Jennifer Mitchell comes to Pendle Hill from Hartrigg Oaks, a continuing care retirement community in York, England, where she lives with her husband, John Mitchell. She was brought up Methodist but has been a Quaker for about 30 years.  She has served as a meeting clerk, elder, and newsletter editor.  Nationally, she has served on Meeting for Sufferings of Britain Yearly Meeting and as a volunteer at The Friend, a British Quaker journal.  She attends Friargate Meeting.  She visited Pendle Hill three times while her daughter, Vicky Mitchell, was here (1996-98).  She writes: "What I found at Pendle Hill was a very supportive, understanding and welcoming community."  She looks forward to the opportunity to "give something back to Pendle Hill."

Dawn Rossiter has been associated with Friends for 36 years and has served in a variety of capacities.  Now retired, she worked for most of the past 30 years as a "lecturer" with mature students, often with adults preparing for entry into higher education.  This included being a personal tutor (i.e. counselor/consultant) with people in transition.  She has been active in a number of peace and justice groups and also in women's groups.  She looks forward to enroling in courses at Pendle Hill not only to "develop myself further, but also to be supportive of students and the teacher in any such group."  She has years of experience listening to others with patience and sensitivity.

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Winter 2008

Kody Hersh is a member of Miami Monthly Meeting in Southeastern Yearly Meeting. A lifelong Friend, he was drawn into spiritual service as a teenager, acting as co-clerk of SEYM Young Friends and serving on the executive committee of the yearly meeting for several years. Stumbling somewhat accidently into the work of Friends General Conference, he encountered a powerful, prophetic vision of what Quakerism is and can be, and fell madly in love with it. That was the beginning of a ministry that has included vocal ministry, committee service, and pastoral care, shaped around bringing Friends as a body into a deeper, more faithful life of Truth. He has been involved with Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns, and serves on the Youth Ministries Committee of FGC. A musician and songwriter, he most frequently and tenderly experiences God in singing.

Rubye Howard Braye, born in Montgomery, AL, has attended and served Quaker meetings and organizations for more than 25 years. She is a member of the Wilmington Friends Meeting (NCYM-C).

Meetings and organizations served include the Alexandria Monthly Meeting (Clerk for House), AFSC (Hurricane Katrina National Coordinator), NCYM-C Wilmington Monthly Meeting (New Meeting House Committee, ministry and worship, and newsletter editor), Friends School Wilmington (Board Treasurer), NYYM (plenary speaker), Fellowship of Friends of African Descent (workshop facilitator), FGC (board member, workshop leader), Pendle Hill (board member, workshop leader, and co-leader), Rwanda Yearly Meeting (workshop co-facilitator), and FWCC (presenter).

She is now pursuing more effective ways for outreach, and feels led to community ministry. She focused her doctoral research on "Servant-leadership: Belief and Practice in women-led businesses." She has additional training and experience in social work, mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, personal growth training, group skills, design skills, mentoring, mediation, servant leadership, management, and business.

Marian Darnell Fuson was born into a Quaker family in Moorestown, NJ, the year women won the right to vote.  Later her family moved to Montreal, Canada, until the depression sent them back to New Jersey. As an adult, she has lived in Michigan, Maryland, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, France, and Hawaii.  Moorestown Monthly Meeting sent her to Pendle Hill for summer school just as she started her job as Executive Secretary of the Young Friends movement of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings. World War II was on and Pendle Hill was the training site for young men in relief and reconstruction for China. A great summer and two years later, she married Nelson Fuson, the Civilian Public Service Unit Director. Their marriage thrived until Nelson's death 60 years later. Marian and Nelson trained at Pendle Hill for leadership in the American Friend Service Committee (AFSC) international student seminar which they led for five years. They also led Friends General Conference (FGC) Couples Enrichment events for 20 years; one of these was at Pendle Hill. She and Nelson helped to start the Nashville Friends Meeting and Southern Appalachia Yearly Meeting while they lived on the Fisk University campus, where Nelson taught physics. They and their two sons, Alan and Dan, lived through BIG changes in Nashville and the South in their 49 years there. Dan died this past May.

Marian's brother Howard Darnell is responsible for the bell which clangs for meals, worship, and classes at Pendle Hill, acquired when his wife was Head Resident.  Marian has served on the Pendle Hill General Board for many years, off and on.  She now serves on the Board of Trustees. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL). She writes: "As you see, I love Pendle Hill."

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Spring 2008

Virginia Schurman is a member of Gunpowder Monthly Meeting of Baltimore Yearly Meeting.  She has just recently retired from teaching Microbiology at a community college for many years.  She has led many retreats and workshops on nurturing the spiritual life in her Yearly Meeting, other Yearly Meetings and at FGC gatherings, and has been active in nurturing BYM's spiritual formation program for many years.  She finds spiritual nourishment in her Meeting community life, gardening, daily walks particularly in natural settings, reading the writings of early Friends and other spiritual writings, and times for quiet worship, including the monthly silent retreats at her Meeting.  Her leadings for her retirement are to stay "forever green" and to nurture the spiritual lives of Friends as way opens.  She has written a number of tracts, including "Prayer", "Reclaiming the Bible in Friends' Tradition", "The Beautitudes", "Love in Action", "God's Garden", and "Coming to Love Our Enemies" (published by the Tract Associaton of Friends).  She is also a member of the Board of the Tract Associaton of Friends and co-clerk of her Meeting's Ministry and Counsel Committee.  She is also a member of Baltimore Yearly Meeting's Ministry and Pastoral Care Committee. 

Kody Hersh is a member of Miami Monthly Meeting in Southeastern Yearly Meeting. A lifelong Friend, he was drawn into spiritual service as a teenager, acting as co-clerk of SEYM Young Friends and serving on the executive committee of the yearly meeting for several years. Stumbling somewhat accidently into the work of Friends General Conference, he encountered a powerful, prophetic vision of what Quakerism is and can be, and fell madly in love with it. That was the beginning of a ministry that has included vocal ministry, committee service, and pastoral care, shaped around bringing Friends as a body into a deeper, more faithful life of Truth. He has been involved with Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Concerns, and serves on the Youth Ministries Committee of FGC. A musician and songwriter, he most frequently and tenderly experiences God in singing.

Elaine Emily has been a Quaker for eighteen years and is a member of Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting in Berkeley, CA, part of Pacific Yearly Meeting and College Park Quarter. She has served on ministry and community care committees at the monthly, quarterly, and yearly meeting levels. She often travels in support of individuals with leadings and messages for the Religious Society of Friends. She has led workshops on “Rediscovering Eldering,” “Nurturing the Monthly Meeting,” mysticism, discernment, prayer, and healing at Pendle Hill, the Friends General Conference Gathering, Ben Lomond Quaker Center, Powell House, and monthly meetings around the country. She also teaches yoga, Reiki and Therapeutic Touch. She has served Friends General Conference on the Traveling Ministries Program Committee. She is currently following a leading to gather stories from individuals called into the service of eldering throughout the Religious Society of Friends. In January and February of 2008, she is traveling within Australia Yearly Meeting with a concern for eldering and nurture of the monthly meeting. She looks forward to serving as Friend in Residence during the spring term.

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Fall 2008

Takako Mendl was born in Japan and lived in Hiroshima for over 25 years. In 1971 she came to Pendle Hill as a resident student and became a close friend of Howard Brinton’s second wife, Yuki. She also met her late husband, Wolf. She joined the Society of Friends in 1985. Since then, she has extended hospitality to F/friends from different parts of the world. For many years she worked as a counselor with Japanese students at the School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and Kings College, University of London. A member of the Westminster Branch of the United Nations Association, she supports projects for refugees and asylum seekers.

Rachel Frith has been active as a Quaker since 1959 in six meetings, serving regularly on committees at the local, regional, and yearly meeting levels. She was a founding member of Sheffield Nether Edge Meeting in 1988 and was on the Quaker committee which initiated Sheffield’s HARC program (Homeless and Rootless at Christmas). Since 2003 she has served frequently as a Friend in Residence at Woodbrooke. Rachel has a French son-in-law and a Nigerian daughter-in-law; has visited Friends in Bolivia, France, and Australia; and hopes to learn more about Quakers from other parts of the world.

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[Please check back later for information on Winter 2009 Friends in Residence.]

Spring 2009

Tom Davis joined Friends 22 years ago after lifelong affiliation with the Church of the Brethren. He is a member of Santa Cruz Meeting (CA), where he has served as clerk. After earning a M.Div. from Bethany Theological Seminary he taught at three Brethren colleges, farmed for eleven years, and worked as a CPA. Tom is a spiritual director with a passion for spiritual formation, especially prayer, Bible, and eldering. He is a certified teacher of Centering Prayer. He serves on the board of Ben Lomond Quaker Center (CA), and partners with his wife, Joan Rawles-Davis, in offering retreats.

Joan Rawles-Davis grew up near Philadelphia and attended Quaker secondary school and college. She is a member of Santa Cruz Meeting (CA), where she has served as clerk of Oversight, Community Building, and Nominating Committees. In her spiritual life, she is called to opportunities to use her whole being in worship, including through sacred circle dance, and to attend to the sacredness of every day. She serves as a grief counselor for hospice. She has taught high school and college, and has been a school counselor and a social worker with the elderly.