Dear Friends,
With the holidays upon us, the time has come to reflect with gratitude on the past year. 2025 was a year of tremendous growth for Charis, as we continue to serve a burgeoning community in myriad and diverse ways. Over the past year, Charis held its first 10-day retreats at Charis Mandala Sanctuary, hosted its first 10-day Centering Prayer retreat, trained a large new cohort of Charis Circle facilitation teachers, and held the first annual Charis Circles Retreat for facilitators. Charis also facilitated its 9th Charis Snowmass Dialogue in Vermont, and The New Monastics Podcast continues to host spiritual conversations with leading thinkers and teachers. Charis’ Keating-Schachter Center for Interspirituality (KSC) at Naropa University also hosted numerous spiritual teachers for week-long residencies, weekend retreats, and talks to faculty and staff, as well as ongoing events for students, including a weekly Charis Circle on campus.
One of the most promising developments of 2025 is an emerging relationship with a growing cohort of talented young students from Naropa University, who came down to Charis Mandala numerous times throughout the year for teachings, retreats, and work weeks. These committed young people represent to us the future of Charis in the decades ahead. Somehow, among all this, Rory, Netanel, and Alejandra also maintained a busy schedule of teachings and talks across the country, including the publishing of Rory’s new book on bringing greater contemplative depth into our democracy and educational system, The Sacred/Secular Binary, speaking to the vital needs of our country at this perilous time, and Season of Remembrance: A Telling of an Interspiritual Sacred Story, part of the Fetzer Institute’s “Shared Sacred Story Project.”
Perhaps our most important development over the past year, however, has been the birth of an interspiritual teaching community at Charis, a development that will be the focus of much of our work in 2026. As we look forward to the new year, Charis has an even fuller slate of programs on deck, including more Charis Retreats, numerous Centering Prayer retreats, multiple Charis Circles facilitation trainings and an annual retreat, a Charis Snowmass Dialogue, our first Charis Women’s Retreat, the ongoing work of KSC and the podcast, and the launching of a 2-year Charis Interspiritual Formation program as well as a new Charis YouTube station that will carry the teachings and talks of our Charis teachers.
All of this work is done through the love and service of our mostly volunteer team. Due to the ongoing financial needs of our programs and the upkeep of Charis Mandala Sanctuary (which in 2025 saw the purchase of two new dishwashers, a video recording system, new furnishings throughout the buildings, numerous repairs to our heating and water systems, and the staining of over 2000 sq. ft of decks!), our Charis team receives a pittance of compensation (currently less than $17,000 total for our entire team in 2025). We do this work because it matters, and because it needs to be done. Beyond this, we trust in Grace and the movements of Life itself to support us. You are part of these movements of Life, and we could not continue on without your grace and support.
Please consider generously supporting Charis in this life-giving work for all who benefit from it. May your holiday season be filled with awe, healing, and the deep silence of winter–and we hope to see you soon in 2026!
With Love,
Rory
