Margaret Fell was an amazing person. From the day she met George Fox (whom she married after the death of her first husband), she threw herself wholeheartedly into the young Quaker movement, while at the same time raising eight children and fulfilling her domestic duties as the wife of the lord of a Manor. The first public Quaker meeting was held at her home, Swarthmoor Hall, just a few weeks after she met Fox; and Meetings continued to be held there for almost 40 years. This was despite her being imprisoned for holding them!
Margaret wrote sixteen books and many tracts and letters. Friends wrote to her from all over the world to share their suffering and ask for her help and support. This workshop series will focus on her inspirational writing, which is surprisingly relevant to the times we live in.
Each session will include stories about Margaret, readings of one or two of her letters and epistles, and time in small and large groups to consider her words. The language has been modernized and references to people in general and to God have been altered to be gender neutral.
Workshops will be on Zoom, Saturdays: 8/9, 8/23, 9/6, 9/20 from 10:00am to 12:00noon
Shulamith Clearbridge is a member of Swarthmore Monthly Meeting. She has taught workshops and classes all her life — for organizations, institutions, and continuing education programs. Shulamith has led workshops and retreats, Quaker Meetings for Healing, and adult religious education programs for monthly and quarterly Meetings in Vermont, the Chicago area, the Philadelphia area, and elsewhere; as well as for New England Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Friends General Conference. Shulamith has also led workshops for Quaker retreat and conference centers, such as Pendle Hill. In addition, she has led programs on spirituality and Quakerism for church and interfaith groups.
In addition to teaching, Shulamith is a writer and an interfaith spiritual director. She has a Masters of Divinity — her 1995 book, Finding God: Prayers & Spiritual Practices from Many Traditions, was her thesis. She is the author of the Pendle Hill Pamphlet, Plain Talk about Dying: the Spiritual Effects of Taking My Father Off Life Support, and Good Night: Interfaith Prayers & Meditations Before Sleep, in press with Barclay Press.