ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 4, 1996 TAG: 9602020049
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Shakers are a sect of Adventists who split off from the Quakers in England in 1747. Nine of them came to America in 1774. At the peak of their membership, from 1830 to 1850, there were 6,000 members in 20 societies in New England, New York, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
They supported themselves mainly through agriculture and the making of highly prized, handmade furniture, boxes and other articles. They led a disciplined life, owned property communally, treated all equally, dressed simply. Their tools and craftsmanship reflected their no-frills practicality. Shakers invented the circular saw, the clothespin, the flatheaded broom.
Sister Frances Carr explains Shakerism in a nutshell: ``Celibacy, confession and community of goods.'' Confession, Brother Arnold says, is usually to a leader. ``You talk about something that is troubling you. We call it the opening of the mind.''
They came to be called Shakers, derogatorily at first, because of their trembling with ecstasy during religious services.
In her book, ``Growing Up Shaker,'' Sister Frances tells about being in chapel when a ``gentle and unassuming'' sister ``leapt from her place in the second row ... and began to whirl around in a small circle. ... When we got back to the Children's House Sister Mary told us that Sister Eliza had been under the power of the Spirit'' and could not have controlled herself.
``To my knowledge,'' she wrote, ``this was the last time such a happening, which had been common in earlier times, occurred within Shakerism.''
Maine's Sabbathday Shaker Village today has an orchard of 6,000 apple trees and a large vegetable garden which feeds the community and provides surplus to sell. They raise sheep to sell and spin the wool for handcrafted items at their gift shop.
``Brother Wayne is bringing back Shaker oval boxes,'' Sister Frances says with delight. ``Oval boxes are being made again in a Shaker village by a Shaker brother!''
And now the Shakers, a celibate movement from the start, are down to seven members. Will it continue?
``We pray that it will,'' Sister Frances replies. ``We have every expectation that it will. We never know how God's plan will work out. It doesn't seem to us it would have gone on for all of this time and come to an end now.''
Still, they don't proselytize. ``We try to show our way by our lives,'' she says. ``I guess this is one reason we're quite happy about the CD going out in the world. It's disappointing to have people say, `I didn't know there were any Shakers left.' We hope it will bring people to know more about the Shaker life.''
She is pleased, Sister Frances says, that young people seem to enjoy the Shaker songs.
``I think young people in the 1980s had everything they wanted and it still did not fill a void in their lives. Maybe they are beginning to turn to more spiritual aspects in life.
``After awhile, there is nothing more to give or to get.''
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