The Abode of the Message

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File:Abode Welcome sign.jpg
The Welcome Sign at The Abode in 2025

The Abode of the Message is a retreat center in New Lebanon, NY which was founded in 1975 by Vilayat Inayat Khan and a group of his students. The Abode has a long history as a residential community, a centralized location for the Inayati order, a conference and retreat center, and a center of esoteric study.[1][2][3][4] In 2023, its management was transferred to Friends of South Family.[5] The property is located in the eastern heights of the Taconic Mountains in New Lebanon, New York, and includes historic Shaker buildings built between 1834 and 1870.[3][6]

The described intent of the Abode on its founding was stated: to "collectively embody spiritual awakening," through "mutual commitment to practicing...the Sufi teachings," "shared devotion to the ideals of Love, Harmony and Beauty, and to the specific transformational work whereby these ideals are progressively realized," for "mutual dedication and visionary collaboration."[7]

History of the site

Photo of a red barn.
Shaker Barn, the Shaker community's horse barn

Most of the Abode's Main Campus structures were built in the mid-19th century by the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village community as housing and workspaces for their South Family group.[3][4] Formally established in 1787, the New Lebanon Shaker Society (renamed the Mount Lebanon Shaker Society in 1861[8][9]) was the second major Shaker society formed in the recently created United States of America. The society established its home at the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, which became the primary Shaker spiritual residential community.[6][8][9][10]

The Mount Lebanon Shaker Village was organized into Family groups living in clustered buildings sited around the property.[6][10] since 2010Template:Dated maintenance category (articles)Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters"., three main groups of buildings survive. The Church Family property is occupied by the Darrow School, a private residential high school.[11][12] The North Family property is occupied and being restored by the Shaker Museum, Mount Lebanon.[11][13] The South Family property was owned by the Shaker Village Work Group[11] (a camp for urban teenagers established in 1947 as the Shaker Village Work Camp and later renamed[14]) until it was purchased in 1975 for the Inayati Order, which established it as a new residential spiritual community—The Abode of the Message.[15][16]

In April 2022, the Inayati Order announced that they could no longer hold financial responsibility for the Abode, and expressed the hope "to sell to a compatible and aligned organization that would continue to hold the land as sacred."[17] In 2023, an agreement was reached between the Order and the Friends of South Family "to transfer sole membership in the Abode to [the] Friends."[5]

Facilities

The Abode occupies approximately Script error: No such module "convert". of forest that spans the border between New York State and Massachusetts. Most of its shared community facilities are grouped within two areas, the Main Campus and the Mountain Conference Center.[4]

Main Campus

Photo of a wooden building with a winged heart logo over the door.
Meditation Hall on the Main Campus, a replica of a Shaker-style apple barn.

The Main Campus is a cluster of buildings at the south end of Darrow Road, most of which are the original South Family structures of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, demonstrating "preservation through use."[3] Many of the buildings are named for spiritual qualities that Sufis value, drawn from the 99 Names of God in Islam. Rezak was the South Family's main communal building and now contains the library and community dining room. Vakil houses the Abode Programs Office, and served as the Shaker chair-caning shop. Mughni is the former Shaker trustees building. Fatah (the 1867 Shaker women's workhouse) holds men's and women's dorms. Recently renovated, the Shaker Barn was built in 1850 as a horse barn, but now hosts offices and art studios. The Meditation Hall was built in 1975 by Abode community members, and is used as a sacred space used for public events. Three personal retreat huts are located in the Retreat Hut Field on the hill behind the Meditation Hall, and several retreat huts and cabins are situated beside a stream south of the Shaker Barn.[3][4][18]

Mountain Camp

Photo of a large white tent on a wooden platform with stairs leading up to it.
Main Tent, at the Mountain Conference Center.

The Mountain Camp hosts large group events for the Abode and The Inayati Order as well as being available as a woodland conference center.[3] The Mountain Camp comprises dining pavilions and meeting spaces, along with shared bathroom and shower facilities for those staying on the mountain overnight. Meals are prepared in the distinctive octagonal Kitchen building. Housing on the mountain is provided by two shared cabins that hold a total of twenty two-person rooms, sixteen private huts that are simple, rustic retreat huts without electricity, and extensive space for tenting along the mountain's walking paths.

References

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  1. ↑ Jackman 1982.
  2. ↑ Whilden 2004.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Tulloch 2009.
  4. ↑ a b c d Tulloch 2010.
  5. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ a b c Gutek 1998.
  7. ↑ Vision for the Abode Template:Webarchive. Abode of the Message website. Retrieved 12 August 2010
  8. ↑ a b Stein 1994.
  9. ↑ a b "The Mount Lebanon Shaker Society". National Register of Historic Places (USA) website. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  10. ↑ a b About Mount Lebanon Shaker Village Template:Webarchive. Shaker Museum and Library website. Retrieved 26 August 2010.
  11. ↑ a b c Becksvoort & Sheldon 2000.
  12. ↑ Darrow School: A unique sense of place Template:Webarchive. Darrow School website. Darrow School. Retrieved 25 August 2010
  13. ↑ Museum history Template:Webarchive. Shaker Museum and Library website. Retrieved 25 August 2010.
  14. ↑ Opdahl & Woodruff Opdahl 2004.
  15. ↑ Sutton 2003.
  16. ↑ The Early Years of the Abode of the Message Template:Webarchive. Abode of the Message website. Retrieved 12 August 2010.
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Abode of the Message: Individual spiritual retreats Template:Webarchive. Abode of the Message website. Retrieved 26 August 2010.

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Newspapers and magazines

  • Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1". — Issue entitled "Spiritual Communities." Magazine is now published by the Fellowship for Intentional Community.
  • Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1". — Reviews of several spiritual retreat centers in the NYC area, including the Abode.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Script error: No such module "Unsubst". (also archived, 4 February 2009) — Extensive reporting about the Abode, its history, and activities.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". Volume 1, number 43. — A Master Plan was created for the Abode by Dennis Wedlick Architects LLC. Article reviews its contents in the context of the site's history.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — Reviews of several spiritual retreat centers in the downstate NY area, including the Abode.

Books

  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — Describes some history of the South Family lands ownership by the Shakers, then the Shaker Village Work Camp, then the Sufi Order International.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — The page number and the book's name differ slightly in other editions (1990 edition, Template:ISBN; 1996 ed., Template:ISBN; 2000 ed., Template:ISBN; 2005 ed., Template:ISBN; 2007 ed., Template:ISBN; 2010 ed., Template:ISBN)
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — Extended history of the Mount Lebanon Shaker Village, including the South Family site.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — Describes the origins of the Abode as a spiritual commune.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — Describes the purchase of the South Family property in 1947 by Jerry and Sybil Count, who established the Shaker Village Work Camp, later renamed the Shaker Village Work Group in 1967, and finally the Shaker Village Educational Work Foundation.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — An extensive history of the Shakers.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — Some detailed history of the Abode.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — An abbreviated version of Sutton 2003.
  • Script error: No such module "citation/CS1". — A short history of the Sufi Order International, with a few paragraphs about the Abode.

External links

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