I've always been fascinated with the Shakers. For some reason, my schools were, too: I distinctly remember watching films and learning about them in more than one school in the 1980s. Their furniture and crafts are gorgeously simple, even if their celibacy requirement is a wee bit hard to understand.
And as one would expect, what with the celibacy and all, apparently there are only four surviving Shakers left.
(Via Flutterby.)
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I'm absolutely amazed (well, ok, maybe not, it's kind of a minor doctrinal point) that that article doesn't mention that the Sabbathday Lake Shakers are themselves an offshoot of "traditional" Shakerism. All the men'd died off, so they couldn't do apostolic succession anymore. But the Sabbathday folks (as opposed to the Canterbury folks, who were the second-to-last community that survived) decided to induct men anyway.
Otherwise that's a good article.
^^ I'm not sure where Kate gets her information or if I'm misreading her words, but the Shakers (including the Sabbathday Lake family) have always been co-ed. Sure, the men and women use different staircases and doorways, but always co-ed. In fact, after Mother Ann Lee died, a man became the Head Believer.
Mr. Boggs would be proud I remembered all that.
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