We are delighted to have a new cohort of resident F/friends and scholars join us for the 2023-24 academic year! If you find yourself on campus, please share our joy in welcoming them to Pendle Hill.
Resident Scholars
Steve Chase is a longtime Quaker activist, educator, and writer. He has worked as the Director of Education at Pendle Hill, interim director of the Beacon Hill Friends House, Manager of Academic Initiatives at the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, and as a professor of Social Justice and Sustainability at Antioch University. His Quaker publications include Letters to a Fellow Seeker: A Short Introduction to the Quaker Way (2012), and the Pendle Hill pamphlets Revelation and Revolution: Answering the Call to Radical Faithfulness (PHP #431) and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions? A Quaker Zionist Rethinks Palestinian Rights (PHP #445). He is also a frequent contributor to Friends Journal, with many of his pieces focused on Israel/Palestine.
As Pendle Hill’s new Henry Cadbury Scholar, Steve spent two weeks on campus in November to prepare for his ten-week stay during The Spring Term to do archival research for his book Seeking Justice in the Holy Land: The Quaker Struggle for Moral Clarity on Israel/Palestine. During his time on campus, he held meetings with the archivists at the Haverford Quaker Collection, Swarthmore Friends Historical Library, and the AFSC Archives.
Chase also used his time at Pendle Hill to advocate for a just settlement to the long-standing Israel/Palestine conflict. He took a day trip to give a surprisingly controversial talk, entitled “Why Peace with Justice? Reflections on a Quaker Delegation to Israel/Palestine,” at the public library in Montclair, NJ, which he wrote about in an article for the Western Friend, and for which a recording is available to view on YouTube. Chase also gave two Zoom versions of his talk to New England Yearly Meeting and the San Francisco Friends Meeting. In addition, he was interviewed about Israel/Palestine for Spirit In Action, a Quaker radio program that will be broadcast on over 40 community radio stations and released on its website by November 30.
Chase reports being “held in love by the Pendle Hill community” during his two-week sojourn and that this practical and spiritual support helped him “stay centered, worshipful, and productive” during a very challenging time.
Tom Gates is a long-time member of Lancaster (PA) Friends Meeting, where he currently serves on the Worship and Ministry Committee, and as convener of the Adult First Day School Committee. He and his wife Liz have two adult sons and four grandchildren. He recently retired after 42 years as a family physician, including 20 years on the faculty of the family medicine residency training program in Lancaster, three years at Friends Lugulu Hospital in Kenya (1991-94), and 18 months in Malawi with Partners in Health (2015-17). Along the way, he has participated in Earlham School of Religion’s Theological Reflection Year (1994-95), the School of the Spirit’s programs on becoming a spiritual nurturer (2002-03) and the Way of Ministry (2008-09), and Nurturing Faithfulness (2022-23). He is the author of five Pendle Hill Pamphlets, including Reclaiming the Transcendent: God is Process (PHP #422).
As a Kenneth Carroll Scholar for Biblical and Quaker Studies, Tom will be continuing research and writing on a book project, tentatively titled Easter for Quakers: New Light on Conviction, Convincement, and Conversion, exploring the intersection between the Bible, early Friends, and Rene Girard’s mimetic theory.
Calliope George grew up as a Friend in the New Garden Friends Meeting (NGFM) and School (NGFS) communities of Greensboro, North Carolina. She is a sojourning member of New York Yearly Meeting and long-term resident of Penington Friends House (PFH) in Manhattan, where Calliope nurtures her career as a theatre and film maker.
During her time as a Minnie Jane Scholar at Pendle Hill, Calliope will be writing a full-length play and a television pilot centering Quaker life and intergenerational joys. This work will be largely influenced by her experience at Pendle Hill, along with her time living in community at PFH, growing up in the care of NGFM, and finding home with Friends in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Dorothy Henderson is a member of Grass Valley Friends Meeting in the Sierra Nevada foothills. After becoming a Quaker in her early thirties, Dorothy was active in the Sanctuary movement, war tax resistance, and as a civil disobedient. Her commitment to Quaker activism was strengthened when she and her husband, Doug Hamm, began living in community with students and staff at the Woolman Semester School at Sierra Friends Center. After she retired as head of the school, Dorothy and Doug helped design and build a net-zero home near the Woolman campus as a model for sustainable living.
Dorothy has taught and practiced Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication in workshops, retreats, and classes for the past twenty years. More recently, she has served as an Elder and been part of the Eldering Subcommittee of Pacific Yearly Meeting. Dorothy loves riding the train to visit her two daughters, two sons, and nine grandchildren.
Several years ago, Dorothy wrote about being guided by the Psalms and the words of Jesus. That writing and that guidance led to a three-year sojourn with a group of white Quaker Friends into their privilege, their complicity in racism and oppression, and their personal responsibility to live truth with love. As a Kenneth Carroll Scholar, Dorothy plans to integrate her earlier writing with new work and publish a book that presents the Bible as a living resource for spiritual growth in our Quaker communities.
Friends and Artists in Residence
Reverend Rhetta Morgan, who will be serving as Artist in Residence at Pendle Hill between Fall of 2023 until late Spring 2024, is a singing healer, spiritual activist, and interfaith minister who has been gathering tools for healing and inspiration for over 40 years. Through her gifts of prayer, poetry, facilitation, and sermonizing, she cultivates hope and nurtures connection in her community as a pathway back to belonging and wholeness. As a facilitator and coach, Rhetta is known for her ability to support others to be bold, heal their self-limiting beliefs, and integrate their internal healing with their social movement work. This support is essential to cultivate the powerful spiritual activism that is needed in these times.
Ann Jerome is returning to Pendle Hill as a Friend in Residence. A longtime Friend active in Southeastern Yearly Meeting, Ann was born and raised in West Philadelphia. She earned degrees in American Studies from Yale and Brown before moving to central Florida to join the faculty at Stetson University. Her life’s work has spanned academia, complementary and alternative medicine, and nonprofit management, most recently turning to writing and service in the Quaker world. Pendle Hill has been a touchstone in Ann’s life since her first visit in 1979, when she stepped into Brinton House and heard the word “Home.”
