With its historic buildings and working farm, the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester draws thousands of visitors a year. This is the last active Shaker community in the United States. And until a few months ago, there were only two members.
Now, a third has joined the celibate Christian sect.
At the end of a summer day, members of a group called Friends of the Shakers settle in for a group singalong. A majority of women sit on one side of the chapel and the men sit opposite, all holding lyrics to the Shaker songs, though few seem to need them.
Among the women is 59-year-old Sister April Baxter — unassuming in her colorful button-down shirt and jeans. Baxter is the newest Shaker. She discovered the community last year and after several visits, decided this spring to move into the almost 150-year-old dwelling house designed to hold 70 people. She says there was something special about the place and the people who connected with her spiritually.
"I didn't understand why, but I was very moved. I mean, I've been to lots of beautiful places in my life," she says, "but something made me feel like I had to come back."
To become a Shaker, you must be single, in good physical and mental health, free of debt and have no dependents. And only after living at the village for five years can you be considered for acceptance as a full member.
Baxter says before coming to New Gloucester, she lived for three years as a novice in an Episcopal convent in Massachusetts, which helped her prepare for the Shaker life.
"And if I hadn't lived at the convent, I wouldn't even have considered coming here," she says. "So that was an important step in my journey, but I also was feeling like it was time to move on. ... Someone said to me, 'That must have been a really hard decision for you to make.' I'm like, 'No, it wasn't a decision. It's a calling.' So really the only decision was saying yes or no to what I feel God was calling me to do."
If accepted as a full member, Baxter will join 87-year-old Sister June Carpenter and 68-year-old Brother Arnold Hadd. Hadd entered the community nearly a half century ago and spends his days praying and working on the farm.
Hadd says Shakerism can be boiled down to emulating the life of Christ through what he calls the "three C's".
"There's the confession of sin, which is the opening of the mind and the gateway to the church," he says. "There's a community of goods. Nobody owns everything anything, but we all own everything. And celibacy, as Christ was celibate."
The Shakers were founded in England in 1747, and after coming to America grew to about 5,000 believers in communities from Indiana to Maine. But celibacy has limited their ability to sustain their numbers, though many have sought to join over the years. Among them is Village Director Michael Graham, who says he asked Brother Arnold 30 years ago if he had what it took to become a Shaker.
"He said, 'Nay, you don't have the faith.' And that was a very hard answer to hear my mentor, my role model, the person that I studied under, and just absorbed everything he had to say," 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."
Despite the rejection, Graham has worked at the Shaker village ever since and is one of many who support the small community. The Friends of the Shakers group says there are more than a thousand members who believe in Shaker values but cannot fully commit to the life.
Sister Baxter says she is ready to commit and acknowledges the community relies on the support of others.
"It's not just the three Shakers that are living here. It's everyone that's growing with us. It's the employees here, it's the volunteers, it's the visitors. That's such an important part of who we are and why this community survives," she says.
Baxter is less than six months into her novice year. When she's finished, Brother Arnold and Sister June will decide whether to accept her as a member. She will have to remain another four years to be considered as a full member of the faith.
