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Ann the Word:
The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers,
the Woman Clothed with the Sun

By Richard Francis

A Review by Dwight A Moody

For those of us familiar with the various restored Shaker villages around the country (New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Kentucky), this narrative of how it all got started will come as a shock. We visit these settlements and confess our admiration at the industry, inventiveness, and orderliness of the saintly people who lived here. But it was not so from the beginning, and this biography by Richard Francis tells us how it really was.

The Shakers began as a particularly animated subset of the Quakers; in fact, they were often called the Shaking Quakers because of their tendency to, well, shake, rattle, and roll in ways that made the more sedate Quakers a bit nervous. It all began in Manchester, England, in the mid-18^th century. Ann Lee was born in 1736 and confessed later: “When I was a child, my mind was taken up with the things of God, so that I saw heavenly visions, instead of trifling toys” (7).

Ann was a 22-year-old convert to the new movement, then under the leadership of its founders John and Jane Wardley. Ann was a married woman who gave birth to four children; they all died in infancy. She, uneducated and illiterate but prone to dreams and visions, wrote this, years later: “I often rose from my bed at night and walked the floor in my stocking feet, for fear of waking up the people. I did not let my husband know my troubles, lest I should stir up his affections; and I was careful not to lay any temptation before him. I also prayed to God that no man might suffer in hell on my account. Thus I labored, in strong cries and groans to God, day and night, till my flesh wasted away, and I became like a skeleton; and a kind of down came upon my skin.”

Francis notes here the physicality of this description, a feature of Ann’s life and also of Shaker religion throughout this formative period—but not so much after the movement settled down, soon after her death in 1784 when, as he describes it, “the charismatic leadership of an individual [was] supplanted by a structure built to persist through time” (330).

And charismatic she was! Alternatively soft and stern, consistently in control and always channeling spiritual things to confront financial, physical, and personnel issues. She was always seeing things: angels, candles, fires, dangers, mobs, even the dead.

Her strong and distinctive personality coupled with this otherworldly sense pulled her into the leadership of these Shakers. In 1774, she led a small group of them to escape the opposition (even persecution) in England and board the Mariah for transport to New England. For the next ten years, she was the unchallenged leader of a sect that grew, in her lifetime, to number one thousand adherents, scattered in homes throughout the region.

It was not until after her death at the age of 48 that the movement quadrupled in size, expanded to the old West (Ohio and Kentucky), build self-contained communities (like Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill in Kentucky), hammered out social organization, economic structure, and order of worship while making a name for themselves for quality, inventiveness, technology, and agricultural skill (see the Epilogue).

Before she died, Ann the Word ruled supreme. She was considered by Shakers as the wife of Jesus, the feminine side of the incarnation; she was considered by other residents of New England as a witch, a heretic, and a troublemaker. She and her movement suffered constant harassment and persecution—all right through the very war that was fought for the right and freedom to think, believe, worship, and live without such threats.

O yes, there is the sex. After having her share of it early in life (both listening as her parents engaged and then indulging her husband) she gave it up: partly because he found it distasteful but also because she knew the world was about to end and there was no need for more children. Because of this, and other social and religious reasons, the movement died out in the early 20^th century, just as the holiness/pentecostal movement adopted much of its attributes: end of the world, signs and wonders, demonstrative worship, and egalitarian communities.

This book is good and well-written; but it cannot match the lively, almost unbelievable story it tells so well. I learned a lot, and so will you.

(October 2020)

all rights reserved 2020

Book Review Archive

After Evangelicalism:
The Path to a New Christianity

by David P. Gushee

America’s Religious Wars:
The Embattled Heart of our Public Life
by Kathleen M. Sands

Ann the Word
The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah,
Mother of the Shakers,
the Woman Clothed with the Sun
By Richard Francis

The Asbury Hymnal

Becoming C. S. Lewis 
Harry Lee Poe 

Becoming Mrs. Lewis 
by Patti Callahan 

The Benedict Option:
A Strategy for Christians
in a Post-Christian Nation
by Rod Dreher

C. S. Lewis, A Life: 
Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet 
by Alister McGrath

Call Stories:
Hearing and Responding to God’s Call
edited by Barry Howard

Caste
The Origins of our Discontents 
by Isabel Wilkerson

Climate Church, Climate World 
by Jim Antal

Christ in Crisis:
Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus
by Jim Wallis

Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover

The End of White Christian America
Robert P. Jones

Factfullness
Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World
and Why Things are Better Than You Think
by Hans Rosling

God’s Hand on America:
Divine Providence in the Modern Era
by Michael Medved

The Great Spiritual Migration 
How the World’s Largest Religion
is Seeking a Better Way
to be Christian
by Brian D. McLaren

The Greatest Prayer
Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message
of THE LORD’S PRAYER 
by John Dominic Crossan

The Green Good News
Christ’s Path to Sustainable and Joyful Life
by T. Wilson Dickinson

Gullah Geechee Heritage in the Golden Isles
by Amy Lotson Roberts & Patrick J. Holladay

A Brief History of Christianity in Asia:
Beginnings, Endings, and Reflections
by R. LaMon Brown and Michael D. Crane

Israel Matters:
Why Christians Must Think Differently
about the People and the Land
by Gerald R. McDermott

Jesus Loves Obamacare
by Barbara Young

Just Mercy: Story of
Justice and Redemption 
by Bryan Stevenson

The Last Leonardo
The Secret Lives of the World’s
Most Expensive Painting
by Ben Lewis

The Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglas, an American Slave 
by Frederick Douglass

Paul: A Biography 
by N. T. Wright

Piety and Power: Mike Pence
and the Taking of the White House
Tom LoBianco

 That All Shall Be Saved: 
Heaven, Hell and Universal Salvation 
by David Hart Bentley

This Precarious Moment 
by James Garlow, David Barton

Raising Boys Who Respect Girls 
by Dave Willis

Resilient Faith:
How the Early Christian “Third Way”
Changed the World
by Gerald L. Sittser

Riding the Wind of God:
A Personal History of the 
Youth Revival Movement
by Bruce McIver

A Scandalous Providence:
The Jesus Story of the Compassion of God
by E. Frank Tupper

Songs of American: Patriotism, Protest,
and the Music that Made a Nation
by Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw

The Spiritual Danger of Donald Trump 
edited by Ronald Sider

Truth Over Fear:
Combating the Lies about Islam 
by Charles Kimball

The Universal Christ 
Richard Rohr

A Warning 
by Anonymous

Where Do We Go From Here?
edited by Kevin Slime

White Too Long:
The Legacy of White Supremacy 
in American Christianity
by Robert P. Jones

Witnessing Whiteness:
Confronting White Supremacy 
in the American Church
by Kristopher Norris

Books By
Dr. Dwight A. Moody

Here are four books written by Dr. Dwight A. Moody, provided here (or in the near future) in both text and audio format. All are in various stages of production for this web site. Feel free to provide comment on these books using the response form at the bottom of each page.

Free and Faithful: Christian Discipleship in the 21st Century

This was a series of sermons preached by Dr. Moody at Third Baptist Church of Owensboro, Kentucky. It is inspired by (and follows the format of) the influential book by Buddy Shurden, Four Fragile Freedoms.  The text here includes an epilogue written in 2018 that offers reflections on the book, 20 years after its publication. It is also the intent of Dr. Moody to provide an audio version of this book; to date, only the Preface and Introduction are available.

On the Other Side of Oddville: Stories of Religion and Everyday Life
For a number of years, Dr. Moody wrote and published in public newspapers around the country a weekly column on Religion and American Life (something he continues to do through this Meetinghouse initiative). This book collects 105 of these 700-word essays. You may purchase a sign copy of this book–$20 inclusive of shipping; simply request it through the Response Form at the bottom of each page of the website. (This text is in production.)

Its’s About Time: A Memoir of Ministry at Georgetown College
From 1997 to 2008, Dr. Moody served as dean of the chapel and professor of religion at Georgetown College in Kentucky. This is the narrative essay that forms the core of this book. Upon leaving the school to launch the Academy of Preachers, he produced this self-published book. The book also included sermons, prayers, letters, essays, and memos; it can be ordered through Amazon. (This text is in production.)

Nine Marks of a Good Sermon
During Dr. Moody’s tenure at Georgetown College, he taught a course in “Communication for Ministry” (and popularly called “Preaching). This material was developed during that ministry and continued during his years as founder and first president of the Academy of Preachers. It is published here without the illustrative sermons included in the book.