In a moment when the world feels exhausted, fractured, and depleted, Pendle Hill’s Spring Term offers a greenhouse – a protected space for Friends and other seekers to bring leadings, ideas, questions, and other seeds of the “already but not yet” – to nurture these visions into being, through the daily rhythm of study, work, and worship in community.
In this opening retreat, you will be oriented to Pendle Hill, ground in our residential program of rest,
worship, work, and study in community, and learn nourishing practices of restoration.
During the first week, Valerie Brown will offer How to Rest: Nourishing Practices to Renew and Restore Body, Mind,
and Spirit. Many of us believe that we have to earn rest and renewal and that overwork is the norm.
Frazzled and stressed by the pull of too many demands of work, family, children, aging relatives, and
our own health needs, we succumb to individual pressures that foster a collective culture of burnout
and toxic productivity.
Offering approaches from the Plum Village tradition and Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh and Parker Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal, Valerie will invite participants to explore the connection between radiant rest, peacemaking, social justice, and societal transformation to live in greater groundedness and alignment with your deepest values.
Pillars of the Program
Study
The program will feature a series of courses centering around Pendle Hill’s three core educational themes:
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- Faith and Practice, including Quakerism, spiritual discernment, and Biblical studies;
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- Prophetic Witness and Social Concerns; and
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- Nurturing Creativity through a creative exploration in the art studio.
Students will have time to work on personal projects and support each other in their personal development.
Work
Each student will take part in caring for the needs of the community, within the areas of hospitality (including housekeeping and work in the kitchen), buildings and grounds (gardening and maintenance), and education (upkeep of the library and art studio).
Worship
The heartbeat of Pendle Hill is daily Meeting for Worship. Students will be encouraged to join and support this and other spiritual practices.
The Center for Courage & Renewal and its facilitators do not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression, age, height, weight, physical or mental ability, veteran status, military obligations, and marital status.
