By BRIDGET CORT

In a small village on the outskirts of New Gloucester, Maine, live the two remaining Shakers. This small Christian sect has since their foundation changed their lifestyle to reflect the times, all while keeping their core spirituality which can be best summed up by Ann Lee’s saying “hands to work, hearts to God”- but there is still a question as to if this community can make it in the modern age.

The Shakers, more formally known as the United Society of believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, were founded in 1747 as an offshoot of the Quakers. This origin spawned their more colloquial name of Shaking Quakers or Shakers, which they were called derogatively by  onlookers who saw their ecstatic worship practices, including singing, dancing, and speaking in tongues. While this religious movement was created before her joining, the most foundational person in Shaker history and the women who shaped their beliefs was Ann Lee. Lee was born in Manchester in 1736, and joined the Shakers in 1758 after becoming disillusioned with the Anglican church, and the death of her four children in infancy. Just twelve years later she became the leader of this new religion and received two visions, the first telling her and her followers to live a celibate life, and the second telling her to move this religion to America.

In 1774 Lee, and just nine followers moved to America, where they settled in New York. They bought a tract of land in Mount Lebanon, NY, and called this new Shaker community Niskeyuna. It was in Mount Lebanon where Lee, shaped the four core tenets of Shakerism that continue in the community today of communal living, celibacy, regular confessions, and a separation from the outside world. 

At their peak in 1850, there were nearly 5,000 Shakers, living in up to 19 communities stretching from Maine to Kentucky. They worked as farmers, and craftspeople, and became notorious for their simple but practical furniture. This peak came to a close in the 1860’s when many Shakers, particularly men, left the community to pursue the wealth and freedom that could be found outside of Shaker villages during the industrial revolution. This left the Shakers with a dwindling population, mostly women, leading to the primary goods made by the Shakers being fancy goods that appealed to Victorian tastes.

Today there are only two living shakers practicing the religion, Brother Arnold Hadd and Sister June Carpenter. They live in the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester Maine, which operates both as a museum, a site of cultural heritage, and their home. With the help of both employees and volunteers the Shakers continue to care for cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, as well as an apple orchard and herb garden. They sell fresh apples in the fall, applesauce, and hand pressed cider, and fresh and dried herbs and other products from their herb gardens. While they operate on nowhere near the scale they did at the Shakers peak, they continue to do many of the same activities in the village as they did when it was founded around 1794. The sheep graze on the same pastures, and many of the traditional crafts, like weaving and basket making, that Shakers took up throughout the religions history to make money to support the communities, continue to this day.

They have also continued their religious heritage into the twenty-first century. They hold Shaker meetings every Sunday at 10:00 am, and they welcome anyone to join in. In these meetings curious tourists and regular attendants, led by Hadd and Carpenter, sing songs written by shakers over a hundred years ago, and while the meetings are not as boisterous as they once were, they carry on the tradition of Shaker spiritualism and a direct relationship with God.

This leaves the question how will this fading religion survive past its two current members? On the website for the Sabbathday Lake Shaker village they have instructions on how an interested person can join, but the requirements are steep, and the journey to becoming a Shaker is a long one. Someone considering joining must be debt free, willing to live a celibate life, and be “free from anything that would prohibit [them] from giving [themselves] wholly to God and this community,” amongst other similarly difficult obligations. After meeting all of these expectations one must contact the Shakers, visit the community, and after at least a year of communication join the village as a novice. After another year the current Shakers vote on if the candidate can join, and after five years the person becomes a full member of the church and “consecrates all of their worldly possessions to the Community.” The shakers are determined to keep their religion alive without altering their core tenets, and believe that their community has adapted to difficult times before and that they can do it again.

Featured Image Credit: National Park Service