a new one. Beginning through advanced quilters are welcome. You’ll have time to be with old friends and the opportunity to make new ones while working on your own projects or sharing your creativity with other participants. This retreat is intended to give you the time you need for yourself without formal instruction or sales pitches. Lodging options are in the Ranch House and Harrison House.

Your Kitchen Madonna: read, reflect, create together....

This creative collage, word, painting project is based on the book, The Kitchen Madonna, by Rumor Golden. We will explore the book together and then we will create our own kitchen Madonna's to bless our own kitchens. Each Madonna will be a unique expression of our own spirituality, culture, cooking and home life. The process will be as meaningful as the final art piece. Led by Greta Mesics. 

$15 materials fee paid to instructor on day of class. Fee includes a copy of Rumer Godden's, THE KITCHEN MADONNA.

Use breath and meditation to deepen your understanding and appreciation of yoga. Our focus will be on choosing what opens your heart, supports your health, and uncovers your inner wisdom. You will be guided and encouraged to move past your resistance into a state of peace, clarity, and joy. After a morning of active, uplifting asana practice, focused on raising the energy and creating a sense of strength and lightness, in the afternoon, we will practice Restorative/Yin Yoga, moving into increased levels of awareness and stillness.

We all need a little extra help sometimes, someone in our corner to boost our confidence, our spirit or even our defiance! So why not make your own custom icon, your own imaginary saint or spirit guide? Perhaps you need your very own Patron Saint of Serenity, or how about an Earth Goddess Guardian Angel? Maybe you need a Spirit Guide to Adventure? Whatever kind of guide you need you can express yourself through this two-day mixed media workshop. Your Angel can be serious or silly, meditative or magical it’s up to you!

Lisa provides a mix of faces, both animal and human to choose from as well as hand and basic body patterns so you don’t need to worry about your drawing skills at all. She will demonstrate how to design your Guardian Angel using the printed images and decorative papers. This collage technique is at once flexible, forgiving and fun. This workshop is great for beginners who want to explore mixed media art more and practiced artist who want to express themselves in a new way. Everyone will go home with a custom “icon” created on an 11x14 canvas panel. Canvas panels, face and body images and some ephemera are provided, you bring art papers, wrapping papers, old maps, journal pages, art you are ready to cut up. Anything you are inspired to “clothe” your guardian and papers for a background.

Accommodations for this retreat are in Webb Lodge.

Make time for those unfinished projects or new endeavors at a four-night quilt retreat. With all meals provided and no chores in sight, beginning through advanced quilters can truly focus on their passion. You’ll have time to be with old friends and the opportunity to make new ones while working on your own projects or sharing your creativity with other participants. This retreat is intended to give you the time you need for yourself without formal instruction or sales pitches.

The Quest for Healing and Home

In 2022 John Philip Newell began a second series of annual retreats to address the deep spiritual yearnings of this moment in time and to help give birth to new beginnings in our lives and world.

The Great Search 3 is the third of a three-part series of annual retreats led by the Celtic teacher John Philip Newell and his colleague Cami Twilling in which we explore the search for wisdom, the search for meaning, and the search for faith.

The teachings of this retreat are based on John Philip Newell’s forthcoming book The Great Search: Turning to Earth and Soul in the Quest for Healing and Home (especially Chapters 7, 8, and 9 drawing on the wisdom of Rabindranath Tagore, Etty Hillesum, and Edwin Muir).

The text for this three-year program is John Philip Newell’s forthcoming book The Great Search (releasing August 2024). In the meantime, his The Rebirthing of God is the recommended reading. The shared prayer book for this program is Praying with the Earth.

The Great Search 3 can be taken as a stand-alone retreat or in conjunction with The Great Search 1 and The Great Search 2 which can be attended in any order and at any of our retreat centers across the country or online.