Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write off the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

AMERICAN DISSENTERS: ANN LEE





Session 1. Empty Altars: Visionaries & Prophets
Streamed live on Feb 27, 2023

58:12 - Mother Ann Lee
1:14:58 - Fannie Lou Hamer

This is session one for "Empty Altars: American Saints in a Cynical Age" with Diana Butler Bass & Tripp Fuller. To join the open online Lenten class head over to www.EmptyAltars.com


Shakerism: The First Two Hundred Years
Apr 24, 2021

Almost 50 years ago, when portable video technology was in its infancy, Terese Kreuzer and Eugene Marlow set out to make a documentary about the United Society of Believers, commonly known as the Shakers. A celibate religious order, they had been founded by an illiterate English woman named Mother Ann Lee who, in 1774, crossed the Atlantic Ocean with a handful of followers. The Shakers lived in communes where men and women were equal in terms of authority and responsibility, owning all property in common and caring for each other and serving each other. They believed as Mother Ann did that anyone could embody the spirit of Christ who lived a pure, simple and loving life. "Put your hands to work and your hearts to God," Mother Ann taught.

At one time, there were 18 active Shaker communities in the United States but by the time Kreuzer and Marlow met the Shakers, there were only two left. The one in Sabbathday Lake, Maine had eight covenanted members. The one in Canterbury, New Hampshire was even smaller. In 1992, when the last of the Canterbury sisters died, that Shaker community became a museum. But the Sabbathday Lake Shaker community is still active, though diminished in numbers, a testament to Mother Ann's belief that "No one can build a spiritual heaven without first creating a heaven on earth."

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Enfield Shaker Museum


Biography of Ann Lee, Founder of the Shakers

Mother Ann Lee led the Shakers from England to the United States

by Lisa Jo Rudy | Updated on July 30, 2019


Ann Lee (February 29, 1736–September 8, 1784) was the charismatic leader of the Shakers, officially known as the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. The illiterate daughter of a blacksmith in Manchester, England, Lee endured a difficult childhood and troubled marriage before leading a group of "shaking Quakers" to upstate New York. The Shakers became an active evangelical group with communities throughout eight states in the Northeast.

Shakers were known for their pacifism, celibacy, egalitarianism between the sexes, unique form of worship, and impressive achievements in the fields of agriculture, design, and music. By the end of the 20th century, Shakerism was essentially extinct, but its legacy continues.

Early Life

Ann Lee was born on February 29, 1736, in Toad Lane, a poor neighborhood of Manchester, England. Ann was the second of eight children born to a blacksmith, John Lee, whose income barely fed his large family. Ann was baptized in 1742 but received no schooling; as a young girl, she went to work in the textile mills to help support her family.

A sensitive young woman, Ann was able to leave the mills to find employment in the local infirmary but was nevertheless overwhelmed by the filth and poverty of Manchester. She spoke out against alcohol and developed a strong aversion to sex. Her distaste for sex was such that she actually lectured her mother against engaging in sex, even with her own husband.

The Wardley Society of Shaking Quakers

In 1758, Ann discovered the Wardley Society, a group of "shaking Quakers," a religious society led by Jane and James Wardley. The Wardleys, like the Quakers, believed in the "inner light" as the source of revelation and spiritual truth, and, like the Quakers, they started their meetings with silence, waiting for the spirit to move members to speak. Unlike the Quakers, however, the Wardleys were influenced by the Camisards (French prophets) who believed that the Second Coming of Christ was near. They also believed that, while Christ's first coming was in male form, the second coming would be in female form. "Shaking Quaker" worship quickly moved from silent meditation to dramatic confession of sins, singing in tongues, shaking, and prophesying. Ann Lee found a home with the Wardley Society, and they were equally impressed by Ann.

Marriage and Pregnancies

Four years after she joined the Wardley Society, Ann's father pressed her to marry his apprentice, Abraham Standerin. Despite Ann's reluctance to engage in sex, she became pregnant and gave birth four times. Each of her children died either in infancy or young childhood. These experiences were devastating for Ann, who saw the deaths of her children as a judgment on her for her sins and determined to remain celibate.

This period of depression and introspection lasted for nine years, during which time Ann refused to share her bed with her husband. Standerin, despite his frustrations with his wife, remained loyal to her for a period of time. A few years later, he traveled to America with her.

Jail, Visions, and a Journey

Members of the Wardley Society were often jailed for reasons ranging from blasphemy to disrupting the peace. In some cases, conflicts with the authorities were a result of the Wardley Society members disrupting other congregations and accusing married members of "whoredom."

It was in 1770, during a period of incarceration, that Ann Lee received a vision. In this vision, according to several sources, Lee saw that sex between Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was the cause of humanity's separation from God. It was further revealed that she was the incarnation of the second coming of Christ, as foretold in Genesis and the Book of Revelation. She left jail as Mother Ann, or Ann the Word, a mystic and leader of a sect dedicated to celibacy and confession of sins.

Quite a few members of the Shaking Quakers, including some of Ann's family, accepted her vision as spiritual truth and followed her teachings as the “first spiritual Mother in Christ.” They continued to follow her when, in 1774, a vision led her to form a perfect church in America which would become the model for the Millenium. With the help of a wealthy follower, Ann and a group of followers sailed to America.

Mother Ann Lee tombstone
Mother Ann Lee tombstone.  Doug Coldwell / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0

Mother Ann in America

In 1774, Mother Ann and her followers arrived in New York City where Ann's husband, Abraham, finally left her forever. A member of the group leased land in upstate New York, and, in 1776, the Shakers founded their first model farming community in a Niskayuna (now called Watervliet) New York. The community was completely celibate; women and men shared leadership and worked side by side as equals.

Even in their new surroundings, the Shakers found life difficult. As pacifists, they were unwilling to pledge their support to the American revolutionaries, and several Shakers (including Mother Ann) were jailed for being disloyal. Ann continued to preach, even through the windows of her prison cell;. Following her release she set out on a four-year missionary tour throughout the northeastern part of the new United States.

Though the new nation was undergoing a religious revival, the Shakers' unique theology and principles made it difficult to build a following. Nevertheless, Mother Ann, her brother William, and Shaker leader James Whittaker were successful in laying the groundwork for communities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Many new Shaker converts had been members of non-mainstream groups which, like the Shakers, had been persecuted.

Death

Mother Ann's missionary tour was exhausting and involved a variety of hardships including physical assault. By the time she returned to Watervliet, she was ill; within a year both she and her brother had died. She died on September 8, 1784, at the age of 48, leaving James Whittaker, Joseph Meacham, Lucy Wright, and several other disciples to carry on the creation of multiple Shaker communities across eight states. Ann Lee was buried in the Shaker Cemetery in Watervliet, New York.

Legacy


Title of a very first book about Ann Lee Testimonies of the Life, Character, Revelations and Doctrines of Our Ever Blessed, and the Elders with Her published by Shakers in 1816. Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Ann Lee's personal story was documented by her followers in books which narrated her words, revelations, and actions (Testimonies of the LifeRevelations, and Doctrine of Our Ever Blessed Mother Ann Lee). These books, along with Mother Ann's personal influence, helped to shape the growth of the Shaker movement throughout the 1800s and into the 1900s.

Shakers were and still are well known for their egalitarian and pacifist beliefs, their celibacy, and their industry. Just as importantly, they are remembered for their significant contributions to American agriculture, design, and music.

Sources


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'Shakers near Lebanon', c1870. Members of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Community, Lebanon Springs, New York State, 'dancing' at their meeting. Artist: Currier and Ives.  Print Collector / Getty Images

Ann Lee, A Woman of Great Faith
article link

by Boris Boyko   |   January/February 2014

The meeting of Shakers started with silent meditation. Ann Lee, a young woman of medium height and serious manner, told them about her vision. She claimed that just as the male and female are seen throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms, so had God appeared in both forms. “It is not I that speak,” she said. “It is Christ who dwells in me.”

Soon the whole group was taken with a mighty shaking, singing, dancing, and shouting. The Shakers believed that the second coming of Christ was near. They thought that He would appear in the form of a woman. When they heard of Ann’s vision, she was no longer considered by them to be human, but divine. Ann was the one for whom they were waiting!

In 1770 she became their leader, their spiritual mother. They called her Mother Ann or Ann the Word. Ann herself never claimed that honor, nor did she think herself worthy of it. Throughout her life she was persecuted, but her faith carried her on to establish the first Shaker colony in the United States.

Ann was born in Manchester, England, on February 29, 1736, the second of eight children. Her father, John Lee, was a blacksmith from a very poor neighborhood called Toad Lane; no record exists of her mother’s name.

Manchester became known as a textile center during the Industrial Revolution. New machines sped up the clothmaking. People from the countryside poured into Toad Lane, doubling the population to 20,000 between 1719 and 1739. Whole families worked for low pay from dawn till dark. They were crowded into filthy little rooms. There was much disease, and the infant death rate was high.

Ann had no schooling. During her childhood she lived amid the mud, noise, and odors of Toad Lane. Before she reached her teens, she worked in a textile factory, first as a cutter of velvet and then as a helper in preparing cotton for the looms. Later she became a cutter of hatters’ fur. She was also a cook in an infirmary in Manchester. A serious-minded girl, Ann was always faithful and neat about her work.

When she observed the sin and despair in Toad Lane, Ann felt there must be a higher purpose to life. She looked for hope in religion. Cathedral square was nearby, but she thought the official church too sedate. She longed for something stronger.

At the age of 22 Ann met a tailor and his wife, James and Jane Wardley. The Wardleys had been Quakers, but couldn’t find the inner peace they wanted. They also searched for a religious answer to the suffering around them.

While in London the Wardleys had joined a group called the French Prophets, also known as the Shaking Quakers, or Shakers. The French Prophets came from the mountains of southern France, where they were called Camisards. They were exiled from their homes because of their radical ideas and manner of worship.

Why did they shake and dance during worship? the Shakers were asked. The answer was that their form of worship was based on the customs of the Old Testament. When the Israelites escaped from the Egyptians at the Sea of Reeds, Miriam “took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances” (Exodus 15:20). In another passage David was seen “leaping and dancing before the Lord” (2 Samuel 6:16). The words of the psalmist said: “Let them praise his name in the dance” (Psalm 149:3).

In London the Shakers were ridiculed. They attracted only a few followers. Most of them left to go to other countries, but the Wardleys decided to start a group in Manchester. In 1758 Ann joined the Wardleys, which consisted of about a dozen members.

At first the young woman with fair complexion, blue eyes, and chestnut-brown hair did not stand out in the meetings. She was so mild-mannered and pleasant that many wondered why she had not married. Later she attracted attention when she shouted out against sin.

Ann believed that all fleshly relations between men and women were a sin. She never condemned marriage, but thought it less perfect than celibacy. She thought that after children were produced, the life of sex must be replaced by the life of the soul.

But on January 5, 1762, Ann did marry (at her father’s insistence). At that time she was still a member of the Church of England, for the banns were signed, by mark, by Ann and Abraham Standerin, or Stanley. (The cathedral records were unclear about the last name.)

Abraham was described as a kindly man who was employed as a blacksmith in Ann’s father’s shop. The couple made their home with her parents. In the next four years four babies were born, but each lived only a few months. In 1766, after the death of her last child, Ann became very ill. She thought that her marriage was sinful and that God was punishing her. After a time of great remorse, she had the vision that caused her to become Mother Ann.

When Mother Ann began to direct the Shakers’ activities, the persecution began. In the summer of 1773 she and four others were arrested and each fined £20. Because they were unable to pay, they were thrown into jail.

Once, when she suffered from a stoning, Ann said, “I felt myself surrounded by the presence of God, and my soul was filled with joy. I knew they could not kill me, for my work was not done; therefore I felt joyful and comfortable, while my enemies felt confusion and distress.”

Another time a mob dragged Ann out of a meeting. She was confined for two weeks in the “Dungeons” for breach of the Sabbath. Her cell was so small that she couldn’t stand upright. It was accessible to the street, however, so James Whittaker, one of her followers, fed her wine and milk through a pipe stem he stuck in the keyhole.

One Saturday evening James reported seeing a vision. He claimed he saw a large tree in America, where every leaf seemed like a burning torch. The meaning of the vision was clear to Mother Ann. She believed that the second Shakers church would be established in America.

Immediately she sent John Hocknell, another follower, to the seaport of Liverpool to secure passage to America for a small party of Shakers. When he returned, John warned Mother Ann: “People are saying the ship, the Mariah, will sink.”

Ann answered, “God will not condemn it when we are in it.”

John Hocknell had saved enough money from his shop to pay expenses for the whole group. On May 10, 1774, the party of nine Shakers, consisting of Ann; her husband, Abraham; her brother William Lee; her niece Nancy Lee; Mary Partington; James Whittaker; James Shepherd; and John Hocknell and his son Richard sailed aboard the Mariah, bound for New York.

Soon after setting sail, the Shakers began to praise God by singing and dancing on deck. When the captain threatened to throw them overboard, Mother Ann told her followers it was better to listen to God than to man. While they continued to worship, a sudden storm blew up, and a loosened board caused the ship to spring a leak. The water started gaining on them, for it couldn’t be pumped out quickly enough.

Ann told them to trust in God, for an angel had appeared before her with the promise of their safety. Suddenly a great wave came and closed the displaced board. Soon the pumps were stopped. After that the captain allowed the Shakers to worship freely.

On August 6, 1774, 11 weeks after leaving England, the Mariah and its passengers arrived safely in New York. The Shakers walked up Broadway until Ann led them into a side street. It was a warm Sunday afternoon, and a few people were sitting on the front steps of their house when Ann confronted them. “I am commissioned of God to preach the everlasting Gospel to America . . . , and an Angel commanded me to come to this house, and to make a home for me and my people,” she said.

The Shakers were given temporary refuge until they obtained jobs. Ann stayed on to work as a housemaid, while the others scattered. Abraham took to drinking and deserted his wife. Alone in an unheated room, she became ill and unable to work.

What Mother Ann wanted most was to spread the message and to worship with her followers. One day she learned from some Quakers that it was possible to obtain cheap land about 100 miles north of the city. John Hocknell, James Whittaker, and William Lee traveled up the Hudson River to investigate.

The Shaker men took a long-term lease on some land, a low, swampy wilderness cut off from civilization, about seven miles northwest of Albany. It took them a year to clear a portion of the land and build a simple log shelter. They built a room at ground level for the “sisters” and attic space for the “brethren.” Finally, in the late 1770s, Ann and her group moved to their land to start the first Shaker settlement in America.

The Indians had called the territory Niskayuna, which meant “maize land.” Later it was renamed Watervliet. Mother Ann said, “Put your hands to work and your hearts to God.” Slowly the Shaker settlers tamed the wilderness. They cleared trees and dug ditches to drain the fields. Some practiced their own trades, such as blacksmithing, in Albany in the winter. In a few years the colony at Niskayuna built simple but comfortable homes and barns. They raised good crops and began working on arts and crafts.

In 1779 a religious revival took place in Lebanon Valley, New York, about 30 miles from the colony. Some of the leaders visited the Shakers and joined them. They came from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine. Some went home and formed Shaker colonies of their own.

Violent persecutions followed when Mother Ann and others embarked on missionary tours. In Petersham, Massachusetts, a crowd dragged her from her horse, threw her into a sleigh, and tore her clothes. She and some of the elders were accused of being British spies and were savagely abused. They were put into prison in Albany. Then Ann was separated from her followers and sent to Poughkeepsie, New York.

From her cell she could call out to passersby. Word was spread that a poor woman was being held because of her religion. She was then taken to a private home, where she conducted worship services. Some of the townspeople protested. They dressed like Indians and threw little bags of gunpowder through the windows and down the chimney into the fireplace.

After that, things quieted down. Five months later Mother Ann was released from prison by Governor George Clinton. She arrived, in a state of exhaustion, back at Watervliet two years and three months after having left. Eight Shaker communities had resulted from her mission in New England.

All that Mother Ann had undergone probably hastened her death, which took place on September 8, 1784, at the age of 48. Her brother William had died on July 21 of the same year. Ten years in America had taken its toll, but Ann’s mission had been accomplished. Shakerism was well established in the East and later spread to Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio.

The Shaker influence peaked before the Civil War, and then their numbers lessened. There are now very few Shakers, but Ann Lee, a woman of great faith, left her mark on the religious history of the United States.

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Ann Lee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ann Lee
Born29 February 1736
Died8 September 1784 (aged 48)
Burial placeWatervliet Shaker VillageColonie, New York
42.73909°N 73.81637°W
Other namesAnn Elizabeth Lees
Ann Standerin
Occupation(s)Founder of the Shakers
Preacher
Singer
Missionary
Years active1758–1784
SpouseAbraham Standerin (separated c. 1775)
Children4 (all died in infancy)
ParentJohn Lees
RelativesWilliam Lee (brother)
Nancy Lee (niece)
Personal
ReligionChristianity
DenominationShaker
Signature
Ann Lee sign.gif

Ann Lee (29 February 1736 – 8 September 1784), commonly known as Mother Ann Lee, was the founding leader of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, or the Shakers.

After nearly two decades of participation in a religious movement that became the Shakers, in 1774 Ann Lee and a small group of her followers emigrated from England to New York. After several years, they gathered at Niskayuna, renting land from the Manor of RensselaerswyckAlbany County, New York (the area now called Colonie). They worshiped by ecstatic dancing or "shaking", which resulted in them being dubbed the Shakers. Ann Lee preached to the public and led the Shaker church at a time when few women were religious leaders.[1]

Early history

Panorama of Manchester in 1746
Manchester at Ann Lee's time (1746) panorama

Ann Lee was born in Manchester, England, and was baptized privately at Manchester Collegiate Church (now Manchester Cathedral) on 1 June 1742,[2] at the age of 6. Her parents were members of a distinct branch of the Society of Friends and too poor to afford their children even the rudiments of education.[3] Ann Lee's father, John Lees, was a blacksmith during the day and a tailor at night. It is probable that Ann Lee's original surname was Lees, but somewhere through time it changed to Lee. Little is known about her mother other than that she was a very religious woman. As often happened in those days, the mother's name was not even recorded.[4] When Ann was young, she worked in a cotton factory, then as a cutter of hatter's fur, and later as a cook in a Manchester infirmary.

In 1758, she joined an English sect founded by Jane Wardley and her husband, preacher James Wardley; this was the precursor to the Shaker sect.[5] She believed and taught her followers that it is possible to attain perfect holiness by giving up sexual relations. Like her predecessors, the Wardleys, she taught that the shaking and trembling were caused by sin being purged from the body by the power of the Holy Spirit, purifying the worshiper.

Beginning during her youth, Ann Lee was uncomfortable with sexuality, especially her own. This repulsion towards sexual activity continued and manifested itself in her repeated attempts to avoid marriage. Eventually her father forced her to marry Abraham Stanley (or Abraham Standarin[6]). They were married on 5 January 1761 at Manchester Collegiate Church.[7] She became pregnant four times, but all of her children died during infancy. Her difficult pregnancies and the loss of four children were traumatic experiences that contributed to Ann Lee's dislike of sexual relations.[8] Lee developed radical religious convictions that advocated celibacy and the abandonment of marriage, as well as the importance of pursuing perfection in every facet of life. She differed from the Quakers, who, though they supported gender equality, did not believe in forbidding sexuality within marriage.

Rise to prominence

In England, Ann Lee rose to prominence by urging other believers to preach more publicly concerning the imminent second coming, and to attack sin more boldly and unconventionally. She spoke of visions and messages from God, claiming that she had received in a vision from God the message that celibacy and confession of sin are the only true road to salvation and the only way in which the Kingdom of God could be established on the earth. She was frequently imprisoned for breaking the Sabbath by dancing and shouting, and for blasphemy.[9]

She claimed to have had many miraculous escapes from death. She told of being examined by four clergymen of the Established Church, claiming that she spoke to them for four hours in 72 tongues.[10]

While in prison in Manchester for 14 days, she said she had a revelation that "a complete cross against the lusts of generation, added to a full and explicit confession, before witnesses, of all the sins committed under its influence, was the only possible remedy and means of salvation." After this, probably in 1770, she was chosen by the Society as "Mother in spiritual things" and called herself "Ann, the Word" and also "Mother Ann." After being released from prison a second time, witnesses say Mother Ann performed a number of miracles, including healing the sick.[11]

Lee eventually decided to leave England for America in order to escape the persecution (i.e., multiple arrests and stays in prison) she experienced in Great Britain.[9]

Move to America

A group of Shakers, published in 1875

In 1774 a revelation led her to take a select band to America. She was accompanied by her husband, who soon afterwards deserted her. Also following her to America were her brother, William Lee (1740–1784); Nancy Lee, her niece; James Whittaker (1751–1787), who had been brought up by Mother Ann and was probably related to her; John Hocknell (1723–1799), who provided the funds for the trip; his son, Richard; James Shepherd; and Mary Partington. Mother Ann and her converts arrived on 6 August 1774 in New York City, where they stayed for nearly five years. In 1779 Hocknell leased land at Niskayuna in the township of Watervliet, near Albany. The Shakers settled there, and a unique community life began to develop and thrive.[9]

During the American Revolution, Lee and her followers maintained a stance of neutrality. Maintaining the position that they were pacifists, Ann Lee and her followers did not side with either the British or the colonists.

Ann Lee opened her testimony to the world's people on the famous Dark Day in May 1780, when the sun disappeared and it was so dark that candles had to be lighted to see indoors at noon.[12] She soon recruited a number of followers who had joined the New Light revival at New Lebanon, New York, in 1779, including Lucy Wright.

Benjamin Osborn's house at Mount Washington.

Beginning in the spring of 1781, Mother Ann and some of her followers went on an extensive missionary journey to find converts in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They often stayed in the homes of local sympathizers, such as the Benjamin Osborn House near the New York-Massachusetts line. There were also songs attributed to her which were sung without words.[13][14]

The followers of Mother Ann came to believe that she embodied all the perfections of God in female form[15] and was revealed as the "second coming" of Christ.[16] The fact that Ann Lee was considered to be Christ's female counterpart was unique. She preached that sinfulness could be avoided not only by treating men and women equally but also by keeping them separated so as to prevent any sort of temptation leading to impure acts. Celibacy and confession of sin were essential for salvation.[15]

Ann Lee's mission throughout New England was especially successful in converting groups who were already outside the mainstream of New England Protestantism, including followers of Shadrack Ireland. To the mainstream, however, she was too radical for comfort.[17] Ann Lee herself recognized how revolutionary her ideas were when she said, "We [the Shakers] are the people who turned the world upside down."[dubious ]

The Shakers were sometimes met by violent mobs, such as in Shirley, Massachusetts, and Ann Lee suffered violence at their hands more than once. Because of these hardships Mother Ann became quite frail; she died on 8 September 1784 at the age of 48.[9]

Mother Ann Lee tombstone

She died at Watervliet and is buried in the Shaker cemetery located in the Watervliet Shaker Historic District.[18]

It is claimed that Shakers in New Lebanon, New York, experienced a 10-year period of revelations in 1837 called the Era of Manifestations. It was also referred to as Mother Ann's Work.[19]

Cultural legacy

Ann Lee is memorialized in:

See also

References

  1. ^ In addition to Ann Lee, only nine women preachers have been identified before 1800. Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740–1845 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 343–46.
  2. ^ MS 12/1, Manchester Cathedral Archive
  3. ^ Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Lee, Ann" The American Cyclopædia.
  4. ^ Campion, Nardi (1990). Mother Anne Lee: Morning star of the shakers. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England. pp. 2ISBN 0874515270.
  5. ^ Campion, Nardi Reeder (1976), Ann the Word: The Life of Mother Ann Lee, Founder of the Shakers, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, ISBN 978-0-316-12767-7
  6. ^ "Lee, Ann (1736-1784)"Shaker Museum. Retrieved 9 December 2021.
  7. ^ MS 13/3, Manchester Cathedral Archive
  8. ^ Kern, Louis J. (1981). An Ordered Love: Sex Roles and Sexuality in Victorian Utopias: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida community. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-1443-7.
  9. Jump up to:a b c d Richard Francis, Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, The Woman Clothed with the Sun (New York: Arcade Publishing, 2000).
  10. ^ Foner, Eric; Garraty, John A., eds. (1991). "Ann Lee"American History Companion: The Reader's Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin. p. 646ISBN 978-0-395-51372-9.
  11. ^ Answers.com Mother Ann Lee (section Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ann Lee)
  12. ^ Francis, Ann the Word, 130–31
  13. ^ "Shaker Music". PineTree Productions.
  14. ^ Roger L. Hall (1999). A guide to Shaker music: with music supplement. Pinetree.
  15. Jump up to:a b c Rufus Bishop and Seth Youngs Wells, comps., Testimonies of the Life, Character, Revelations and Doctrines of our Ever Blessed Mother Ann Lee (Hancock, Mass.: J. Talcott and J. Deming, Junrs., 1816); Seth Youngs Wells, comp., Testimonies Concerning the Character and Ministry of Mother Ann Lee (Albany, N.Y.: Packard and Van Benthuysen, 1827).
  16. Jump up to:a b Frederick William Evans. Shakers: Compendium of the Origin, History, Principles, Rules and Regulations, Government, and Doctrines of the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing : with Biographies of Ann Lee, William Lee, Jas. Whittaker, J. Hocknell, J. Meacham, and Lucy Wright. Appleton; 1859. p. 26.
  17. ^ Brekus, Strangers and Pilgrims: Female Preaching in America, 1740–1845, 343–46.
  18. ^ Landmarks of American women's history, Chapter: Watervliet Shaker Historic District, Page Putnam Miller, Oxford University Press US, 2003, pp. 36 ff.
  19. ^ Aune, Michael Bjerknes; DeMarinis, Valerie M. (1996). Religious and Social Ritual: Interdisciplinary Explorations. SUNY Press. p. 105. ISBN 0-7914-2825-7.
  20. ^ "Ann Lee"The Dinner Party: Heritage FloorBrooklyn Museum. Retrieved 4 June 2012.

Further reading


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