Pendle Hill, its Staff, and Community

Pendle Hill is undergoing profound change which will certainly establish the face and character of Pendle Hill for the next generation.  Some of those changes, it is obvious, are already in hand:  this is what I wrote to the couple who were the Britain Yearly Meeting Friends in Residence last year:

Our first days are going well.  Our experience is in marked contrast to what I remember of your description of your early days and weeks. This is in part to the clear, gentle orientation and induction which we are undergoing, led by a new appointment Rachel, and by Marianne,  a most wonderful FIR from Arkansas , who has taken us under her tender wing. Danny is ensuring we are clear about hosting duties, including the computer system.   I think you will be delighted to learn that a new computer system is planned to be operational quite soon, which will enable a more effective service to be offered by the hosts!  But much more than this, there has clearly been strategic thinking about the role of FIR, and ways our needs might be met if they are to participate in the community to the full, and most fully serve the organisation to the best of their gifts and talents. 

But there is much more fundamental change planned. A committee has been appointed to choose a firm of architects to address some of the issues of the current building stock, and draw up a series of plans to enhance the site.  The Board (Trustees) are refashioning the Mission Statement (which signals fundamental change in any organisation which takes itself seriously).   Personally, after being an agent and driver of change for so many years it is fascinating to observe change at  ground level - and the pun has been made that as FiRs we are at the bottom of the tree!.  And of course change is demanding for those who are required  to implement it – the staff.

It is a fascinating to see the staff at work and play. I said at the beginning of our time here how richly we had been welcomed – on the second night we were taken into Philadelphia  to a splendid production for Twelfth Night (the taunting of  Malvoliao played as a scene from Abu Ghraib).  This welcome and acceptance continues - last night I was invited to see a showing  of the film (movie) Drive .  Luckily Gwyneth had duties and couldn’t go – I found it a brilliant film, but some scenes were really horrendously gory, and as anyone who knows her realises, she would have hated these.

 Earlier in the week we had a chance to see the staff working very hard, as we were invited to the two day Staff Retreat, and which the whole body of staff undertook training in ‘cultural competence’ i.e. meeting and welcoming ‘the other’.  Of course, in order to meet the other, we have to be prepared to meet ourselves, and for some of us, this is not always easy given that some of us have had very bruising experiences – often as young children. .  The fact that we were doing this as part of a working day, to which people are compelled to come, raises interesting questions about the nature of Pendle Hill.

For Pendle Hill, it seems to me, offers two fascinating ways of seeing things.  When seen through one set of lenses, it is an organisation; an organisation undertaking God’s work in the world, but nevertheless an organisation which has employees, a payroll, and needs to make a profit to stay in existence.  Through another set of lenses, it is a community, living and worshipping together, attempting to model that community which welcomes all (just as all are called to the feast in the parable) – attempting to show what the kingdom of God on earth might look like.  And is both, simultaneously.  There is not two  set s of lenses, but one – like bifocals; sometimes you  look through one, at another time another, and sometimes need to flick between the two so quickly it is difficult to realise there are in fact two lenses.

Many of the staff are truly committed to a community way of living: as I’ve described, many staff live on campus, meals are eaten together, and many attend morning worship together.  On the retreat, there were soaring, moving contributions about hospitality welcoming people into community, so that there is not division between them and us, and each stranger representing  the face of Jesus.

In this sense, it is a spiritual community living its truth.  There are deeper questions – how can a faith community nurture and sustain its identity, and continuing tradition, whilst being alive, alert  and embracing of the stranger in its midst? How can that same faith tradition be a continuing tradition, whilst including those of other faiths, and those of none?  How open is open?

It occurs to me that Pendle Hill is not the only part of the Society to be wrestling with such issues.  Those of us on Quaker Life Central committee have been wrestling with such a concern; both may be seen to be holding this issue for the wider Society on both sides of the Atlantic. One answer is hinted at by the very grounds and presence of Pendle Hill.  Around the perimeter of the site, there is a marked and maintained perimeter path – it a true joy to walk this path regularly and many of my photos of the grounds have been taken on that path.  There are many neighbours of Pendle Hill, each with their own piece of property, carefully marked by boundary fences.  Each neighbour has a small footpath from their property, enabling them to access the Pendle Hill trail.  From the trail, it is easy to enter into the heart of Pendle Hill – the Barn, the Main House, and various buildings of accommodation and the Library:  there is a clear boundary, but a very accessible, permeable border.  It is making this metaphor live which is the art and work of the staff here.

And what a group of people they are: alert, lively, hugely intelligent and thoughtful.  It’s fascinating to hear the cooks talking incessantly about food - sourcing it, cooking it, balancing it.  And then having discussion with those same people about the nature of American Society or the intellectual and spiritual basis  of Western civilisation; listening to an IT specialist talk about his passion of developing aquaponics;  watching them in a large group, as they stretch out in yoga positions,  do their knitting (men and women, incidentally), and refuse, very politely, but very clearly,  to allow  an external Facilitator to come in and simply walk through a series of exercises, ensuring that he tailored his work to meet the demands of that group in that moment – all these are very impressive features of a highly articulate and personally self-skilled group.  Like most educated Americans I have met, they seem to be far more conscious of how matters are processed and decisions arrived at than their British equivalents, who often seem to take their model to be the House of Commons and engage in robust conversations which are, at heart, adversarial.

These are my reflections thus far on our experiences here, and how I understand Pendle Hill as a community at this moment.  I’m sure this is a topic to which I shall be returning at some point.