retreats at which they can examine with others the
potentialities for growth of their own marriages?

Those who met at Pendle Hill were not in a position to answer any of
these questions in a definitive way. It is clear that answers would
vary from one Friend to another and from one Meeting to another. They
felt, however, that it would be appropriate and timely for these
questions to be more widely considered. Moreover, their own experiences
of marital growth, resulting from their sharing with other married
couples, had been so rich and rewarding that they felt they had "good
news" to pass on, and were constrained to do so.[B]

THE PLAN

Yearly Meetings throughout the United States were invited to select with
care a married couple for a weekend of training at Pendle Hill, the
Quaker study center near Philadelphia.

During the six months following the training each couple would have the
opportunity to conduct a marriage enrichment retreat arranged by their
Yearly Meeting. Then all the couples would reassemble at Pendle Hill to
share their experiences. The project would be evaluated, and further
action would depend on whatever judgment was reached.

We two were asked to lead the two training weekends. Our decision was to
begin with an actual retreat for the group of couples since this
experience would, in our judgment, provide the best training we could
give them.

PREMISES FROM EARLIER EXPERIENCES

In 1962 Joe and Edith Platt, a Quaker couple who helped run a retreat
center called Kirkridge, invited us to conduct a weekend for married
couples. We were at that time joint Executive Directors of the American
Association of Marriage Counselors, so this was a challenge we could
hardly evade. Although we had been involved in many lectures and
conferences about marriage, and plenty of marriage counseling, a retreat
for married couples was a new venture. However, we accepted the
invitation, conducted the retreat to the best of our ability, and
learned a great deal in the process. There is no need at this point to
go into detail about the procedures we followed for we improved on them
considerably later as we gained further experience.

The first Kirkridge retreat was successful enough to encourage the
Platts to ask us to come again and again. We then began to receive other
requests as it became known that we were available for this kind of
leadership, most of them being under religious auspices. The retreat