Reconciliation and Radical Hospitality: A Reflection on the Rose Castle Fellowship

By Althea Downing-Sherer, WSCF-US Leadership Team 2026-27

This summer, I participated in the Columbia University Rose Castle Fellowship hosted by the Rose Castle Foundation. Along with 16 other interfaith student leaders from my university’s campus, I spent a week engaged in conflict transformation and interfaith dialogue workshops at the Rose Castle in the northern United Kingdom. During the fellowship, we unpacked the faith-based elements of political conflict on Columbia’s campus, particularly surrounding pro-Palestine activism. Our cohort included students from many religious backgrounds and political persuasions. One of the most refreshing aspects of the fellowship was how we were not asked to find neutral middle ground, but rather to think of difference as an unavoidable reality that is necessary for truly encountering the other and understanding ourselves. The Fellowship pushed us toward learning to live in disagreement. 

An entrance to Rose Castle, where leaders of all ages gather to practice faith-informed reconciliation.

At a time when religion—Christianity in particular—has become so associated with exclusion and suppression, I was inspired by how Rose Castle positioned faith as a driver for peace and reconciliation rather than conflict. I remember during one session, our facilitator sketched a diagram representing the dynamics of conflict. Stick figures on two sides of a deep divide represented opposing beliefs. After illustrating this rift, she drew one sweeping arc over the entire conflict and labeled it “God.” I was struck by how our shared belief in a higher power, beyond flawed human institutions or authorities, could be our one point of contact across conflicts that seem otherwise irreconcilable. 

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The Rose Castle Foundation’s values are shown through what they call the “12 Habits of Reconcilers.” The one “habit” that became the biggest takeaway from my experience was hospitality. Before spending time with the Rose Castle Foundation, I tended to think of the term “hospitality” as nothing more than a marketing ploy for popular hotel chains. My understanding of hospitality was transformed over the course of the week I spent as a Rose Castle Fellow. The Rose Castle website reads that “far from a transaction between two people, hospitality is an expression of shared humanity. To be a risky host and to guest in spaces of difference is vital to an understanding of how we can disagree well.” The radical hospitality of the Rose Castle Foundation expanded my definition of the word and showed me how important giving and receiving hospitality is for peacebuilding work. 

As Christians, it is important to remember how radical Jesus’s practice of hospitality was. We are called to invite in the stranger, to engage difference with curiosity, and to take risks when it comes to welcoming those in need. During the fellowship, we engaged in Scriptural Reasoning, discussing passages from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and Quran that related to the theme of hospitality. From the New Testament, we reflected on Luke 28:28-35, where the disciples encounter the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus, but only recognize him when he breaks bread with them. This passage was an important reminder that powerful movement building and transformative dialogue begin with mutual recognition, and that mutual recognition can happen through something as simple as sharing a meal.

On our last day, we sat around a campfire, our shadows flickering off the castle’s ancient stone walls. Much like many of our religious traditions, these walls had faced centuries of political conflict, both internal and external. Yet now, they had been transformed into a welcoming oasis from polarization and prejudice. As we reflected on our time at the castle, one student expressed that this experience had brought them the closest to God they had felt in a long time. I felt similarly. Much like how the risen Christ was made known to the disciples through “the breaking of the bread,” I had encountered God’s presence through the powerful hospitality those at Rose Castle showed me. Whether it was having the vulnerability to share about a personal faith journey, to answer challenging questions about religious traditions, or to simply help a friend carry their bag, I saw God’s love in action at Rose Castle.