Jennifer Karsten shares her vision for Pendle Hill

In November Jen Karsten was approved as Interim Executive Director of Pendle Hill. Last July she presented her emerging vision to the Board. Here, with revisions and updates, is her vision.

When I first arrived at Pendle Hill in September of 2010, several people asked me, “What is your vision for Pendle Hill?” I was at a loss for words because I hadn’t arrived with a vision. I had come to Pendle Hill not because of what I imagined it to be in the future, but because of what I knew it to be now and historically – a “school for prophets,” an “idea laboratory,” an oasis for rest and spiritual renewal, a gathering place for all Quakers and fellow travelers who seek truth, worship, connection, growth. What a place! I liked the Pendle Hill I knew about, so I hadn’t seriously considered what it might be.

Also, I was new and knew very little about our eighty year story. The inside character, the nuances of the place, an appreciation of the teachers and learners and the renowned figures who’ve visited here…there is a lot to discover about a place with a history as interesting as ours (!) and I was at the very beginning of learning. I would not have thought it helpful for me, as a newcomer, to offer my thoughts on the future of a great organization that had been moving forward for eighty years.

However, over the course of several months, I slowly came to understand that visioning is not a matter of moving forward – it’s knowing where you’re going and why you want to get there. When my job started to change from Dean to Interim Executive Director, I realized that it would be necessary for me to share my vision, because if I didn’t then I would be giving limited service to my colleagues (and the people we serve, and the people who have donated generously to us so that our goals can be realized). So now, fifteen months later, I gladly and often speak of vision with colleagues, Board members, visitors, and friends like you.

“Vision” has more than one meaning. It can mean what you imagine in the future, but it can also mean a way of seeing, a capacity to see. So those early questions which, in September 2010, seemed to be questions for other people, now have new life for me. How do Friends see Pendle Hill, how do those of us on campus see Pendle Hill, and how do I see Pendle Hill? More importantly, what is that place that we’re moving toward?

Going into 2012, I am stewarding Pendle Hill with my eye on where we are headed. My initial hesitation has become enthusiastic dedication and I invite you to join me in this. I welcome your thoughts and questions about our direction, and your response to the query: What is your role in this phase of Pendle Hill’s remarkable journey?

In the paragraphs that follow I describe the characteristics of the current Pendle Hill and those that will emerge in the coming years. When I refer below to “internal elements,” I mean things like: our core traditions; our Quaker identity; our aesthetic and atmosphere; the legacy and contributions of those who have come before; and even our areas that need improvement. Our “external elements” include: all the realities and trends that call us toward societal and organizational sustainability, those outside things that limit or challenge us, and those things which ease the way to a compelling future state – our opportunities. Thankfully, we have the benefit of knowing our stepping off point (internal elements) and where we’re aiming (external elements) because we have many talented people paying attention to each of these things. With each next step, then, our practice must be to study the intersection of the two and to be prompted by the information we learn. That is, we must regularly acknowledge where we are, ensure that we are headed in the intended direction, remain open to opportunity and feedback, and not inadvertently drift.

Pendle Hill in its time has seen wars begin and end and cultural movements rise and fade, and all the while it has prepared people to respond with personal and principled witness. Today, people worldwide must confront sizable challenges related to global corporate influence, ever present militarism, the effects of growth economies, and the impact of our current energy demands. So there remains a need to know how to respond, as Friends and fellow travelers, to the times. Though it is a current reality that we are invisibly divided by “isms,” the dream of Beloved Community calls us to strive together, across lines of faith, class, race, and culture. In this way, together, we will alter the course we’re on and commit ourselves to practices which honor the commonwealth of life, the way of shared “enoughness” and optimism. Although we live at this time with the unrealized promise of that dream, we at Pendle Hill know:

• the path can be changed,
• if we don’t name the dream, we won’t get there, and
• Pendle Hill can provide an important base camp for the work of that transformation.

How can Pendle Hill, a small education, retreat, and conference center, help humanity move toward that global future in which all people can share in a spirit of abundance and optimism? Where oppression and needless suffering are absent and disputes are resolved without mass violence? Where people do not take more than they need, nor foul our air, water, and land for profit? How do we do that? We do it, in part, by striving to model it in microcosm.

In the 1950s when Martin Luther King, Jr. borrowed the term “beloved community” and made it widely known, he was referring to an attainable end state that could be reached if a prepared critical mass of people set out to achieve it. In the King tradition of change-making, we aim to support people’s paths to spiritual grounding, then teach them the methods and theories of nonviolent action – so that they might then return to the world nourished as spiritual beings, and ready to be agents of change. This is neither new for Pendle Hill, nor a stretch for Quakers, because embedded in the philosophy of nonviolence are guides to living that Quakers and many others hold dear: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship. What is new is our Yes to technology’s invitation to be an active part of the myriad conversations with people around the world who are practicing, and sharing their stories.

We invite and nurture the ministry of those who are called by their faith and by goodwill to lead lives that are transformed and transformative. We continue to respect the variety of spiritual paths and provide opportunities for interaction across difference. Concurrently, we hold fast to our Quaker identity and our role in nourishing the Religious Society of Friends. Quakerism is essential to our core curriculum and we use Quaker practices daily to strengthen our work together.

We seek to give witness to and explore what simplicity looks like in 2012 – slow food, permaculture practices, a low carbon footprint, creating what we need here, and exploring what is meant by “need.” We continue to enjoy products that are locally sourced and show others how to prepare foods that are seasonally available, to preserve fresh produce, to grow and enjoy native landscapes, and to create and repair things by hand again - an empowering proficiency that some people call being “re-skilled.” These are all competencies that program participants can, and like to, bring back to their communities and share.

Our 23 acres continue to lift up incredible beauty for us because we have a long history of honoring our landscape. Now, with Re:Vision architecture leading our master planning process, we are carefully holding our aesthetic dear while doing needed renovations in ways that allow our building facilities to serve as teaching tools for sustainable living.

The people who work here are excellent at their jobs. They labor carefully and each person brings specialized knowledge. They work with commitment to create the opportunities I described above for those who come here. At work we endeavor to treat each other with dignity and respect, recognize and celebrate difference, and work with conflict openly when it arises. We don’t claim that this is easy; we claim that it is essential to our identity and so worth doing.

In my vision of Pendle Hill, all members of the staff work diligently and in healthy balance with other aspects of our lives, experiencing meaningful and rewarding careers. We aspire to be a pattern of beloved community and operate at all times with the assumption that we are creating someone’s first impression of us. That said, it is not our goal to reach perfection but to make human and real efforts toward right relationship. In so doing, we sometimes make mistakes, which we address promptly and use as an opportunity for growth. We do this because we know the value of what we provide here: a place for everyone who comes to be inspired, enriched, and prepared – heart, mind, and spirit – for the transformational work that we are led to do.

In the beginning of my time at Pendle Hill, I asked: Who am I to vision? Now I ask myself, Who am I in that vision? What mark of ourselves will we all leave on Pendle Hill, and it on us, in these coming years? Over the next few months our staff and Board will be busy with efforts to prepare us to operate at our highest potential – master planning work, mission and vision statement updating, inviting even more first time visitors to hold their retreats and conferences here, recruiting strong candidates for our resident program, and offering new programming for young adult Quakers. I’m excited to be a part of the journey with you. Please join me as we live into a chapter in Pendle Hill’s story that is rich with challenge and opportunity.