Trish Roberts
We are delighted to share these "Pendle Hill Reflections 2007" from Trish Roberts of Canberra, Australia, who was a resident student for the Winter and Spring terms of 1995. Trish reflects on the benefits of her stay at Pendle Hill. She writes:
"IT CHANGED MY WHOLE LIFE. I once saw a sketch in the New Yorker magazine, which had a moving van with these words on the side: 'Paradigms shifted.' That describes my Pendle Hill experience.
I was in transition at the time, although I did not realize it. I was exhausted and burnt out from a difficult teaching situation. Also, after just a few weeks at Pendle Hill, my mother died, and I chose not to return to Australia for her funeral. The first term was really just recuperating from those experiences. I was able to get some additional leave [from work], on compassionate grounds, for the Spring term. That was when the healing took place. If I had stayed only one term, I think I may have simply gone back to work and 'put up' with things.
As it was, staying an additional term allowed me to cut loose the bonds of a 'normal' life, and to taste freedom. Although I initially went back to teaching in Australia, I then discerned that I should do further study, and that it should be Quaker. In 1996 I returned to the USA, to the Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, IN. I graduated M. Div. in 2000. On my return to Australia, I moved from the small country town where I had lived to Canberra, where I was already a member of the [Quaker] meeting. So Pendle Hill was a step in a chain of enormous changes. After my return to Australia in 2000, I did voluntary chaplaincy at the Australian National University and pastoral care at a Canberra hospital and hospice. I now offer spiritual direction, and see this as my ministry.
Back to Pendle Hill and the benefits. I learned the spiritual value of work. I grew to love the silence and peace of the hermitages. This grew into a love of retreats which informs my own spiritual life, and that of my directees. I was offered the opportunity to try new things with the loving support of a community, such as being clerk of community meeting. I learned to listen, really listen, and formed a spiritual friendship with another person. I later wrote Pendle Hill Pamphlet #345, More Than Equals, about spiritual friendships. This love of deep listening grew into a leading to do spiritual direction.
In the Pendle Hill community I was confronted by the need to address conflict. It was an education to be in a place where, if conflict arose, it was expected that you would at least address it, and hopefully resolve it. I attended the Theological Roundtable organized by Chuck Fager and was inspired by the presentations. My own beliefs and theology were clarified and formed. I could not have gone on to study at Earlham School of Religion if I had not had the previous experience of Pendle Hill.
I returned to my [Quaker] meeting with my Quakerism strengthened….I have been able to take some leadership when needed. I have been assistant clerk, on ministry committee, and in many clearness meetings. I began a series of monthly spiritual nurture workshops for the meeting. Several times I have offered spiritual nurture workshops at the Yearly Meeting gatherings, with the most recent being "Dynamic and Successful Meetings" at the 2007 Yearly Meeting, based on the presentation of Bill Kreidler at the 1995 Theological Roundtable. My health is now an issue, so I am less active in outward ways. However, I am still available to Friends as a 'listening ear,' as well as offering spiritual direction ecumenically."
