This week we're traveling back to 18th century Manchester (and America!) with The Testament of Ann Lee! Join us as we learn about Ann Lee's life with her awful husband Abraham and fellow spiritual leader Jane Wardley, shaker spirituals, pacifism, and more!

Sources:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pacifism/ Ngram for Pacifism: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pacifism&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3 George Fox on peace: https://quaker.org/legacy/minnfm/peace/fox_1651.htm Tolstoy, "The Law of Violence and the Law of Love", 1908, available at https://www.marxists.org/archive/tolstoy/1908/the-law-of-violence-and-the-law-of-love/chapter-8.html

https://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/pop-religion-hunger-and-thirst-embodied-religion-testament-ann-lee https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_testament_of_ann_lee Guy Lodge, https://variety.com/2025/film/news/the-testament-of-ann-lee-review-amanda-seyfried-1236503769/ Peter Bradshaw, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/01/the-testament-of-ann-lee-review-shaker-venice-film-festival-amanda-seyfried-mona-fastvold Peyton Robinson, https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-testament-of-ann-lee-amanda-seyfried-film-review-2025

https://shakermuseum.org/learn/school-programs/shaker-music/ Nardi Reeder Campion, Mother Ann Lee: Morning Star of the Shakers (Brandeis University Press, 2026). https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.37730392 Linda Fujie, ""Draw the Chords of Union Stronger": The Musical Life of the American Shakers," The World of Music 35: 3 (1993): 51-79. Daniel Patterson, The Shaker Spiritual (Dover, 1979, 2000) https://archive.org/details/shakerspiritual0000patt/page/2/mode/2up . https://www.shakermuseum.us/tis-gift-simple-things-arent-simple-seem/?nocache=1 https://home.shakerheritage.org/let-us-labor-the-evolution-of-shaker-dance/ https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1-shaker-dance-and-worship-18th-century-photo-researchers.html https://daily.jstor.org/the-rhythms-of-shaker-dance-marked-the-shakers-as-other/ EP Thompson, Making of the English Working Class BS Youngs, "The Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing," 1823, Full text available on Google Books

Nardi Reeder Campion, Mother Ann Lee (2026) https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.37730392.11 A summary view of the Millennial Church, or United Society of Believers (commonly called Shakers) : comprising the rise, progress, and practical order of the society, together with the general principles of their faith and testimony (1823), https://archive.org/details/asummaryviewmil02wellgoog/page/n4/mode/2up