Until recently , there were only three get it on members of the Shaker faith last in the United States — and now , the Associated Press reports , the number is down to two .
concord to one of her equal , Brother Arnold Hadd , Sister Frances Carr , 89 , died on Monday after battling cancer . Hadd , 60 , and a woman named Sister June Carpenter , 78 , are now the only Shakers left in their petite spiritual residential area — a village in New Gloucester , Maine , called Sabbathday Lake .
The Shakers are a Christian denomination whose basic dogma include gender equality , pacifism , communal property ownership , and celibacy . Theyformed in Englandduring the 1700s , from a group that had left the Quakers . The physical act of shaking and rapt bm during adoration extend to the grouping ’s unofficial moniker : “ shake up Quakers . ” ( The group ’s formal name is the United Society of Believers in Christ ’s Second Appearing . )
To escape persecution , the Shakers lead England in 1774 , and settle in the American settlement to freely rehearse their beliefs and attempt to form a utopian residential district . They became renowned for their furniture craft , and for conception like theflat broomand the bound clothespin .
The Shakers were never a large spiritual community , but over the decade , their numbers dwindled . Prior to the Civil War , nearly6000Shakers live in the U.S.—and at one tip , Sabbathday Lake , which was settle in 1783 , hadnearly 200 members . The group ’s decline is largely due to their celibate life-style , and also due to the fact that they no longer take in orphans and bring up them in the Shaker religion . ( The Shakers adopted Carr . )
Today , Sabbathday is home to the only combat-ready Shaker Community in the worldly concern , according to the community ’s website . But despite the odds , its surviving members continue hopeful that the Shaker way of animation will persevere . “ As long as we do God ’s work I trust in the core of my soulfulness that there will always be vocations get off to this way of sprightliness , ” Haddtold PBS in 2010 .
[ h / tAssociated Press ]
