Last month, we announced the creation of Pendle Hill’s new Quaker Studies Online initiative and opened registration for “Exploring the Quaker Way,” our first online course in the series.
This new twelve-week course, running from June 5 to August 28, has received a very positive response from many individuals and local meetings. As one person wrote us, “Our Meeting is one of many that find it hard to offer basic Quaker studies. I think you are meeting a need.” Another person wrote, “This sounds wonderful. I am ready to start already.” Another wrote, “I just wanted to let you know that reading about Pendle Hill online has just made my day. I live in southern New Mexico, far from Pendle Hill and am so happy to see this initiative.”
Since that first article’s publication, we have posted a detailed course description page, including an online registration form. We have also been responding to interested people’s questions. For example, one person asked to hear more about the educational goals of this course, which will be co-taught by Steve Chase, author of Letters to a Fellow Seeker: A Short Introduction to the Quaker Way, and Marcelle Martin, author of Our Life Is Love: The Quaker Spiritual Journey. We therefore added language to the course overview to answer that question:
The goals of this course are to help seekers, attenders, and interested members of Friends meetings: 1) deepen their understanding of the Quaker movement; 2) better understand the spiritual journey common among early and current Quakers; 3) reflect on their own spiritual journeys within this spiritual tradition; and 4) become more familiar with several key elements of building vibrant and caring Quaker meetings. It is designed for people who want to explore these themes through personal reflection, focused study, and deep dialog within a lively learning community gently guided by seasoned Quaker educators.
We were also asked by some people about potential discounts on the tuition cost of $500 dollars, which will cover a modest honoraria for the instructors, the online learning management system, the video conferencing/webinar module, and seven Pendle Hill pamphlets that are required reading for the course. In response, we added this language on our course information page: “We encourage people who need financial support to cover tuition to reach out to their local and yearly Quaker meetings for possible scholarship assistance. If local Quaker meetings want to have two or more members participate in this course, special group rates may also be arranged.” We also add here that we invite people who might want to help Pendle Hill offer direct scholarship funds for prospective students to contact Steve Chase, Pendle Hill’s Director of Education at schase@pendlehill.org or 610-566-4507, ext. 123.
Registration for “Exploring the Quaker Way” is open until June 4, and there are still some available slots for the course. For more information, click here.
