Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Sustainers Circle: Supporting Our Programs to Flourish

Registration open until September 30, 2022

Sign up between now and September 30 and receive a welcome gift!

Program Description

At Abbey of the Arts we celebrate financial accessibility and strive to make all of our programs available to those who long to participate. We offer many programs at no cost such as our daily and weekly email newsletters, the Lift Every Voice book club (including the Facebook group and monthly podcast/video conversations), the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group, and our three 7-day Prayer Cycles of morning and evening prayer including audio and video podcasts (with more weeks to come*). Our monthly contemplative prayer services, sacred chant services, and yoga classes all have a free option when registering to allow full access to those experiences. We offer a sliding scale for all of our online programs and extensive scholarship assistance to those who are in financial need.

We also celebrate compensating our many artist, musician, and ministry collaborators financially in ways that help support them in being able to thrive while creating meaningful resources for us and their communities.

If you have the means to help us sustain these offerings we invite you to consider joining our Sustainers Circle for the 2022-2023 academic year (September-June)! We hope to gather a core circle of financial supporters to help keep our offerings and our community open and accessible to all who desire a contemplative and creative life.

*In 2022-2023 we will be creating a 7-day Pilgrimage Prayer Cycle with songs and readings for the pilgrim journey (to be released in early 2023) as well as working on a 7-day Angels, Saints, and Ancestors Prayer Cycle (to be released in late 2023). 

Sign up by September 30 and receive an extra special thank you gift. More details below.

What is Included:

Starting in September  2022 (through June 2023):

Sustainer Level

  • Automatic access to our monthly contemplative prayer services with Christine and Simon, Taizé-inspired sacred chant services with Simon (new addition for this year!), and yoga classes with Melinda all included (no need to register separately for each). *Yoga starts in September, prayer services and Taizé chant start in October.
  • Monthly written reflections on various biblical figures and saints by John Valters Paintner from the perspective of Hildy, our cheeky mascot monk-ey.
  • Weekly blessings from Christine Valters Paintner (Christine is going to work on a book of blessings and you will have the opportunity to suggest themes to her for the project.)
  • Private Ruzuku retreat platform with a facilitated forum to share with others.
  • Everyone who signs up at the Sustainer Level will receive a gift! You will be sent a special set of ten prayer cards from our newest dancing monk icons including Meister Eckhart, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Harriet Tubman, Ignatius of Loyola, the four Archangels, Desmond Tutu, Oscar Romero, Angela of Foligno, Maya Angelou, and St. Guinefort the Greyhound Saint. (These are brand new icons being created this summer and are not part of our usual set of prayer cards and are a slightly different size than the boxed set – they will match the original sets we offered which did not come boxed. They may one day make their way into a second set of boxed cards but for now this will be the only way to receive cards of these particular icons). The cards will be sent out at the beginning of October once the paintings are all completed and we are able to have them printed.

Sustainer Plus Level

  • If you register for our Sustainer Plus level all of the above is included from the regular Sustainer Level, plus our Advent (Mary and the Sacred Feminine) and Lent (A Different Kind of Fast) retreats. This year our Advent retreat will be on Mary and the sacred feminine (a companion retreat to Christine’s book Birthing the Holy) and our Lent retreat will be on the spiritual practice of fasting and many of the various forms (beyond just food) it might take inspired largely by the practices of the desert elders.
  • You will receive the prayer cards as a gift and a signed copy of one of Christine’s books (Titles currently available: Birthing the Holy, Breath Prayer, Dreaming of Stones, or The Wisdom of Wild Grace while supplies last.)

Sustainer Mystic Level

  • If you register for the Sustainer Mystic Level you receive all that is included in the Sustainer Level (monthly contemplative prayer service, Taizé service, yoga classes plus regular writing from Christine & John) plus The Mystical Heart – our monthly series of ten mini-retreats on the mystics. This level is for those who want the monthly offerings but not the Advent or Lent retreats.
  • You will receive the prayer cards as a gift and a signed copy of one of Christine’s books (Titles currently available: Birthing the Holy, Breath Prayer, Dreaming of Stones, or The Wisdom of Wild Grace while supplies last.)

Sustainer Superstar Level

  • If you register for our Sustainer Superstar level you receive access to all that is included in the Sustainer Level (monthly contemplative prayer service, Taizé service, yoga classes plus regular writing from Christine & John), plus the Advent (Mary and the Sacred Feminine) and Lent (A Different Kind of Fast) retreats, plus The Mystical Heart – our monthly series of ten mini-retreats on the mystics.
  • You will receive the prayer cards as a gift, a signed copy of one of Christine’s books (Titles currently available: Birthing the Holy, Breath Prayer, Dreaming of Stones, or The Wisdom of Wild Grace while supplies last), and our entire digital collection of song albums.  

Monthly Themes

Harvest

August 2021

Lament

September 2021

St. Francis

October 2021

Honoring Ancestors

November 2021

Advent

December 2021

Registration

Your registration constitutes an agreement with our online program Terms and Conditions below. 

All prices displayed in USD.

Sustainer Level

$250

per year

10 monthly payments of $25

Sustainer Plus

$600

per year

10 monthly payments of $60

Sustainer Mystic

$750

per year

10 monthly payments of $75

Sustainer Superstar

$1200

per year

10 monthly payments of $120

Terms and Conditions

Please consider your purchase carefully and review the many free materials we have on our website to make sure the program will be a good fit or get in touch with any questions.

We ask that you honor our work by not sharing the program materials with others who are not enrolled.

Please contact us for permission to quote in settings beyond the program

These videos are made available to registered participants and may also be included in future versions of the program including self-study. If you choose to speak during a recorded gathering, you are giving us your consent to record that contribution. If you prefer not to be seen or heard, you can of course switch off or mute your camera or microphone at any time. Chat sessions are recorded and posted as well. Participation in the chat function is also giving consent to their recording. Breakout groups are never recorded.

If you choose a payment plan and stop payment before fulfilling the commitment without contacting us to make other arrangements, your access to the program will be removed.