Author

Gretchen E. Ziegenhals

Spiritual director and retreat leader

Gretchen E. Ziegenhals is a spiritual director, worship leader and educator whose work combines broad experience in event design with a theology of hospitality and a love of the arts.

She directed programs at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity for over 13 years, including The Pastors and Scholars’ Studio, Sustaining Pastoral Excellence, Denominational Leadership, Foundations of Christian Leadership and, for seven years, A Convocation of Christian Leaders. In addition she has directed Duke Divinity School’s Study Leave program.

For 10 years, she was a facilitator and writer for the Lexington Seminar, a Lilly Endowment Inc. project that assisted Protestant theological seminary faculties with issues in teaching and learning. Prior to The Lexington Seminar she was an assistant editor at The Christian Century.

Ziegenhals is a graduate of Yale Divinity School and Williams College.

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Lilly Endowment Inc. announces Exploring Christian Practices Initiative

The Exploring Christian Practices Initiative aims to multiply opportunities and increase access to settings that help individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds explore and engage in Christian practices to address their spiritual interests and questions, find and build community with others, nourish their religious lives and grow in faith. 

In this open and competitive initiative, the Endowment invites charitable organizations to submit proposals for grants of up to $2.5 million each that may be used for up to a five-year period to develop new and/or enhance existing programs that present promising strategies for advancing the aim of the initiative and provide compelling and thoughtful responses to its guiding questions. The Endowment anticipates awarding approximately 60 grants and announcing grant awards in December 2026.

The Endowment will host four virtual information sessions (February 17, 19, 24, and 25) to discuss the Exploring Christian Practices guidelines for submitting a proposal. An Interest Form and Letter of Interest are due March 25, 2026. Complete proposals are due May 18, 2026.

Learn More and register for information sessions