Overview: In Search of Hope delves into our lived experience today to discover the fleeting moments of hope available to us and offers stories, as well as easy practical exercises, to give us paths into the self so that we might create a personal landscape in which hope can flourish.

Inspired by the writings of one of the founders of Quakerism in the seventeenth century, Margaret Fell, In Search of Hope is an attempt to bring some of the first ideas of Quakerism into our lives in these challenging times.

Verdict: Taking it from the top, Quakerism started in England in the second half of the 17th century, during the aftermath of the English Civil War; a time when many people were interested in radically reshaping religion, politics and society. Early Quakers started preaching around the North of England, and then further afield around Britain, gathering followers who were convinced by their radical ideas.

The key beliefs of Quakerism were formed at this time. They include the idea that each individual can experience inner light, or the voice of God, without needing a priest, or the Bible. This belief has evolved to mean that Quakers don’t have strict set rules governing their Church – how each individual chooses to act, if it is driven by this inner light, is valid.

It also means that Quakers believe there is that of God in everyone, they seek to meet this in all people and see all humans as equal and deserving of equal treatment and respect.

Early Quakers also preached there was no need for churches, rituals, holy days, or sacraments, to practice religion. Rather religion should be something one lived and acted out every day.

These ideas were radical in a period where the established church held great political power, and many early Quakers were imprisoned and oppressed for these beliefs.

Here in this insightful, and at the same time thought-provoking new book from author Joanna Godfrey Wood, Quaker Quicks: In Search Of Hope A Personal Quaker, she straight talks about how the experiences we endure today formulate fleeting moments of hope that dutifully become available to us, therein offering us chances to explore, and embrace Quakerism into our lives in these challenging times.

Inspired by the writings of one of the founders of Quakerism in the seventeenth century, Margaret Fell, was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, known popularly as the mother of Quakerism, and is still today considered one of the Valiant Sixty early Quaker preachers and missionaries.

In 1652, Margaret heard the ministry of George Fox and was convinced. Over the next six years, Swarthmoor Hall became a centre of Quaker activity; she served as an unofficial secretary for the new movement, receiving and forwarding letters from roving missionaries, and occasionally sending admonitions to them from Fox, Richard Hubberthorne, James Nayler, and others.

She wrote many epistles herself and collected and disbursed funds for those on missions. After her husband’s death in 1658, she retained control of Swarthmoor Hall, which remained a meeting place and haven from persecution, even though it was sometimes, in the 1660s, raided by government forces.

Because she was one of the few founding members of the Religious Society of Friends who was an established member of the gentry, she was frequently called upon to intercede in cases of persecution or arrest of leaders such as Fox.

After the Stuart Restoration in 1660, she traveled from Lancashire to London to petition King Charles II and his parliament in 1660 and 1662 for freedom of conscience in religious matters. In her work A Declaration and an Information from Us, The People called Quakers, to the Present Governors, The King and Both Houses of Parliament, and All Whom It May Concern published in 1660 she explains the principles of Quakerism and pleads for religious freedom.

This work is regarded as the first public declaration of the peace testimony as it came some months before the declaration of January 1661.

There is, of course, much more to explore and learn here in this book, so I encourage you to buy it, find a quiet time and place to settle in with it, and with a hot beverage, submerge yourself within these pages; for you will, and without a shadow of a doubt, be a much wiser and learned person thereafter.

About the Author - Joanna Godfrey Wood has been a Quaker all her life and she attended a Quaker school. She recently took the Equipping for Ministry course at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham, England, which gave her a chance to study the works of Margaret Fell. Joanna spent her working life as a book editor. Joanna lives in North London, UK.

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