This program is focused on those who are exploring a deepening call to serve in a way that brings together spiritual and creative practices. Creativity, imagination, and the arts have a vital role to play in our faith, and ARC is proud to build on the long list of ARC Fellows from the past by making a particular commitment to support rising leaders in this work.

All application materials must be submitted by June 5, 2020

Meet the 2020 Cohort here.

What is the ARCEL Fellowship?

The Emerging ARC Leaders Fellowship is a program designed to accomplish four things:

1. Identify, annually, six rising young leaders whose sense of calling lives at the intersection of creative practice, spirituality, and work that builds up communities. These leaders will be drawn from gap-year young adults, undergraduates, graduate students, working artists, and early career clergy.

2. Provide these leaders with exposure to tools, models, and relationships that can help them to thrive in their individual contexts and communities where they may feel disconnected and relatively unsupported in terms of their work to braid together creative and spiritual practices.

3. Encourage these leaders as they wrestle with their sense of call, introducing them to each other and to networks of other leaders who are at the edge of innovation and discovery about the ways in which the arts and religion can be twinned to produce transformative opportunities for reflection and change.

4. Make Space for the fellows to reflect and discern how their own unique skills can best be used to promote the flourishing of all creation.

Note: This is less of a training program and more of an opportunity for reflection, re-orientation, and consideration of what leadership might look like for you in your work. While Fellows will almost certainly pick up some skills and develop new ways of discussing their work, inspiration, and service, this Fellowship is more about helping you to clarify, sharpen, and reinforce your own sense of personal trajectory.

OK, but what does it look like?

The Fellowship is a nine-month program** that consists of:

1. A pre-retreat online orientation Zoom call in mid-June 2020;

2. a 2 day retreat (Thursday, July 9 to Saturday, July 11 2020), where participants will have the opportunity to spend time together in getting to establish in person relationships, share work and ideas, and receive the first prompt;

3. four prompts for reflection meant to support participants in their process of discovery and discernment of call: participants will respond to each prompt (in varying media), sharing their work with their the ARCEL Coordinator, the group, and four invited Connectors;

4. eight meetings via video conference as a group where responses to prompts are shared. Dates are;

   1. July 11, 2020

   2. August 1 & 21, 2020

   3. September 11, 2020

   4. October 10 & 24, 2020

   5. November 7 & 21, 2020

5. four meetings via video conference as a group to synthesize prompt responses and to plan for the culminating retreat;access to coaches and mentors to support reflection and the development of skills. Dates are;

   1. January 9 & 30, 2021

   2. February 20, 2021

   3. March 13, 2021

6. access to coaches and mentors to support reflection and the development of skills;

7. connection to the network of ARC affiliates whose work is similarly situated at the intersection of the spiritual and creative practices oriented toward supporting a more just world;

8. a culminating retreat where participants will have the opportunity to offer performances, exhibits and/or make presentations based on their own work, followed by attendance in ARC’s Theopoetics Conference where participants will have the opportunity to network with presenters and attendees (March 2021).

**(This is the intended design of the ARCEL Fellowship Program, but it could look different put into practice in a COVID-19 reality. Dates may be subject to change and scheduled in person gatherings may shift to an online environment due to circumstances involving the COVID-19 pandemic. All decisions made by ARC will prioritize the safety and well-being of all participants in the ARCEL Fellowship Program).