The Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester attracts thousands of tourists each year because of its operating farm and antique structures. The last surviving Shaker community in the US is this one. Additionally, there were just two members until a few months ago.
A third has now joined the Christian cult that is celibacy.
Members of the Friends of the Shakers gather for a group sing-along at the end of a summer day. Few people appear to need the Shaker song lyrics, but most of the women sit on one side of the chapel while the males sit on the other.
Sister April Baxter, 59, is one of the women, modestly dressed in trousers and a bright button-down shirt. The newest Shaker is Baxter. She opted to move into the nearly 150-year-old living home, which can accommodate 70 people, this spring after discovering the community last year and making multiple visits. She claims that the location and the individuals there had a unique spiritual connection for her.
“I was very moved, but I didn’t know why. “I’ve been to many beautiful places in my life,” she says, “but I felt compelled to return for some reason.”
You must be debt-free, single, in good bodily and mental health, and dependent-free in order to become a Shaker. Additionally, you cannot be accepted as a full member of the community until you have lived there for five years.
Baxter claims that her three years as a novice in an Episcopal convent in Massachusetts helped her get ready for the Shaker life before she moved to New Gloucester.
“And if I hadn’t lived at the convent, I wouldn’t even have considered coming here,” she continues. That was a significant turning point in my trip, but I also felt it was time to go on. “That must have been a really hard decision for you,” someone told me. “No, it wasn’t a decision,” I respond. It’s a vocation. Therefore, the only choice I had to make was whether or not to follow God’s call.
Baxter will join Sister June Carpenter, 87, and Brother Arnold Hadd, 68, as a full member if he is accepted. Hadd came to the area almost fifty years ago, and he works on the farm and prays during the day.
Shakerism, according to Hadd, is simply about following what he refers to as the “three C’s” to emulate the life of Christ.
“There’s the confession of sin, which is the opening of the mind and the gateway to the church,” he continues. “A community of goods exists. Although we all own everything, no one else does. As Christ was celibate, so too was celibacy.
Established in England in 1747, the Shakers expanded to over 5,000 adherents in towns ranging from Indiana to Maine after arriving in America. Although many have attempted to join throughout the years, celibacy has hindered their capacity to maintain their numbers. Michael Graham, the Village Director, is one of them. He claims that thirty years ago, he asked Brother Arnold if he had what it takes to become a Shaker.
“You don’t have the faith,” he remarked. And listening to my mentor, my role model, and the person I studied under, and simply taking in what he had to say, was a really difficult response,” Graham says. “It felt like a push away at the time, but as the years passed, what I realized that it wasn’t a push away, it was a different type of embrace.”
Graham is one of many people who support the little community and has worked at the Shaker village ever since the rejection. According to the Friends of the Shakers organization, over a thousand people identify as Shaker but are unable to fully embrace the Shaker way of life.
Sister Baxter realizes that the community depends on the assistance of others and states that she is prepared to commit.
“This place is home to more than just the three Shakers. Everyone is growing alongside us. It’s the staff members, volunteers, and guests here. That is so fundamental to our identity and the reason our community endures,” she explains.
Baxter has been in her beginner year for less than half a year. Sister June and Brother Arnold will determine whether or not to admit her as a member after she is done. For her to be regarded as a complete member of the faith, she will need to stay for a further four years.
