Programs & Retreats
2025 Programs
Please note: Ring Lake Ranch is open only from late May through early September.
Ring Lake Ranch seminars consist of four evening sessions during the week, usually 90 minutes in length. The style and content of the seminars change with each leader. Seminar leaders are usually happy to talk with guests outside of the seminars, but the topics are presented entirely within the evening sessions, to ensure that all guests have a chance to participate.
Like all activities at Ring Lake Ranch, with the exception of cabin cleaning and helping with meal clean-up, the Ranch seminars are optional for guests.
May 25 – 31: Volunteer Week
This session is full but please contact Alli Moore at alli@ringlake.org to be added to the waitlist
June 15 – 21: Laura Mariko Cheifetz – The Problem of the Color Line
“The problem of the color line,” to use the phrasing of Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Dubois, is not a problem of color or racial diversity itself, but the persistence of the ideology of whiteness. We will explore the manifestations and evolution of racism, white supremacy, imperialism, and white Christian nationalism in the United States, including how they are woven together with Christian church participation and identity, with particular attention paid to western U.S. history and patterns. While the narrative of racism as an interpersonal issue is tenacious and remains a primary distraction toward real change, our sessions will focus on a structural and cultural view of white supremacy and how individuals may engage in practices to disrupt it toward the liberation of all people and ultimately, the earth. We will work together through the week to compile a robust resource list for study, action, and transformation.
Laura Mariko Cheifetz (she/her) is a queer biracial Presbyterian Church (USA) minister curious about God, religion, race, gender, identity, the meaning of citizenship, and fun television shows. She is multiracial Asian-American of Japanese and white Jewish descent. Laura has worked in theological education, social justice advocacy, and religious publishing across the U.S. She is the co-author and editor of Church on Purpose: Reinventing Discipleship, Community, & Justice, co-editor and contributor to Race in America: Christians Respond to the Crisis, and a contributor to the documentary series Trouble the Water: Conversations to Disrupt Racism and Dominance.
Register for this session and more here!
June 29 – July 5: Eileen Campbell-Reed – Writing as a Spiritual Practice
What does it mean to write as a spiritual practice? How is it related to other spiritual practices? For whom do we write and why? Spiritual practices need regular daily habits, teachers and mentors to show us the way, a community to help us practice better or encourage us when we don’t want to practice at all. All of these realities are similar to other spiritual practices, and our writing can be both more enjoyable and less overwhelming or isolating when we approach it as a spiritual practice. Evening sessions will include writing prompts and brief times to write in community. We will also explore writing habits recommended by Robert Boice, disciplines of writing with Anne Lamott, the creative process of writing with Joy Harjo, and writing in tune with ancestors and place with Alice Walker. Poets, journal keepers, novelists, creative nonfiction writers, memoirists, and journalists – all are welcome to explore writing as a spiritual practice.
The Rev. Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed is Visiting Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care at Union Theological Seminary. She is author of Pastoral Imagination: Bringing the Practice of Ministry to Life (2021), Anatomy of a Schism (2016), The State of Clergywomen in the U.S. (2018), and the #PandemicPastoring Report (2022). She has been coaching individual and small groups of academic writers since 2013, and she hosts the Writing Table on weekdays for pastors, professors, poets, and authors.
Register for this session and more here!
July 13 – 19: Terri and Keith Schulz – The Nature that Surrounds Us
What is most meaningful to you about nature? Have you ever wondered why plants and animals are found in certain places? How has this landscape changed in our lifetime? Come and learn about the vegetation, animals and plants of the Torrey Valley. During this family-friendly session, we will explore the wonders of nature around Ring Lake Ranch through sharing observations and insights.
Terri Tucker Schulz is a Senior Conservation Ecologist with the Colorado Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. She has focused on land stewardship and understanding the natural world. Terri is also a former Ring Lake Ranch board member.
Keith Schulz is a retired vegetation ecologist formerly with NatureServe. Keith married into the family tradition of being at Ring Lake Ranch 36 years ago. He has also worked as a botanist and has a livelong curiosity about nature.
Register for this session and more here!
July 20 – 26: John Miller and Natalya Weinstein - Transforming Inspiration into Song: Demystifying the Process
Songwriting is a powerful and fulfilling form of self-expression that is accessible to anyone, regardless of musical experience or prowess. All of us are innately musical beings; it is often just our capacity for expression that needs to be nurtured. We will learn to recognize and capture “song seeds” and draw upon our inspirations as a starting point for lyrical explorations. We will explore themes such connection to place/identity, sacred music as an expression of faith, personal and interpersonal journeys, and more. We will also work with some basic musical concepts to give us a tool kit for our song craft. Instruments, notebooks, and recording devices are encouraged. We can’t wait to hear your ideas and help you bring them to fruition!
Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and vocalist John Cloyd Miller is a twelfth generation North Carolinian, but he has a deep connection to the Wind River Valley. John’s great-grandparents from NC homesteaded in the Crowheart area in the early 1900s. John has won both the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest and the Hazel Dickens Songwriting Contest and received an Artist Fellowship for songwriting by the NC Arts Council. John also teaches traditional music and songwriting at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC. He currently performs in the award-winning band Zoe & Cloyd with his wife, fiddler Natalya Zoe Weinstein, and their fifth album, Songs of Our Grandfathers, was released in May 2023 on Organic Records. Natalya Zoe Weinstein is an accomplished violinist/fiddler and teacher in a variety of styles such as classical, old-time, bluegrass and klezmer.
Natalya is a seasoned performer and a champion competitor, winning old-time and bluegrass fiddle contests all across the country. She is also an instructor in the traditional music program at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, NC where she founded the school’s first klezmer ensemble. Natalya holds an MA in Appalachian Studies from Appalachian State University, where her thesis was on the diverse roots of bluegrass fiddling.
Register for this session and more here!
July 27 – August 2: Damayanthi Niles – Doing Theology with Humility, Generosity, and Wonder: A Christian Theology of Pluralism
All too often Christians participate in interfaith conversations because it is the “right” thing to do, or we wish to put to end hostility with our neighbours of other faiths. Damayanthi will ask us to consider the theological grounding that compels us to interfaith conversation because it is our raison d’être as Christians. In other words, how can we think about Christian theology and practice in a manner that allows us to take pluralism seriously as an essential aspect of Christian identity?
Damayanthi Niles teaches at Eden Seminary, where her writing and research have focused on constructive and contextual theology. She has taught courses on foundational theology, missiology, and post-colonial thought. She has also served as the research associate of the Christianity in Asia Project at the Centre for Advanced Religious and Theological Studies at Cambridge University, United Kingdom. Dr. Niles brings to her classes a unique perspective as a “true citizen of the world.” Having lived, worked, and studied in several countries, she can offer international insights and interpretations on theological issues.
Register for this session and more here!
August 3 – 9: Sharity Bassett - Complicating Settler Narratives: Writing Our Stories toward Rematriation
We all hold intergenerational stories and if we live in the U.S. (or Canada, Australia, or New Zealand), those stories exist within a fabric of settler colonialism. In this series of workshops, we will use fiction as a tool that creates a bit of emotional distance and safety, to write a piece of our intergenerational narrative along a chosen theme. At the same time, we will learn a shared understanding of critical de colonial and rematriating lenses. Through this process, we will build community and consider questions such as, how does understanding my family’s stories through these lenses inform my work and relationships? How does this shared relationship to space inform how we move and work together in these times? For those of settler descent, examining family narratives through such a lens unearths hard and important truths, helping us move toward more active allyship.
Dr. Sharity Bassett is Assistant Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies (WGS) and Executive Manager of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her book Haudenosaunee Women Lacrosse Players: Making Meaning through Rematriation is forthcoming in 2024 through Michigan State University Press. Bassett is working with tribal nations to create interactive databases and curriculum using historical records and oral history. She also works with the National Museum of Scotland in quillwork rematriation. Bassett teaches courses for WGS and American Indian Studies, including Indigenous feminisms, Indigequeer theory, critical disability studies, and research methods.
Register for this session and more here!
Aug 10 – 16: Timothy Beal – When Time Is Short: Reality, Grief, and Hope on the Horizon of Climate Crisis
What if it’s already too late to avoid climate catastrophe? How then should we live? What, moreover, might be the prophetic and pastoral calling of religious communities on the horizon of collapse? What needs might they be uniquely well placed to address? Perhaps to find new ways of creating space for people to confront our denial of human finitude and the reality of the bed we’ve made for ourselves. Perhaps to give voice to grief for the suffering that such denial has already caused, and that it will cause. And perhaps, in facing reality and giving voice to grief, to find hope — deep hope, as opposed to the shallow, brittle optimism of mainstream society — for a humbler but more meaningful way forward.
Timothy Beal is Distinguished University Professor and Florence Harkness Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University, where he directs h.lab and the Experimental Humanities initiative. He also leads “Finite Futures: Imagining Alternative Ways Forward in the Anthropocene, the Humanities in Leadership Learning Series (HILLS), and a Responsible AI Curricular Design Project. Tim has sixteen books, including When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene (Beacon Press, 2022), and The Book of Revelation: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2018. He has written popular essays on religion and culture for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Christian Century, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among others.
Register for this session and more here!
Aug 17 – 30: Mo Morrow and Curran Reichert – Seven Pauses
Do you ever wonder what self-care really means? Wish you could stop reacting to or internalizing difficult situations? Want to help people in your life learn to calm down? Spend two weeks with RLR Head Wrangler Mo Morrow, and new friend of the Ranch Curran Reichert to learn about and practice hands-on ways to get grounded and stay there longer. Sessions will include time riding and just being with the RLR horse herd, as well as learning and practice sessions for better understanding self-regulation. It will be a ton of fun and you will walk away knowing what is needed for your own physical, spiritual well-being and mental health. We will reference the emerging field of Polyvagal Theory, a new way to understand how the brain and body interact. Get answers about what makes us tick the way we do, and how to get a grip when things seem out of control. While all guests are welcome, the sessions will be focused on adult participants.
Rev. Dr. Curran Reichert has pastored progressive communities of faith in the United Church of Christ for more than two decades. She is an Eco-spiritualist and deeply committed to cultivating human connections with the land and animals. Curran has offered spiritual direction with help from horses for the past several years. Curran has been a performing artist for over four decades working in theater, film, and television. She has recorded five vocal albums; the most recent is Rest: songs of comfort and peace.
Mo Morrow is a life-long educator and artist, specializing in supporting children with learning differences and their parents. She holds degrees in Studio Art and Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Space Science. She has been involved with the riding program at Ring Lake Ranch in various roles since 2012. She currently tutors children and teaches painting in watercolor in Colorado Springs.
Register for this session and more here!
Aug 31 – September 6: Marianne Borg - Theopoetics, A Different Kind of God-Talk
Theopoetics: What is it? Why is it important? It’s not about prettying up theology or making it rhyme. It is a way of seeing and thinking and sensing what has been crowded out by life’s hurdy-gurdy. Theopoetics (from poiesis, to make, create) is a different kind of God-talk than theology. Theology gives primacy to thought, Theopoetics gives primacy to experience. Theology prescribes, Theopoetics imagines. Theology declares, Theopoetics invites. Theology establishes and builds a case for doctrine and belief. Theopoetics is provisional and dances with possibilities, even impossibilities. Theopoetics has been around for a long time. We will focus on the way Theopoetics moved the question that was on the cover of Time Magazine ( April 8, 1966) “Is God Dead?” to a prayer, “Oh God, rid me of God” (Meister Eckhart), to risking hope for a future that will not be ours. We have both theology and Theopoetics but Marianne suggests what Christianity in the 21st century needs is more poetics and less dogmatics to help heal our wearied souls and world.
Marianne Borg, a retired Episcopal priest, served 18 years at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Portland, Oregon. After the death of her husband Marcus Borg in 2015 she established the Marcus J. Borg Foundation. Through the Foundation, she hosts a monthly on-line gathering Second Saturday Conversation which explores Christianity in and for the 21st century, with the thought that Christianity in the 21st century is problematic; Christianity for the 21st century remains to be seen.
Register for this session and more here!
Volunteering at the Ranch
Volunteers are a vital part of the Ranch!
Outside of volunteer week, we have a couple of volunteer spaces available every week for those who want to pitch in by setting tables for meals, staining cabins, or doing small maintenance projects. We ask for about 20 contribution hours for the week in exchange for fees covered. No construction experience is required to volunteer, and we’ll never ask a volunteer to take on a project beyond their skillset!
Please note that volunteer spaces are not available in the off season (mid- September – mid-May), and official registration is required.
If you have any further questions regarding volunteer opportunities or expectations, please email us at info@ringlake.org.
Group Retreats
The Ranch is a great place to book a group retreat! Whether your group would like to reserve a block of cabins during a seminar week, or book the entire Ranch to run your own programming, we’re happy to work with you to meet your needs. We’ve hosted non-profits, family reunions, and school groups! We have a number of flexible meeting spaces and can include our standard activities in your fees. For details and pricing, please email our director at info@ringlake.org.
