Pendle Hill Beginnings - Pendle Hill Now

When the Brintons retired from active leadership in the early 1950s, Dan Wilson became director. He worked with Douglas Steere, who clerked the Board, to shape the next era at Pendle Hill, continuing the aims and methods expressed by Howard Brinton and described in the Pendle Hill pamphlet, The Pendle Hill Idea, published in 1950. Howard continued to teach and lecture at Pendle Hill, and Howard and Anna Brinton lived at Pendle Hill until their deaths.

Pendle Hill continues to be a vibrant experiment in adult religious education. In 1991 Howard Brinton's understanding of the roots of Pendle Hill's program was restated as "the four basic social testimonies of Friends: equality of opportunity and respect for individuals, simplicity of the educational and material environment, harmony of inward and outward actions, community in daily life and in the seeking of the Spirit." [Bulletin (catalog) 382:1991] Despite many changes since 1930, Pendle Hill thrives as an "educational experiment, grounded in the spiritual and social principles of Friends - a community centered in the daily meeting for worship and sharing a common life of study, work, recreation, and mutual care and concern for one another [Bulletin 325 (catalog):1982]