Lil stood with eyes lowered and hands demurely clasped as spectators filed into the Meeting House. When everyone was seated on the simple wooden benches running down either side of the hall, she looked up and began to sing: “Welcome, welcome, one and all.”

Lil regales visitors with Shaker songs and dances

One of several interpretive guides at Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill, Lil has made a study of the music of the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing. Clad in a dull blue, ankle-length dress, her hair covered in a net cap, Lil sang hymns that had reverberated through the Meeting House when this was still an active Shaker community. Words became undecipherable tongues as she raised her hands in the air, shaking her widespread palms in jubilation, demonstrating the charismatic trembling that earned members the nickname of “Shakers.” Continue reading →