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  "path": "/2026/04/23/shakers-testament-ann-lee/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-04-23T14:30:15.000Z",
  "site": "https://juicyecumenism.com",
  "tags": [
    "film review",
    "Ann Lee",
    "dance scenes",
    "hymn",
    "Flawed and Steadfast Shakers Captivate in ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’",
    "Juicy Ecumenism"
  ],
  "textContent": "Contemporary films about Christianity often leave me conflicted. Hollywood’s approach to faith rarely rises above Bill Maher-esque jabs, easily dismissed as shallow as teenage atheism. On the other hand, films made for Christian audiences too often veer into sentimentality, resulting in stories that are sweet yet overwrought. Amid these extremes, Mona Fastvold’s _The Testament of Ann Lee_ stands out, offering a fascinating and sensational account of a period of Christian history through a visually captivating, deeply moving depiction of the Shaker faith.\n\nAs it says on the tin, the film follows Ann Lee, the Mancunian mystic who founded the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, or the Shakers, in 1747. This insular sect would eventually settle in upstate New York. The Shakers required celibacy, believed the end times were near, and saw their founder as a female expression of Christ. Their worship, which inspired their name, featured repetitive, dance-like movements and simple, melodious hymns. The hymn Lord of the Dance, an anthem of the ecumenical movement, is based on the Shaker tune Simple Gifts.\n\nThe exoticism of the Shaker faith naturally lends itself to a certain portrayal, as a doomsday cult around a charismatic and potentially insane founder, a colonial Manson Family. Yet Fastvold’s __ film entirely avoids this trope. Certainly, the eccentricities of the Shaker religion are not papered over. The extreme weight of mandatory celibacy and its impact on the family is recurring in the film, and it is undeniable that Shakerism rent loving families apart and demanded immense sacrifice for a deeply heterodox faith. Still, the film refuses to condemn the Shakers.\n\nFrom the start, Ann Lee is shown as a sympathetic person. When her first vision about the need for celibacy appears while in prison, she sings, “I hunger and thirst, I hunger and thirst, I hunger and thirst after true righteousness.” The loss of her young children and her sadness over a world that does not know God make Ann someone who carries Christ’s love and longs for a redeemer.\n\nWhen her community reached the New World after being expelled from England, Ann’s relentless pursuit of Christian living did not flag. Her husband abandons her because of her pursuit of celibacy, yet she holds fast to her testimony. Even as her community grows, Ann remains a humble and simple woman, drawn by her relationship with Christ to an ecstatic love.\n\nIn the film’s conclusion, Ann dies and is mourned by her followers, who dance and sing the hymn Beautiful Treasures, composed for the film. As the credits note, the Shaker movement continued after the death of Ann Lee until the present, where it now counts only two devotees.\n\nDespite my fondness for the film, I do not advocate for conversion to the Shaker faith, and I deny that Ann Lee was Jesus Christ. The film has a special value for contemporary Christians because of the Shakers’ strangeness. The dance scenes, where Ann’s followers contort their bodies as the Spirit moves them, are simultaneously unnerving and deeply beautiful. In this way, all Christians can relate to the Shaker story.\n\nToo often, we are forced to give a “reason for the hope” that is in us, while ignoring that our faith is a “confoundment for the Greeks and a stumbling block for the Jews.” We, as is natural, shirk at being considered unreasonable or “weird” by the world. Yet if we can learn anything from the Shakers, it is to pursue our faith boldly and without shame, even when the world does not understand.\n\nSurely, we can hope to have more prudence than the followers of Ann Lee, but we should envy the steadfastness of their witness and zeal for Christ. As the hymn goes, “’Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,” and The Testament of Ann Lee movingly shows a flawed community that dearly sought that simple freedom in Christ.\n\nThe post Flawed and Steadfast Shakers Captivate in ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ appeared first on Juicy Ecumenism.",
  "title": "Flawed and Steadfast Shakers Captivate in ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’"
}