Participation agreement

1. Parties and educational scope

1.1 Parties and acceptance. This participation agreement sets out the terms on which Matthew Knight, doing business as Deconstructing Cleric (“Deconstructing Cleric”), provides Deconstruction Without Disenchantment (the “Program”) to the enrolling adult participant (“you”). Your enrollment offer will include the exact version of this agreement for your acceptance before payment. Applying or receiving an offer does not create an obligation to enroll or pay.

1.2 Educational purpose. The Program is a six-week adult educational cohort exploring contemplation, reading, ritual, discernment, and sustainable personal practice. It is not therapy, mental-health treatment, Catholic spiritual direction, catechesis, a sacramental relationship, or a new religious affiliation. Individual consultations have the same educational scope. Deconstructing Cleric does not diagnose or treat conditions, interpret symptoms, direct medication decisions, or provide crisis coverage.

1.3 Voluntary participation. No belief, disbelief, conversion, personal disclosure, emotional outcome, or completed assignment is required. You may adapt or decline any practice.

2. Schedule and included services

2.1 Eligibility and meetings. The Program is open to adults aged 18 or older, including participants outside the United States, and is limited to twelve participants. The six online meetings take place on October 15, 22, and 29 and November 5, 12, and 19, 2026, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Central time (America/Chicago).

2.2 Attendance and missed sessions. Attendance at all six meetings is not required. Meetings will not be recorded. Written teaching and practice summaries, community discussion, and optional one-on-one conversation with willing fellow participants are available to support missed sessions.

2.3 Materials and written feedback. The Cohort fee includes six two-hour meetings, a workbook, optional practices, teaching summaries, a one-page rule-of-life worksheet, and one round of written feedback on an optional one-page draft before the final meeting. Drafts must be submitted by November 15 at 8 p.m. Central to receive feedback by November 18. Practice between meetings is encouraged, with no minimum time requirement or catch-up work. Community access is described in Section 8.

3. Participation choices and conduct

3.1 Choice of participation. Cameras are encouraged for connection but may be turned off without explanation. Listening, speaking, and using the chat are welcome. You may pass, observe, decline a question, adapt a practice, or step out without explanation. Private workbook entries remain with you unless you choose to share a specific excerpt. You may discontinue participation at any time, subject to the refund provisions in Section 6.

3.2 Practice adaptations. You may use an ordinary object or external sound in place of breath or body attention. No practice requires closed eyes, touch, fasting, breath retention, intense breathing, confession, prayer to a deity, or personal testimony.

3.3 Belonging and respectful disagreement. People of all religious backgrounds and none are welcome, including Christian, post-Christian, Jewish, formerly Jewish, agnostic, atheist, and uncertain participants. Participants must not debate another person’s right to exist, sexuality, gender, relationships, or religious identity. Disagreement with Deconstructing Cleric’s teaching or facilitation is permitted.

3.4 Standards of conduct. You agree to speak from your own experience, obtain consent before offering advice, allow others to finish, share discussion time, and respect a refusal immediately. Proselytizing, pressure to deconvert, diagnosing others, harassment, recruitment, and selling to the group are prohibited.

4. Confidentiality and privacy

4.1 Recording and disclosure restrictions. You must not record, screenshot, transcribe, quote, post about, or identify another participant or their story outside the group. Recording, transcription, and AI meeting assistants must be disabled. Deconstructing Cleric will observe these same restrictions, subject to the limited disclosures described in paragraph 4.4.

4.2 Contact information and private messages. No group directory or contact sharing is permitted without each person’s specific opt-in. Obtain permission before privately messaging another participant. Membership in the Program does not, by itself, authorize private contact.

4.3 Participation environment. Attend from a private location and use headphones where possible. Notify Deconstructing Cleric if another person can overhear a session. You may choose a display name you are comfortable sharing.

4.4 Limits of confidentiality. All participants agree to protect group privacy. Deconstructing Cleric cannot guarantee another person’s conduct, the privacy of a participant’s room or device, or the security of third-party platforms. Communications are not represented as legally privileged. Deconstructing Cleric may disclose the minimum necessary information when required by applicable law or to respond to an immediate safety emergency. The existence and extent of any legal obligation depend on the circumstances and applicable law.

4.5 Summaries and participant stories. Written session summaries will contain teaching and practice instructions only, without group disclosures or identifiable anecdotes. Personal conversations will remain within the original cohort and will not be reused for later cohorts or marketing.

5. Facilitation, boundaries, and concerns

5.1 Limits of the facilitator’s role. Deconstructing Cleric provides educational facilitation and does not exercise authority over your personal life. The facilitator will not direct you to stay in or leave a religion, interpret an experience as a divine command, assess your spiritual worth, or require personal deference. Romantic or sexual involvement, private dependency arrangements, and financial solicitation within the facilitator relationship are prohibited. Individual appointments are bounded educational consultations and do not provide priority access to care.

5.2 Communication and availability. Email is available for logistics and brief practice questions, with replies within two business days except during the announced September 17–27 absence. Email and other communications are not monitored during evenings or weekends, and no emergency response is promised. Participation in community discussions is described in paragraph 8.2.

5.3 Intervention and removal. Deconstructing Cleric may interrupt a discussion, pause a practice, offer a break, or end a session when needed to address unsafe conduct. Repeated violations will ordinarily be addressed privately by identifying the behavior and requesting a change. Serious harassment, threats, or confidentiality violations may result in immediate removal. Removal entitles the affected participant to a refund for undelivered Cohort meetings and unused individual consultations under Section 6. Another participant’s removal will not be publicly explained.

5.4 Raising a concern. You may raise a concern privately by replying to your enrollment correspondence. Deconstructing Cleric will acknowledge the concern within two business days and propose a response within five business days. You may withdraw without first using this process and without providing a personal explanation. The withdrawal and refund terms in Section 6 remain applicable.

6. Enrollment, payment, and refunds

6.1 Fees and reservation of a place. The standard total fee is $499 for Cohort or $649 for Cohort + Individual Sessions. An eligible founding-cohort reader discount, if supplied, will be reflected in the exact total stated in your private enrollment offer. There is no subscription or installment plan. Applications are free and do not reserve a place. Acceptance of the participation terms and payment in full reserve your place, subject to confirmation that the Program will run.

6.2 Application and payment deadlines. Applications close October 11 at 8 p.m. Central unless Deconstructing Cleric announces an extension. Each offer will state an exact payment deadline, ordinarily three calendar days after the offer and no later than October 13 at 8 p.m. Central. An unpaid offer expires at its stated deadline. Payment is processed through Stripe, with PayPal available on request. A free, optional 15-minute fit conversation is available before payment. Deconstructing Cleric will confirm or cancel the Program by October 14 at noon Central, or earlier once confirmed.

6.3 Voluntary withdrawal and missed meetings. After you accept these terms and pay, no discretionary refund is available for voluntary withdrawal, a decision not to continue, or missed meetings. You may nevertheless stop participating without giving a personal explanation. This provision does not limit the mandatory legal rights preserved in paragraph 6.7.

6.4 Cancellation and material changes by Deconstructing Cleric. If Deconstructing Cleric cancels the Program before it begins, including because enrollment is insufficient, all payments will be refunded, including any individual-session supplement. A material change requires your agreement. If you decline a material change before the Program begins, you are entitled to a full refund. If delivery has begun, declining a material change entitles you to a refund for affected undelivered services. If Deconstructing Cleric ends delivery or removes a participant, undelivered services will be refunded. Payments will not be transferred to a future cohort without your agreement.

6.5 Calculation of partial refunds. For a provider-related partial refund, the actual Cohort fee paid is allocated equally across six meetings, and the actual individual-session supplement paid is allocated equally across two consultations. A meeting offered as agreed is treated as delivered even if you did not attend. Written feedback, materials, and forum access have no separate price allocation. The final refund is rounded once to the nearest cent, with no administrative fee deducted.

6.6 Refund processing. Refunds owed under this agreement will be initiated to the original payment method within five business days. Bank or payment-provider posting times may vary. Requests for assistance may be made by replying to the enrollment email.

6.7 Mandatory legal rights. Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits applicable legal rights or mandatory consumer remedies. Provider-related refunds are separate from the policy on voluntary withdrawal and do not replace any remedy required by applicable law.

7. Optional individual consultations

7.1 Consultation entitlement and scheduling. The Cohort + Individual Sessions option includes two 45-minute educational practice consultations. Appointments are scheduled during October 23–28 and November 13–18, 2026. The educational scope and facilitation boundaries in Sections 1 and 5 apply.

7.2 Participant rescheduling and missed appointments. Rescheduling requests must be made at least 24 hours before the appointment and are subject to availability. A late cancellation or failure to attend will ordinarily count as a used appointment. Emergency exceptions will be considered individually.

7.3 Facilitator cancellation. An appointment canceled by Deconstructing Cleric does not count as used, and a replacement appointment will be provided. If a replacement cannot be provided, the undelivered consultation will be refunded in accordance with Section 6.

8. Optional community and retained materials

8.1 Community spaces and conduct. Enrollment includes full access to four private spaces: Classroom for teaching and readings; Chapel for practices and adaptations; Courtyard for participant-led conversation; and Bulletin Board for announcements. Participation is optional. The conduct and confidentiality provisions in Sections 3 and 4 apply to posts and messages. You must not upload another person’s work or private stories without permission.

8.2 Materials and facilitator participation. Teaching summaries and practice materials will be posted after each session. Deconstructing Cleric will participate in discussions and answer questions between sessions, alongside discussion among participants.

8.3 Access period and archive. Discussion will remain open until November 27, 2026, providing one week after the end of the course for continued conversation. The boards will then be locked, and participants will retain access to a read-only archive. Downloadable teaching materials may be kept. The restrictions on disclosing participant information continue to apply to the archive and retained materials.