Banner Photo Credit - Pendle Hill - Charles Rawding

The Photograph

Photographer. The photograph in our website's banner was taken by Charles Rawding in 2005. Its full title is:

Title: Pendle Hill and the Ribble Valley. From Bashall Barn across Clitheroe to Pendle Hill.

License. The image is used with permission under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Pendle Hill

The hill. Pendle Hill is a tall hill in eastern Lancashire, England. It is an important landmark for Quakers: Our founder George Fox had a vision atop Pendle Hill in 1652 that marks in a way the beginning of the Quaker movement.

Fox's vision: As he recorded in his journal:

And as we went I spied a great hill called Pendle Hill, and I went on the top of it with much ado, it was so steep; but I was moved of the Lord to go atop of it; and when I came atop of it I saw Lancashire sea; and there top of the hill I was moved to sound the day of the Lord; and the Lord let me see a-top of the hill in what places he had a great people to be gathered.

The Journal of George Fox, Revised Edition by John L. Nickalls editor; pages 103–104.

A great people to be gathered. A few days after his vision, Fox joined a large group of hundreds of Seekers on Firbank Fell and preached to them for several hours, "turning the people to the spirit of God." (Journal, p. 109) This event is considered the moment that jump-started the Quaker movement. A great people had been gathered.

The Seekers. The Seekers were a movement of English dissenters who considered all the organized churches of their time to be corrupt and were waiting for a new revelation. After the event at Firbank Fell, large numbers of Seekers joined the Quaker movement, feeling that the revelation they had been waiting for had been given them.