Pendle Hill

Join us in celebrating our Artist in Residence, Reverend Rhetta Morgan as she completes her residency at Pendle Hill with this afternoon workshop, Giving Voice to Our Dreams. In this Black-led, BIOPOC-centered workshop, we will explore individual and collective sound as medicine through humming, chanting, and sound-bathing. All are welcome (and we mean it!). This event is pay as led and able. Register at https://lnkd.in/ebbqB3yn

And we're off! This year's Quaker Institute: Living Our Testimonies in "The Fierce Urgency of Now" began with registration and welcoming remarks last night. This morning, the conference was kicked off by George Lakey in conversation with Dwight Dunston and Ingrid Lakey in todays' plenary session, Responding to Growing Political Polarization: Lessons from 17th and 20th Century Quaker History. (Attendees have already dubbed George "ProvocaGeorge" as he spoke about his experience being a professional provocateur!) We can't wait to see what other incredible learnings and leadings come out of this weekend 🙌

Episode 4 with Felix B. Rosado is out now! Listen wherever you get your podcasts to this uplifting conversation about the power of imagination, the work Felix is doing to end human caging in all its forms, and what it's like to be free. https://lnkd.in/dw5JRM3P

Shh! The new owl box resident is sleeping!

Owen's Garden is truly magical in the spring! This garden space was built in 2002 and named in memory of Owen Richmond (1928-2001), a strong supporter of Pendle Hill and our mission. Owen was a world-renowned scientist in the field of engineering, with many publications attesting to his accomplishments and honoring him and his work. Of his life, it is noteworthy that during the Korean War he flew in planes through fall-out clouds of atomic bomb tests to research the effects of the blasts on fall-out shelters. This military experience energized his interest in the study of the plasticity of metals and, furthermore, prompted a shift to a lifelong commitment to pacifism. The construction of this garden was made possible through a designated gift from Ann Richmond. The design goal was to create a space that invites rest and contemplation as well as provides for small group collaboration and meeting space. To the designer, the peaceful yet dynamic energy of the water feature represents the spirit and creativity of a remarkable human being.

Coming this summer is an online course with Jesse White of Pigeon Arts on Altered Books: Making Tangible Our Personal and Prophetic Narratives. On Sundays from July 14th through September 8th, we will come together in safe and brave online learning community to learn altered bookmaking techniques, how to dig deep and reflect the integrity of your story, and how sharing your book with others can extend Spirit’s message through you into a wider landscape. Learn more and register at https://lnkd.in/erhPNJCS

We celebrate Earth Day every day through our testimony of sustainability, but something worth highlighting today is the new coffee table in Upmeads living room, made by hand with found materials from the property. Here's the story of this table, straight from Director of Facilities & Grounds, Lloyd Guindon: 20th century furniture designer George Nakashima states, “There is a spirit in trees that is very deep and in order to produce a fine piece of furniture, the spirit of the tree lives on and I can give it a second life.” This coffee table in Upmeads living room was built by John Freeburg using lumber from Pendle Hill trees. Its top is a piece of crotch wood from a cherry tree that fell into the wetlands at Brinton House one summer storm in 2018. I was about to get a bid on its removal from my tree contractor and expecting to pay $2,000 for its removal from the water. Being summer, it was the end of our budget year and the budget was spent. Its trunk crossed the dam and blocked the wood chip path. The canopy of this mature tree lay under water 30 feet from shore. Enter brother-in-law Craig Richmond, visiting from Switzerland and offering his annual volunteer services to Pendle Hill before a week of family reunion at the Jersey Shore. Craig is a regular hiker in the Swiss Alps and an oarsman with Limmat Club Zurich, a traditional boating club on the Limmat river that winds through that city. He enjoys physical adventure. Craig sees the tree in the water and talks me into an in-house removal. We are in a Philadelphia heat wave with 95 degree temps. But who am I to turn down free labor? We make a plan. He drives to Home Depot and buys a 20 dollar bow-saw. Straddling the trunk like a cowboy on his horse, he shimmies out the trunk to the top of the canopy of the tree, now in the middle of the pond. He ties off the branches with my old climbing line before cutting. I “beaver” the limbs to shore to cut up with a chain saw. Yes, the crotch of this cherry tree was under water before being roped to shore and towed by tractor to high ground for a hired sawmill to create the boards for furniture use. In Nakashima style, Freeburg found the spirit of this cherry tree. His work highlights the beauty in its grain and its wounds. Perhaps the subliminal message from the wood comes through from the witness this tree played over its life time; growing silently in the valley, its canopy a ceiling for wading heron, diving kingfishers and bullfrog love-fests. Witness to teenage rendezvous over a bag of weed and ice hockey games, witness to meditating retreatants and young friends skinny-dipping in the moonlight. Trees know life’s secrets. But they won’t tell on you. They just store it away as beauty to be rediscovered in a piece of furniture like this, vibrant spirit in a second life.

Join the June Reading Group, where we'll discuss two classic Pendle Hill Pamphlets on the evening of June 12th. In support of Windy Cooler and Powell House's 2024 series on public ministers, we will explore two pamphlets on supporting gifts of ministry: Martha Grundy’s Tall Poppies: Supporting Gifts of Ministry and Eldering in the Monthly Meeting (PHP #347) and Debbie Humphries’s Spreading the Fire: Challenging and Encouraging Friends Through Travel in the Ministry (PHP #436). Register for this free online event at https://lnkd.in/ez9STG5g

The blossoms on this Crabapple outside of the Barn are really stealing the show!

The Quaker Institute, Pendle Hill's annual Friends' conference, is just around the corner. Another choice of workshops available at this event will be led by Eileen Flanagan and Ingrid Lakey on "Building Skills and Grounding for Uncertain Times." Many Friends are afraid of what is happening in our country and the world. In this session, we will make space to explore our fears and practice ways to build our spiritual grounding and skills, so we are not overcome by fear, however we might be led to act. Few on-campus and commuter spots remain, and financial assistance is still available. Don't wait to register for this conference and attend this and other workshops, plenary sessions, and affinity groups on Pendle Hill's campus from May 2-5! https://lnkd.in/ekNUDhab