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This is a fascinating record of a small community living out its distinctive religious witness in the everyday, navigating internal and external pressures in a rapidly changing context. We enter the world of late-seventeenth-century London Quakers at ground level, and sit with them as they persistently seek divine guidance in the decisions that shape ordinary life. Judith Roads has made available a wonderful treasure-trove for anyone interested in Quaker history or in early modern English life.’ RACHEL MUERS, Professor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

Author: Judith Roads
ISBN – 9781916570122

Explore the remarkable life of Charity Cook in this updated edition of Algie I. Newlin’s book, first published in 1981 and available once again after being out of print for many years. A backwoods country woman, Charity Cook rose in the 18th century to become one of the foremost traveling ministers holding the Society of Friends (Quakers) together in what was becoming a new nation. She traveled on horseback to minister to meetings and families from Carolina to Massachusetts.
Later, she did the same in England, traveling on a ship boarded by pirates, and in Ireland, where she nearly died from smallpox. Crossing the channel to France and Germany, she and her companions came close to being arrested as spies during the 100 Years War. Charity Cook was a courageous woman who had the faith, boldness, and family support necessary to be liberated, and freed, from the traditional married woman’s role more than 200 years ago.

Author: Algie I. Newlin
ISBN: 978-0-942585-21-6
Pages: 232

When a young woman moves her family to the North Carolina wilderness, she depends on her spiritual fortitude and loving compassion to become the leader her Quaker community desperately needs. After Mary Jackson undertakes the perilous journey of moving to the North Carolina wilderness with her family, she answers the call to lead the women in her Quaker meeting, a role she struggles to fulfill with sensitive insight and loving care.

Too soon, their peaceful community is shattered when farmers rise in rebellion, demanding an end to local government corruption. Despite her efforts, the women of the meeting can only watch as the rebels become increasingly violent. Negotiations for a peaceful resolution are unsuccessful. The rebellion fails in a bloody battle. As the drumbeats of the American Revolution reach the Piedmont, the future of the Quaker community rests on Mary’s shoulders. Only the strength of her spiritual reserves will ensure her small Quaker meeting survives.

Author: Nancy Learned Haines
Publisher: Pleasant Green Books(2024)
ISBN:  978-0997984811
Paperback, 262 pages

Hearing the Light begins with the foundations of Quaker theology, which is based in the Quaker method of unprogrammed, silent worship. This act of gathering as a community to wait and listen to God is at the heart of Quakerism and essential to understanding Quaker theology, which is embedded in the practice as well as explained by it. Rhiannon Grant shows how Central Quaker theological claims, such as that everyone has that of God within them, that God offers support and guidance to all who choose to listen, and that Quakers as a community are led by God to treat everyone equally, resist war, and live simply, can be understood through a consideration of this distinctive worship practice. Rhiannon Grant also explores what it means to say that this form of theology is liberal – although many Quakers are politically liberal, they have also been called “conservative radicals” (Kenneth Boulding), and the liberalism involved is not mainly political but an attitude towards diversity of thought, opinion, and especially religious belief. While united by the practice of unprogrammed worship, Quakers have no written creed and no specific beliefs are required of members. Instead, there is a prevailing attitude of continued searching, an acceptance that new evidence may appear, and a willingness to learn from others, including members of other faith communities. At a time of great religious and political division, this radical approach to faith and learning that Grant sheds light upon, has never been more prescient.

Author: Rhiannon Grant
Publisher: Christian Alternative (2021)
ISBN: 9781789045048
Paperback, 80 pages

Part of the Quaker Quicks series. This series of short paperbacks is very useful for outreach and for religious education.

Finding Purpose in Troubled Times

Quakers have made the cultivation of the guided life the focus of their spirituality for over three centuries. Generations of Quakers have developed practices for nurturing their connection to an inward source of guidance, meaning and purpose. This Inward Guide is present in all people, cultures and traditions. It goes by many names and is understood in many ways, but it is equally available to everyone who is willing to listen and respond. The Guided Life shares some of the spiritual practices that the Quaker tradition has developed to discover purpose and direction in daily life. These practices may be of use to anyone who is wrestling with the complex challenges and dilemmas of the modern world.

Author: Craig Barnett
Publisher: Christian Alternative, November 2019
ISBN: 9781785358968
Paperback, 80 pages

Part of the Quaker Quicks series. This series of short paperbacks is very useful for outreach and for religious education.

Telling the truth about God without excluding anyone is a challenge to the Quaker community. Drawing on the author’s academic research into Quaker uses of religious language and her teaching to Quaker and academic groups, Rhiannon Grant aims to make accessible some key theological and philosophical insights. She explains that Quakers might sound vague but are actually making clear and creative theological claims. Theology isn’t just for wordy people or intellectuals, it’s for everyone. And that’s important because our religious language is related to, not separate from, our religious experience. It also becomes clear that denying other people’s claims often leads to making your own and that even apparently negative positions can also be making positive statements. How do Quakers tell the truth about God? This book explores this key theological process through fourteen short chapters. As Quakers, we say that we know some things, but not very much, about God, and that we are in a constant process of trying to improve our ways of saying what we do know.

Author: Rhiannon Grant
Publisher: Christian Alternative, April 2019
ISBN: 9781789040814
Paperback,  88 pages

Part of the Quaker Quicks series. This series of short paperbacks is very useful for outreach and for religious education.

How can we find inner stillness in our lives today? What is it for and how can we use it? Inspired by the fiery writings of early Quakers, such as George Fox and Margaret Fell, this book calls on their advice to go within and wait, adapting it to create a modern, relatable method for finding stillness and peace. This meditation is for us to use however we most need it, whether to explore and heal the self and others or to help us be more effective in the wider world.

Author: Joanna Godfrey Wood
Publisher: Christian Alternative, 2021
ISBN: 9781789047073
Paperback, 104 pages

Part of the Quaker Quicks series, short paperbacks very useful for outreach and religious education.

How the Jesus story and the Quaker way fit together.

‘What is Quakerism?’ can be a difficult question to answer, especially when Quakers today struggle to find a shared religious language. In this book, Mark Russ answers this question from a personal perspective, telling his story of trying to make sense of Jesus within the Quaker community. Through this theological wrestling emerges a ‘Quaker Shaped Christianity’ that is contemporary, open and rooted in tradition. In reflecting on how to approach the Bible, the challenges of Universalism, and the key events of the Jesus story, this book offers a creative, inspiring and readable theology for everyone who has wondered how Christianity and Quakerism fit together.

Author: Mark Russ
Publisher: Christian Alternative
Paperback, 88 pages

Tim Gee tells the story of why he became a pacifist and what it means to him. Gee reflects on the lives of peacemakers past and present to provide responses to questions like “Don’t we have to hit back if we’re hurt?”, “Don’t we need war to respond to evil?” and “Doesn’t religion justify wars?”. This is a critique of war, but more than that, it stakes a claim for pacifism’s feminist and anti-racist qualities. This is a call for a more nonviolent world.

Author: Tim Gee
Publisher: Christian Alternative,  October 2019
ISBN: 9781789040166
Paperback, 88 pages

Part of the Quaker Quicks series. This series of short paperbacks is very useful for outreach and for religious education.

Margaret Fell was an inspiring and practical leader in the early Quaker movement in 17th-century England. Remembered as the wife of George Fox, her writings have been largely forgotten. This book brings them to life again, with excerpts and reflections structured around the four testimonies that have continued to shape Quaker witness to this day: Simplicity, Truth, Equality and Peace. To do this, Joanna Godfrey Wood follows each passage with a modern adaptation of Fell’s words and then explores her own personal responses from a 21st-century perspective. We are left with a sense of a strong and beautiful bridge linking past and present. (review excerpted from Friends Journal)

Author: Joanna Godfrey Wood
Publisher; Christian Alternative (2021)
ISBN: 9781789045772
Paperback, 88 pages

Part of the Quaker Quicks series. This series of short paperbacks is very useful for outreach and for religious education.