This year’s theme: Making Sanctuary

"I found lifelong collaborators."

"This retreat changed how I lead."

(Schedule below)

What is new this year?

Days: Monday-Thursday

Location: Mt. Olivet Conference Center, Farmington, MN (35 mins south of MSP Airport)

Flow, including Leadership Path sessions each afternoon: Whole Person Leadership for Women, Art of Convening CoLab

What you can count on:

  • wonderful, courageous people who add value to our lives every day

  • conversations you don’t want to miss

  • networking and “camp” experiences

What we know: the way we gather shapes what becomes possible.

What would it mean in your life to make a little more sanctuary? Making sanctuary is a practice. Imagine gatherings where hospitality and generosity shape the tone of every conversation. Instead of being framed by scarcity, dialogues focus on gifts, strengths, and shared possibilities. Community members show up not as passive consumers—waiting for someone else to solve problems—but as citizens, offering their contributions and “confronting one another with their gifts”*.

Otto Scharmer and Eva Pomeroy and others offer the idea of “sanctuary as ‘social soil’ and scientific practice: a scientific framework and a practical methodology. Their concept of social soil — the underlying quality of the relational field that determines what can grow — is sanctuary understood as a medium rather than an event.

Just as no crop can exceed the quality of the soil from which it grows, no encounter can exceed the quality of the relational ground in which it happens. Making sanctuary is, in this frame, the practice of tending social soil: cultivating intention, quality of listening, depth of holding, clarity of relational boundaries — not as preconditions for something else to happen, but as the thing itself.”

We will explore the meaning and practices of sanctuary as tending and enriching the social soil that is already so rich in the CPL community.

*Peter Block, Community: The Structure of Belonging

The Schedule

(more details to come)

All times are Central US

Monday 9/21/26-Wednesday 9/23/26
5 All-Community Sessions
plus Leadership Pathways:
Whole Person Leadership for Women, Art of Convening CoLab

Monday, 9/21:7:00-8:30pm*
*in observance of Yom Kippur, the Opening Ceremony will be Tuesday, 9/22, 9:00 am

Tuesday, 9/22: 9:00 am-8:30 pm

Wednesday, 9/23: 9:00 am-8:30 pm

[optional] Wednesday night stay/Thursday 9/24/26 breakfast

REGISTER NOW!

Join us In-Person
at Mt. Olivet Conference & Retreat Center
Farmington, MN

$100 deposit saves the Early Bird Discount

Make a Deposit

Join us via a Zoom Pass

$50: 5 All-Community sessions

$50 Zoom Pass

Images from past AoC retreats

FAQ’s

  • In community, we will harvest the learnings from the past months and years. As Purposeful Leaders, we will explore what we want to strengthen, and bring forward, on behalf of those we serve. As we emerge together, we will create to reflect the synthesis of what we’ve learned, with a vision for a future world that works for all.

    We will create an innovative hybrid event with participation roles for in-person and virtual interaction.

    Continue to explore the 4 Contexts and The Art of Convening:- Interior - Relational - Systemic - Environmental

    5 All-Community Gathering Sessions

    2 Alum Gathering Spaces

    2 Open Space & Visioning Sessions

  • In-person registration includes 2 nights (Monday-Tuesday) + 7 meals:

    Early Bird Rates through 7/1:

    Single: $640 - Double: $495 - Dorm: $405

    Day Pass for Tues 9/22 or Wed 9/23: $110 (includes 3 meals)

    Optional: 3 nights (Monday-Wednesday), 8 meals. Pricing TBD.

  • Mount Olivet Conference & Retreat Center

    7984 257th St W, Farmington, MN 55024
    +1 952-469-2175
    https://mtolivetretreat.org/

    Each participant is responsible for travel to and from the Retreat.

    Flying: The closest airport is Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport International Airport (MSP). The Duluth International Airport (DLH) is an additional choice.

    Driving: Directions to Mt. Olivet can be found at https://mtolivetretreat.org/

    You may choose to rent a car and share costs with another participant.

    Ride Share: If needed, we will help coordinate ride shares from the Minneapolis-St.Paul airport or from the Twin Cities.

    "Homestays": are popular before/after the Retreat. We will help you contact Twin Cities colleagues.

  • Cancellation Policy:

    √ If the in-person Retreat is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances: We will offer a modified Retreat experience via Zoom.
    Participant cost will be $50. You will receive a full refund for the difference already paid.

    √ Refunds not related to Retreat cancellation will be made if requested in writing 30 days prior to the Retreat start date.

    An administrative fee of $50 will be deducted.

    √ No refunds will be made for requests received within 30 days of the Retreat.

Watch this video, created by Amber Yang, to get a taste of the 2024 AoC Retreat.