The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God

"I will bow and be simple. I will bow and be free." The maxim beautifully describes the aspirations of the Shaker community, a particularly American Christian movement in existence for more than 200 years.

This documentary on the Shakers by award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns is beautifully shot. The images of the Shakers as they go about their daily lives are spiritual and contemplative and there is much to be admired about their communal existence.

The Shakers were peace-loving and practiced a healthy lifestyle. They believed in the equality of the sexes, with two elders and two "elderesses" governing each community. The Shaker population numbered in the thousands at its height in the 1840s.

The Shakers also believed in celibacy but Shakers did bless marriages that did not involve members of their community. Husbands and wives who joined the community became brothers and sisters. All who joined gave their money to the common good. The Shakers called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. Because of their ecstatic dancing, the world called them Shakers.

The Shakers were self-sufficient farmers, bakers, chemists and architects. They sold garden seed in their own packaging, wines, sausage, medicines and jellies. The community also produced opium.

The Shakers were also known for beautiful musical compositions.

Labor was consecrated. The Shakers remain famous for their architecture, stunning in its simplicity and balance, and lacking in ornamentation. Thomas Merton said of their furniture: "The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it." The Shakers invented the common clothes pin, flat brooms, and clothes that did not require ironing, among other things.

Religious life should be a joyous life, according to the members of this movement, and their way of life is captured eloquently in this documentary.