COLONIE — Brother Arnold Hadd, one of three remaining Shakers, lives a monastic lifestyle at the only surviving Shaker community, at Sabbathday Lake in Maine.

He will speak about Shaker beliefs and his semi-cloistered settlement via an online video connection Saturday at Siena College in an event sponsored by the Shaker Heritage Society.

"I thought about leaving long ago, but I know in my heart of hearts this is where I'm supposed to be and want to be," Hadd said by phone during a break from his farm chores. Hadd, 56, grew up in western Massachusetts and joined the Shaker community 35 years ago. He lives communally on a 1,800-acre farm and apple orchard near New Gloucester with the two others, Sister Frances Carr, 85, and Sister June Carpenter, 72.

The only other member in recent years, Brother Wayne Smith, 49, left the community about six years ago after becoming romantically involved with a female newspaper reporter who came to interview the Shakers.

"Nay, he has not regretted it," Hadd said of Smith, his speech peppered with archaic usage. "It made sense for him and he's now where he wanted to be."

Hadd's talk will be followed by a question-and-answer period with audience members. It is part of the Capital Region celebration for Shaker founder Mother Ann Lee's 227th birthday.

She was born on Feb. 29, 1736, in Manchester, England, and founded America's first Shaker settlement at Watervliet (now Colonie) and died there on Sept. 8, 1784. She is buried on the Shaker site, which closed its last operations in 1936, near the Albany County International Airport.

Membership in the Shakers — known initially in "Shaking Quakers" because of their whirling dances and ecstatic worship services — peaked at about 6,000 in the 1850s. The Watervliet community topped out at about 350 people. The Sabbath Day Lake settlement is the last of about 20 major Shaker communities that existed between Florida and Ohio.

"Americans have been fascinated with the Shakers since the 1800s and there is still a strong fascination," said Starlyn D'Angelo, executive director of the Shaker Heritage Society. "There's a strong element of voyeurism in it."

During the Victorian era, it was considered entertainment to watch the Shakers at their 1848 Meeting House. "They wanted to see these strange people worship," D'Angelo said. "The fascination was that the Shakers went against the grain, they accepted blacks and any ethnicity as equals, men and women were equals and they created remarkable music and art."

In the last surviving Shaker community in Maine, converts have dried up, but interest endures. The Shakers are a religious sect that espouses celibacy, the spiritual value of manual labor, communal ownership of property, confession of sins and the notion that God could be male and female. Hadd receives about 100 emails, calls and letters each week.

About two dozen people from the Capital Region belong to the 500-member Friends of the Shakers. They visit the Maine community for work parties in the spring and fall that draw about 50 helpers. More than 100 typically travel to an annual Friends weekend in August.

The Shakers are still trying to recruit. In the past 35 years, only about three dozen people have decided to undergo a yearlong trial period and only Hadd and Brother Wayne chose to stay.

More Information If you go What: Shaker Brother Arnold Hadd speaking via online video connection, with audience Q&A. When: 2 p.m. Saturday. Where: Key Auditorium, Roger Bacon Hall, Siena College campus, 515 Loudon Road, Loudonville. Info.: http://www.shakerheritage.org or 456-7890. No entrance fee, but donations are encouraged to support the Shaker Heritage Society. See More Collapse

"We had two novices last year, a male and female," Hadd said. "They both stayed approximately a year to see how they fit into the life. Both concluded it was not for them."

Surprisingly, celibacy is rarely the deal-breaker. "The larger problem tends to be the life itself," Hadd said. "It's the communal living that people have the most trouble with in the end."

Seekers find their way to the Shaker settlement. "Some are looking for a communal lifestyle or are part of the back-to-the-earth movement," he said.

Hadd's own path was indirect. "My initial intent was not to become a Shaker," he said of his novice trial at age 21. "It was something that grew on me gradually. I felt I was being called or led here."

The Shakers keep a schedule that includes awakening at dawn, communal meals, long blocks of work time, morning and afternoon prayers and individual free time.

They like to watch TV and spend time on the Internet.

"The Shakers have always embraced technology," Hadd said.

D'Angelo believes the enduring appeal of the Shakers is their fierce faith. "They have absolute faith that the Shakers will endure in the future, despite their current challenges," she said.

Hadd said his community is challenged by rising property taxes, encroaching suburbia, a lack of new converts and a decline in production of their cash crops: apples, yarn spun from sheep's wool, dried herbs, vegetables and beef.

Even if the last Shaker settlement eventually closes, the sect's philosophy of life will survive, D'Angelo said.

"There are 10 Shaker museums in the country, including three in our area," she said. "We will always continue to study and learn from them."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl