Home › News & Events › Ken Jacobsen Serves as Interim Director

Ken Jacobsen Serves as Interim Director
Ken Jacobsen and his wife, Katharine Jacobsen, arrived at Pendle Hill from Chicago in late January, to "balmy weather and warm welcomes," as Ken describes it. Some Pendle Hill residents, mindful of the Quaker testimony on simplicity, were amazed when a huge moving van pulled up to Firbank building to unload, assuming all of it was meant for the Jacobsen’s modest apartment. Ken soon set things straight with the news that the truck contained the contents of four households and Ken and Katharine’s "stuff" was only the back ten feet of the packed 55-foot trailer. Ken and Katharine graciously welcomed curious staff and students into their apartment for an open house once they were settled.

Ken got involved immediately in the life of the community and began to work on the challenges Pendle Hill faces in 2006. Like many organizations, Pendle Hill faces sharply increasing energy and health insurance costs. Pendle Hill's cozy, unique and homelike buildings need ongoing maintenance. Ken is working with the staff and Trustees to create a financial and programmatic model that will enable Pendle Hill to thrive over the long run.

What has impressed Ken and Katharine about Pendle Hill? Ken replies, "We experience a lively intergenerational community, worship times that often feel gathered, classes that are earnest meetings for learning, and students, staff and interns who readily reach out to one another whatever the need may be." Having lived and worked in community before, including twice in leadership roles at Olney Friends School, Ken and Katharine are well aware of its value. Ken reflects, "We are reminded once again how community, when based and focused upon the Loving Spirit at its center, empowers all who touch it. We give thanks for Pendle Hill as a place of radical hospitality."