PENDLE HILL

Pendle Hill’s vision is briefly stated as “to create peace with justice in the world by transforming lives.” In doing so, we promote peace, truth-speaking and integrity, equality, simplicity, and reaching out to that of God in everyone.

In order to accomplish these goals, our staff and Board regularly meet to discuss short- and long-term objectives. For the current fiscal year (FY2022), we aspire to:
- Ensure meaningful Pendle Hill experiences and increase financial accessibility to our programs.
- Reduce our carbon footprint.
- Strengthen and expand Pendle Hill's base of supporters and advocates.
- Develop and implement a multiyear plan for increasing staff benefits and increasing financial reserves based on a equity and DEI strategy.

Pendle Hill's primary functions are as a study, retreat, and study center. We aim to provide guests from all over the world with spiritual, moral, and intellectual sustenance, as well as serve our local community in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Our strategy in accomplishing these goals are best stated by our values of Education, Sustainability, and Social Action and Justice.

1) Education: Learning at Pendle Hill is both experiential and intellectual, rooted in the principles of The Religious Society of Friends. Such learning includes dialogue, personal study and contemplation, collaborative exploration, openness to divine leadings, and interaction with the natural environment.

2) Sustainability: Pendle Hill seeks to be a living, nourishing model of sustainability in a spiritual community. We work to experience and support a way of living that is environmentally, socially, and fiscally sustainable.

3) Social Action and Justice: At Pendle Hill we commit to being a living testimony to a social order that manifests God's love for everyone. We work to be inclusive, respectful, and supportive of all people. We strive courageously for peace and justice.

Founded in 1930 as a “Quaker experiment in education and community” where students and teachers lived, studied, and worked together, Pendle Hill has been a site for Spirit-led learning and social action for over 90 years. Throughout the years, a philosophy of experiential education through study, work, and worship, as well as group life, became its hallmark. During World War II and its aftermath, Pendle Hill was a training site for international service personnel as well as relief programs.

Luminaries who have come to Pendle Hill throughout the years to teach or retreat include Eleanor Roosevelt, Paul Robeson, Rabindranath Tagore, Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Buber, Anna and Howard Brinton, A.J. Muste, Dorothy Day, Elise and Kenneth Boulding, Dorothy and Douglas Steere, Bill and Fran Taber, Wendell Berry, Bayard Rustin, Muriel Lester, Sally and Parker Palmer, Vincent Harding, George Willoughby, George Lakey, and Niyonu Spann.

To this day, Pendle Hill maintains its theme of ‘education for the whole person.’ Instead of grades, exams, and college credits, participants are engaged in a model of community-based learning aimed at helping the individual discern their path in how they may serve our wider society. These ends are accomplished through the flagship residential program, The Spring Term, as well as workshops and seminars that provide balance analytical, service-oriented, and inward approaches. On an annual basis, we serve more than 15,000 individuals that include sojourners, workshop participants, and conference attendees.

Pendle Hill’s unique capability to inspire reflection and renewal is grounded in a sense of place. The 24-acre campus features a well-stocked art studio, library, and a mile-long walking trail that is open to the public. With over 140 species of trees, a half-acre garden, and a wetland pond, our grounds have been described as possessing a “storybook-like serenity.”