Life the Shaker Village

INTERVIEW


Source: www.speakup.com.br
Language level: Upper intermediate
Speaker Chuck Rolando
Standard: American accent



Source:  mainememory.net

THE QUIT LIFE

The Sabbath day Lake Shaker Village in Cumberland County, Maine, is the last active Shaker Village in the United States. Speak Up went there in order to find out more about this unusual religious community, which today has only four members. We were shown around by Leonard L Brooks, who is the Director of the Shaker Library and Museum:

Leonard Brooks

(Standard American accent):

The meeting house is still used for worship. They brothers still enter through that door, and male guests, and the sisters and female guests enter and sit on this side. The reason for that is an outward expression, if you will, of the celibate life of the Shakers. The Shakers live what they call the “Christ life” and, to them, it means a celibate life, a communal life, one where they practice confession life one where they practice confession of sin, and they’re pacifists. To reduce Shakerism to its most elemental terms: Christ did not marry, so the Shakers do not marry: Christ had no private wealth, he lived in common with the Apostles and that’s the way the Shakers live.  No individual Shaker has any individual riches6: the 17 buildings, the 1700 acres of land, are all held in common.

NOT FOR ME

Although he lives and works in Sabbath day Lake, Leonard Brooks is not himself a Shaker. We asked him whether the idea of joining the community had ever appealed to him:

Leonard Brooks:

Oh, it has in the past, but I think the sticking point for me –like it is for a lot of others –is…well, you have to give up your independence. You cannot just do whatever you want to do, and be a Shaker, or any religious community member. If you want to get out for the day and do A, but the community needs to have you do B, you do B. so that kind of tension becomes the stick in the mud for a lot of people. They do come here and try the life, but they leave. And I think – I don’t know, I can’t speak for other communities, and I’m not really speaking for the Shaker community –but I think that, if you talk to people, particularly who enter the religious life as adults, the change from independence to community member is tough.

ONLY IN AMERICA (No audio available)

LIFE IN THE Shake Village

The members of the world’s only active Shaker community live and work in 17 beautiful white clapboard buildings. Constructed from 1760 to 1950, they are typical of New England. Here, far off the tourist trail, the last Shakers pray and sing. They keep cows and sheep, grow apple trees, plant herbs, make beautiful oval boxes and welcome curious visitors.

The “United Society of Believers” was founded in 1747 in Manchester, England. The name “Shake Quakers” or “Shakers” came from their ecstatic worship. At meetings, Shakers danced and entered into a trance. A young dynamic woman called Ann Lee became their leader. Ann Lee was imprisoned for her religious convictions in 1770.  In prison, she had visions and decided to take the faith to America. In 1774 “Mother Ann” and eight other Shakers crossed the Atlantic. One of the communities they founded wa Sabbath day Lake Maine.

BELIEFS

So what do Shakes believe? The basic Shakers principles are Purity of Life, Peace, Justice and Love. Shakers want to reveal God to the World through their life. The Shaker God is pure spirit and has masculine and feminine attributes: strength, power, compassion and mercy.

Like most religious communities, Shakers live and work together and shar their possessions. Shakers are pacifists and live a celibate life. All are equal. The Shaker motto is. “Put our Hands to Work and Hearts to God.”

LOCAL COMMUNITY

Mother Ann died in 1784 at the age of 48, but the movement attracted a number of followers. In the mid-19^th century there were still about 5.000 Shakers living in 18 communities, mainly in the Eastern states. Today, there are only four Shakes left.

As Leonard Brooks explains in the interview, Shaker life is not for everybody. Yet the Shakers share with the local community. There are concerts of American and Shaker music. Workshops show how to make the oval Shaker boxes or to grow herbs. Apple fairs sell apple pies and local speciality apple butter. Visitors can see the complex and the museum with Shaker furniture and costume. They can also participate in a Sunday meeting or just buy some aromatic Shaker herbs –a fragrant souvenir from this remarkable place.