ONA News February 2005

 

Spirituality . . .
   for global survival
Education . . .
   for global community
Action . . .
   for global justice

Meet the Member:
A conversation with Niyonu Spann, Dean of Pendle Hill
A Quaker Center for Study and Contemplation, Wallingford, PA

by Victoria Pearson, Communications Coordinator

What is unique about Pendle Hill as a center that you want to share with NARDA readers?
The first thing is having an intact committed community of residents. That really stands out immediately. There is staff and, most of the year, students who are living here. As you enter Pendle hill as a center—whether you are coming as a retreatant or attending a workshop—you are coming into a held space, a consciously held space. I think that is immediately the distinguishing feature. Pendle Hill is also a 75-year-old Quaker institution, and that is very apparent—in the air, in the buildings, in the literature, and in the purpose that is at the center of our work.

As a new member of the leadership at Pendle Hill [Dean Spann started her tenure in May of 2004], what have you found are the greatest joys of work and life at Pendle Hill? The greatest challenges?
I was speaking with a colleague yesterday, and he was asking me, “Why don’t you seem fearful about some of the program development and future here at PH?” and I said. “Basically I feel like I am sitting on a gold mine.” And that’s really true. Whenever I have a personal friend come for a visit, it doesn’t take long—within an hour they get it. What excites me the most is increasing the access to this gold mine to a broader range of people, and getting the word out about this gold mine more broadly. One aspect of this is that it’s a matter of widening the doors that Pendle Hill has on all different levels, so that more people can see it as a place for them. Another aspect that excites me is getting the word out more. The greatest challenge is that the doors are not as wide as they should be in granting greater access. Pendle Hill, like any organization that was born in the 30’s has in its roots limitations in beliefs and cultural norms that have limited the range of people that have been reached. We need to increase awareness, always engaging, exciting, and strengthening the connection to our vision. Another issue is that as Quakers we have had some aversion to ‘word-spreading,’ or marketing or proselytizing—all of those terms can get very mixed up. We need to get clearer on what of this we want to stay away from, and what we want to break through.

What is this confusion and aversion about?
The aversion is partly about a commitment to a certain simplicity or humility that says I don’t boast about or make a big deal out of something I have—I am not flashy and all of that. In a more positive frame, it’s about respecting that other people already have access to what they need, respecting other cultures and ways of being, and not making an assumption that we have something they need. I understand that and honor where we are as Quakers in that regard. But I think we have over done that, and gotten a little misguided, because there are plenty of people who feel they do not have a space to support their spiritual growth, spiritual deepening or transcendence. People are seeking what Pendle Hill has to offer.

How does Pendle Hill connect with NARDA’s stated work of: Action for Global Justice, Education for Global Community, and Spirituality for Global Survival?

Action for Global Justice: Core to the resident program and the courses offered at PH are the practice, the attempt to understand the connection between our spiritual development and contemplation and outward action. In the mission of the resident program is the attempt to provide programming to help students increase that understanding and the practices rooted in Quakerism that would support actively working for social justice.

Education for Global Community: By living community, being it, that’s one of the first ways we do this. We are here living in community. We have 75 years under our belt in this experiment in community living. Of course, we also offer courses to support this from enhancing conscious communication to learning biointensive approaches to organic gardening.

Spirituality for Global Survival: As Dean and someone who is offering leadership for educational curriculum I do not place my focus on survival, but in surely feeding and attending to spirit, mind, and body. More specifically, as a center that has as its core Quaker values and practices, and begins every day, 365 days a year, with Quaker meeting for worship, there is the highest commitment to paying attention to and caring for our spiritual development. All of the core courses at Pendle Hill have worship at their center. Pendle Hill is a place committed to spiritual growth and development. That is the focused outcome and that’s about life and about living. The focus is not survival, the focus is life—being alive, more abundant life. And the same is true on the personal, institutional or global levels.

How do you and Pendle Hill balance their commitments to community and its connection with the outside world?
I think this is one of the biggest challenges for community members who have made the commitment to be here long term, and is one of the core questions from Pendle Hill’s creation—how do we go away from the busyness of the world and take time to focus more inward, for our growth for our clarity of purpose, and how do we know how to move forward after this experience? How do we take that time and have a more contemplative life and turn that again outward? Pendle Hill’s challenge is to offer the opportunity for both. When you are here you will hear of opportunities to offer service here on campus, as well as out in the community. I think we see it as our responsibility to always offer both in a concrete way as well as in our abstract classroom discussions. For instance this coming fall we are offering a three month course that is specifically looking at this. It’s called “Social Issues and Community: Spirit in Action.” Students that will take this course need to do at least two hours a week of service with folks in some needy areas, and that becomes the core source for writing, journal writing, discussion, and class, offering the opportunity for members to look at their own –isms and issues that block them from connecting with ‘the Other.’ This course is a perfect example of that integration. We must as a staff, keep this same reflection before us. How we educate ourselves, and how we continue to raise our own awareness, is important.

What lessons do you want to share with other NARDA members?
I am always wanting to go back to our vision or purpose. I keep it hanging by my desk. It is extremely important to test—whether it's program, marketing, how we conduct staff meetings—it must be in alignment with the purpose. One of the reasons I am leary or stay away from the word survival is that the fear of no longer being (or death), that fear takes pulls us away from alignment or integrity. When pulling in the people or money becomes our focus—responding in fear of not surviving—we lose our alignment with mission. It’s a real tightrope walk and I guess I, along with your readers, have signed up to walk it.

To learn more about Pendle Hill visit www.pendlehill.org.