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Stephen W. Angell is the Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at the Earlham School of Religion. His most recent book is The Quaker Bible Reader (co-edited with Paul Buckley), and he has written many articles on Quaker history, including “Rufus Jones and the Laymen’s Foreign Mission Inquiry: How a Quaker Helped to Shape Modern Ecumenism,” Quaker Theology 2:2 (Autumn 2000): http://quaker.org/quest/issue3-6.html.
Valerie Brown (Inder Kaur) ) is a member of Solebury Monthly Meeting (PA). She is a certified teacher of Kundalini yoga and mindfulness meditation, trained in holistic spirituality, and a founding member of Old Path Sangha, a Buddhist community in New Hope (PA). She was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2003 as a lay member of the Tien Hiep Order. Valerie authored the Pendle Hill pamphlet The Mindful Quaker: A Brief Introduction to Buddhist Wisdom for Friends (October 2006).
Paul Buckley is a Quaker historian and theologian with many years of service to Friends. He is the co-editor (with Stephen W. Angell) of The Quaker Bible Reader and the author of Twenty-First Century Penn, Owning the Lord’s Prayer, and numerous articles in Quaker history, faith, and practice. He gives short courses, workshops, and retreats for Friends’ gatherings across the Quaker spectrum and teaches occasional Quaker Studies courses at the Earlham School of Religion.
Laura Jackson is a graduate of The Practical Farm Training Program at The Farm School in Athol, Massachusetts. In 2007 she joined the staff at Snipes Farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania as a farmer and program manager; she also oversees their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Early in her life, she was a farmer’s wife. She earned a B.A. from Hollins University and an M.A. from Virginia Tech. In 1980, she spent a sabbatical year at Harvard Divinity School. Before leaving for farm school, Laura worked for twenty years as an independent documentary producer in Philadelphia. She has taught at George School, Swarthmore College, and the University of the Arts.
Laura Magnani is Assistant Regional Director for Justice for the American Friends Service Committee, Pacific Mountain Region and a member of Berkeley Friends Meeting (CA). Since the 1970s she has worked mainly in criminal justice, including extensive organizing against the death penalty. From 1971 to 1979 she was the lobbyist for the Friends Committee on Legislation in Sacramento (CA), working on issues including equal rights, housing, criminal justice, and militarism. She is author of America’s First Penitentiary: A Two Hundred Year Old Failure (1990) and Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System (2006).
Anthony Manousos is editor of Friends Bulletin and a prolific author of Quaker-inspired articles and books. Most recently, he edited Compassionate Listening: The Writings of Gene Hoffman, Quaker Peacemaker and Mystic and EarthLight, Spiritual Wisdom for an Ecological Age. Since 9/11, Anthony has deepened his own connections with Islam by fasting during Ramadan, publishing the pamphlet Islam from a Quaker Perspective, and leading a workshop on Islam at the 2005 Friends General Conference summer gathering. A member of Santa Monica Monthly Meeting (CA), Anthony is active in interfaith work in the Los Angeles area and is working on a book about interfaith peacemaking.
Marcelle Martin is a Pendle Hill core teacher. She is a member of Chestnut Hill Meeting (PA), which minuted her ministry of spiritual nurture: to support individuals and meetings in becoming more aware of God’s Presence active in each person and the world. She has participated in several Quaker experiments in spiritual community, including the Fairhill Friends Ministry in North Philadelphia , and completed both the School of the Spirit's program in Contemplative Living and Prayer and the Shalem program in Spiritual Guidance. The author of two Pendle Hill pamphlets, , Invitation to a Deeper Communion (June 2003) and Holding One Another in the Light (February 2006,. Marcelle is researching and writing about women with a leading to prophetic ministry.
Laura Melly has served as adjunct faculty and consultant to resident students at Pendle Hill. For over twenty years she has served Quakers, their meetings and nonprofit organizations as a facilitator, teacher, committee member and Friend in Residence. She spent four years helping to oversee the Friends General Conference Traveling Ministries Program. She is a graduate of the School of the Spirit's Spiritual Nurturer Program.
Will O’Brien is founder and coordinator of The Alternative Seminary, a grassroots program of biblical and theological study in Philadelphia. For many years he worked on the editorial staff of The Other Side, an independent progressive Christian magazine. He also works with Project H.O.M.E., a nationally recognized nonprofit organization which provides solutions to homelessness and poverty in Philadelphia. For over twenty years he has been an advocate on issues of homelessness and poverty.
Beckey Phipps clerks the Traveling Ministries Committee of Friends General Conference. She has a master’s degree in theology and completed the School of the Spirit’s Spiritual Nurturer program. A member of Fresh Pond Meeting (MA), she travels among Friends leading retreats and workshops on Quakerism and building the life of the meeting community. Her recent publications include “Finding Hope in Ephesians,” in The Quaker Bible Reader, and Simple Lives, Radiant Faith: Bible Lessons from the 2004 Annual Gathering of Friends.
Tony Prete is a passionate teacher, speaker and writer on biblical topics. He has taught Bible study at Pendle Hill, numerous Quaker meetings and Friends General Conference (FGC) Gatherings. He delivered the closing plenary address at the 2003 FGC Gathering and the opening plenary at the 2006 Pacific Yearly Meeting. He writes for Friends Journal and has a chapter in The Quaker Bible Reader. His 15-year pursuit of biblical studies, though mostly self-taught, includes a master's degree from La Salle University
Carol Sexton is Pendle Hill’s core teacher in Arts and Spirituality, led to a ministry of encouraging creative growth and expression in others. She has expertise in many art forms and a passion for sculpting in clay, plaster, wood, and stone. Carol has worked as an art teacher, freelance artist, retreat and workshop facilitator, campus minister, and spiritual director. She earned graduate and undergraduate degrees in art education and fine arts and a M.Div. from the Earlham School of Religion. She completed the Shalem Spiritual Guidance program and is a member of Clear Creek Meeting in Richmond (IN).
Walter Hjelt Sullivan is a member of Santa Cruz Meeting (CA). In September 2006, he joined the Pendle Hill staff as a teacher and spiritual nurturer, and now serves as Dean of Students for the Resident Program. For fourteen years he was Co-Director of the Ben Lomond Quaker Center. His personal interests are to nurture vital Friends Meetings and explore the role of the body in knowing the Divine. He is a certified practitioner and instructor of Breema and Self-Breema® bodywork, and a graduate in Religion of Haverford College.
®Breema is the service mark of the Breema Center
Barbarajene Williams served as spiritual nurturer for the Pendle Hill staff and has worked extensively with Friends meetings around the country as a retreat leader. Formerly a college English teacher, she is a graduate of the Earlham School of Religion and the School of the Spirit’s Spiritual Nurturer program.
