A Commitment to Empower Those Who Serve
The Mastery Foundation is a non-profit, volunteer, interfaith organization established in 1983. You can read more here about the generosity of the individuals and organizations that from the beginning have made our work possible.
The work of the Mastery Foundation is to empower individuals and communities
- in their ministries
- in the reconciliation and healing of divisions
- in creating new conversations and possibilities for the future
We are not a foundation in the usual sense of being supported by an endowment. Our financial support comes from individual donors and almost all our work is done by volunteers—including board members and regular workshop leaders, who pay their own expenses to travel to and lead our programs.
What we offer
The programs and initiatives offered by the Mastery Foundation are designed to give participants new power and access to what they already know and the ability to bring new possibilities to their current situation.
Each program offers participants a methodology for identifying and shifting the context or paradigm within which a given set of circumstances is viewed or interpreted. As a result, participants report they find themselves much less limited by their own structures, views, and presuppositions, and also able to create new approaches to situations that had seemed static or at an impasse. Rather than feeling hostage to their circumstances and history, they find themselves freed and empowered to work on creating a new kind of future.
Mastery Foundation programs and workshops are team-led by volunteers. Some volunteers are ordained clergy and lay persons with more than 10 years experience in ministry. Others are professional consultants who donate their time and talent to support the foundation in its work.
The Mastery Foundation offers programs and initiatives in three general areas:
Interfaith
Making a Difference: A Course for Those who Minister is a four-day program that has been offered since 1984. The workshop focuses on the teaching and practice of Centering Prayer and the development of specific tools for renewal and generating positive change.
Peace and Reconciliation
Initiatives designed to empower community and religious leaders already working to ensure peace for future generations. The Foundation sponsors annual conferences and community programs that offer to help these leaders discover new ways to bring people together, to own their different beliefs and identities, and to create new possibilities for a shared future.
Community Empowerment
Programs, generally offered as part of a long-term initiative, designed to empower those who are directly involved in working to make their communities better places to live. They offer new models of leadership and participation based on inclusion, relationship, accountability, and the generation of new possibilities that will make a positive difference in our communities.