A Shaker Worship Service by Salli Terri 

I’m NOT a religious person, but I am awed by the beauty of the symmetry, simplicity. It really is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Stunning.

Shakerism wherein they 'shake' their sins away in ecstatic dance and song. Very interesting and an enduring legacy of religion and faith in America.

My great aunt Lil was a Shaker. I think the simplicity of the song as a central part of worship is very endearing and holy.

This is a choreographed program. Performed at Shaker Village by the University of Kentucky Choristers annually from 1979 to 1992. The performance you are viewing is part of a longer documentary.

There ia quite a contrast between newer and older comments. Older comments show more process of thought whereas recent comments, not so much. It demonstrates the evolution of RU-vid and how comment style and quality has changed over the years. Having said that, this is NOT a reenactment of Shaker worship; it is an artistic interpretation that was choreographed and arranged by Salli Terri.

Just saw Ken Burns' documentary on the Shakers this evening so wanted to see what their songs and dances were like. I was raised Anglican then became Catholic, so therefore I have a really hard time understanding this style of worship. Many of the Shakers' contemporaries did, also. However, I do think their singing and dancing is beautiful and very much so represents the beauty of faith as they understood it to be.

1:14 - Come to Zion 4:06 - I’m on my Way to Zion 5:42 - Oh, the Beautiful Treasures 7:56 - I Have a Little Drum 8:30 - Who Will Bow and Bend Like a Willow 9:31 - Love, Oh Love, is Sweetly Flowing 13:21 - Ina Vina Violet 14:00 - I Will Bow and be Simple 15:16 - Simple Gifts 16:45 - Living Souls 17:49 - Finale

I love the simplicity with which this people lived in their time. I could never live like that mentally, but I wish I lived like that materially. No excesses, no absurd over consumption. And what an extraordinary reconstruction and beautiful singing. We are so great full to these people participating in this reconstruction.

Thank you so much for posting this! I performed this piece by Salli Terri with the Cal. State Fullerton, University Singers in 1975. Ms. Terri lived nearby and coached us on how to perform the piece by sharing her personal experiences of living with some elderly Shaker women. It brings back some wonderful memories, especially of the incredible singer/arranger, Salli Terri.

I went to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill and learned that they always sang in unison and never used harmonies to keep people feeling equal, and this seems to feature many harmonies.

Love the bell calling to Worship...reminds me of the bell at the Abbey calling believers to Mass so sweet how awesome the worship is! I wanna be a Shaker

Thank you for keeping this history known. I sang "Simple Gifts" much slower than demonstrated here with my high school aapella choir 'back in the day".

Preformed the Shaker Worship Service in the early 90s. Amazing times!

Come to Zion, sin-sick souls in sorrow bound! Lay your cares before the altar, where true healing may be found! Shout alleluia, alleluia - in praise resounds o'er land and sea, All who will may come and share the glories of this jubilee! I'm on my way to Zion, that peaceful, happy mansion Where life is ever flowing and death is never known Come on, my well believed, Ye whom the Lord hath saved. Let not your heart be troubled, You'll soon arrive at home! O, the beautiful treasures laid up for the wise, How precious the value, how glorious the prize! Far brighter than diamonds on prince's brow, And richer than royalty can bestow! I have a little drum that Mother gave to me, The prettiest little drum that ever you did see! (Rum, ta-ta-tum, rum ta-ta-tum tum) (throughout the chorus) I'll drum night and day, I'll drum night and day I'll call volunteers to fight sin away! Who will bow and bend like the willow, Who will turn and twist and reel? In the gale of simple freedom, From the bower of union flowing? Who will drink the wine of power, dripping down like a shower, Pride and bondage all forgetting? Mother's wine is freely found Oh, ho I will have it! I will bow and bend to get it! I'll be reeling, twisting, turning Shake out all the starch and stiff'ning! Though I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not love, I am become as a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Love suffereth long, and is kind. Love envieth not. Love wanteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not easily provoked. Thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things, hopeth all things, believeth all things and endureth all things. Now abideth faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. Love, o, love, is sweetly flowing On its banks a wind is growing, These a mother is bestowing, Love, love, heavenly love! Come, ye children, freely gather Unto love and bless each other, This will bind our hearts together In love, love, heavenly love! Put your hands to work, and your hearts to God! (Three times) I-ne, vi-ne, violet! Ee-ne, see-ne vingo pret! Y-fen, wa-fem, wa-ne voo! O-le, mo-le, minzy two! Aoren, waoren, wany vo, mother's love is even so! Oo-ne, e-ne, i-ne vay, now in love we'll dance and play! I will bow and be simple, I will bow and be free, I will bow and be humble, yea, bow like the willow tree. I will bow, this is the token, I will wear the easy yoke, I will bow and be broken, yea, I'll fall upon the rock! Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free, 'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, 'Twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true simplicity is gain'd, To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd, To turn, turn will be our delight, Till by turning, turning we come round right! Living souls, let's be marching on our journey to heaven With our lamps trimmed and burning, with the oil of truth! Let us join the Heavenly Chorus and unite with our parents, They will lead us on to Heaven, in the path of righteousness!

This is such a valuable resource. Thank you!

Such beautiful customs from such beautiful people ❤

I’m from Shaker Heights, Ohio…. We are a city founded by Shakers and learn about them in school.

Simple life of mindfulness

Hi Mathew, I’m glad you enjoyed this presentation. I too am fascinated by many expressions of worship.

Wonderful. History before our very eyes.

I was researching the whole Shaker thing and the life of Ann Lee before seeing this. And it makes sense now. If these are all completely lifelong celibate but vital intelligent men and women you put them in the same room with one another facing each other singing and moving they're going to feel something the transformation of that sexual energy that's natural to all human beings into song and dance and transcendent thoughts they're going to be having Kundalini they're going to be having mystical experiences. Good times.

Donna Phillips, you have done a real service with this video.

I have no words to describe it, delightful!

Thank You. Very Informative.

Similar to the churches of Christ. Singing parts, but no instruments. It's really beautiful.

I came here after hearing indie band Magnetic Fields' version of a shaker song. Never heard about them before. Very fascinating and interesting approach to faith.

Thank you for the upload. I find the movements born in the context of the radical reformation, like Shakers and their "cousins" Quakers, really fascinating. While I've watched records of contemporary worship in Sabbathday Lake, this reinterpretation is maybe the thing that looks more like what weas depicted in the old engravings and I can see a vague resemblance to the modern apostolic movements in which assemblies people also dance but they are accompanied by music played with musical instruments and not acapella. At the end, correlation between worshhip and music can be found in many cultures, spacing from king David to derviches tourneur.

Let us all remember this is a theatrical performance by the museum and is to give one the idea of what Shaker worship was like…..

Interesting. They sound great!

thanks and ignore the negative comments. a good cross section of shaker worship and "gifts" you have done. Obviously little is really known about the modes of worship of these people other what was given to us by historical record. Writing about it is one thing, seeing it is another. Thanks for producing this.

Some Spirit there, despite the circumstances. Don't know if chance isn't still there.

As a Shaker enthusiast, a singer, and a movement professional who practices contemplative movement including shaking, I do wish this was more emotionally honest and that the singing wasn't so classically affected.

I had a dream that their fellowship was similar without the entry singing, the elder spoke first then praise to God began.

They were lovely people

Amazing.

I'd love to see this recreated in a movie.

its very interesting to see that there are great parallels to Oshos dynamic meditation. similar spirit in an other cultural context

I was in that performance

This was quite interesting to watch.

It’s amazing to think that this community thrives without sex although the Method of Prayer is almost like dancing with a lot of interaction with the opposite sex.

Beautiful! I do have a question. I am a novice but from the little that I have read I was not expecting the music to be so highly arranged but to have much simpler unison melodies which, according to the very few sources that I have read, was the norm in Shaker worship. I had hoped to hear that when I clicked on this video For clarity sake is this singing in the video a modern arrangement or am I mistaken about the use of harmonies and different parts?

the songs what are there names besides come to zion and simple gifts

Can we get these lyrics??

Shakers and Quakers were called so because of their reactions to the Holy Spirit in them during worship and other times.

Brilliant.

is there a non choreographed spontaneous shaking of the spirit example anywhere?

Doest anyone know where I can get a recording of this?

According to Erik Reese in his book “Utopia Drive”, many Shakers were women because they were widows and abused wives with nowhere to go. Orphans of cholera outbreaks were brought there too.

Well I can see where the Pentecostal church gets sow of their moves, glad I am not religious myself

this is amazingly weird and hypnotic..

who are the composers? arrangers? why are they not credited?

God so still love the whole world the Ukraine Nation military still is an so is the world.

who is came from MORE TO READ 1 book?

Didn’t they get the name SHAKERS from their style of dancing?

It's crazy that a lot of other videos make Shakers out to be the worst or weirdest denomination, and this video says otherwise because I thought it was beautiful People like to stim when they are anxious, so maybe Ann Lee was on to something and "shaking your sins away" was an 18th century way of doing that

This is "staged"? Or am I watching REAL Shakers perform.. either way, it's beautiful.

I find it very interesting, on the other hand, a little spooky actually. Especially with the screaming and wild behavior in the worship, very similar to some evangelical Christians today, like the Toronto blessing movement.

Not surprising there’s only two known shakers alive is this is their worship style

It's sad that Shaker Worship and other traditions have died out. Meanwhile, the white fella in Chechnya have held their Sufi Zikr worship in the face of persecution.

Misleading. It's not a Shaker worship service but a theatrical performance. Fine as that, but NOT a documentary and does not portray either original or present shaker worship

12:10

C&C Music Factory.

Are they descendants of the anabaptists ?

The Historical ignorance of some people commenting here is staggering. Anyone with any kind of Education knows that the Shakers died out generations ago.

Its sad to see such beauty and at the same time to go against the very first commandment "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" - false doctrine is corrupting and brought about the Shakers demise! What in the world were they thinking? God created sex and afterwards said it was all good! We do not need to improve on His design. Sad indeed! Aberrations will not withstand the test of time not matter how intriguing.

Sad that men today don't have the desire to live a single chaste celibate life.

hahahaha really funny, I don't be surprised they have to left England for that LOL

13:48 if that happened at church I would want to leave.

This is a performance by chosen people. I wouldn't call it a church worshipping event open to all.

Good acting...

Lovely but I wish to see real shakers dance, no singing and choreography.

So you hear my words not.

This is nice, but highly inaccurate. The Shakers sing only in unison, never parts or harmony as they believed concentration on that distracted from concentration on the worship itself.

Creepy af.

Pretending at its finest

??? Mental???

Lovely, but unfortunately just seems fake.

If this is an accurate rendition of their religious services they seem very spiritual and pious until they go into fits of madness. Reading about beliefs it’s clear they aren’t Christians. They seem like spiritualists.

BEAUTIFUL. :-)

Thank you. That was VERY CLEANSING.+++