New London — The group that runs the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival has withdrawn its invitation to the tall ship Peacemaker, and the controversial religious group that runs it, for next month’s annual event.

The 150-foot Peacemaker arrived at City Pier two weeks ago and had planned to stay through the event, which is scheduled for Sept. 11 and 12 at New London Waterfront Park.

After learning more about Twelve Tribes, the religious group that operates Peacemaker, OpSail Connecticut Board Chairman Kevin Cavanagh said board members expressed concerns. The Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Twelve Tribes as a Christian fundamentalist cult with racist leanings that shuns homosexuals and has been the target of child abuse allegations.

Cavanagh said 13 members of the board did their own research and all voted in favor of withdrawing an offer to Twelve Tribes to pay for the boat's dockage and electrical fees, amounting to $1,200. OpSail Connecticut, the private nonprofit that has held a festival every year since 2013, holds permits to the docks at City Pier during the festival and asked that Peacemaker not be in attendance.

Cavanagh said the information obtained about the group “was not consistent with our values and the values of the Connecticut Maritime Heritage Festival.” He said he relayed the information to a member of the Twelve Tribes group in what he considered a cordial conversation.

The Peacemaker has been open for free tours at City Pier for the past two weeks and welcomed numerous people aboard during that time.

Peacemaker Captain Lee Philips said Twelve Tribes has been unfairly labeled as a religious cult and that untrue accusations abound online, perhaps because the group is so different from most churches.

Philips said the group, which has followers across the country and the world, lives a simple communal lifestyle in which possessions are shared and children are taught by the community. He said the way of living harks back to the original separatists who fled England to live a life “based on the principles of the Bible.”

“It goes back to taking care of one another and loving one another,” he said.

The group’s website calls twelve Tribes “an emerging spiritual nation.”

"We are a confederation of twelve self-governing tribes, made up of self-governing communities. By community, we mean families and single people who live together in homes and on farms. We are disciples of the Son of God, whom we call by his Hebrew name Yahshua,” the website reads.

Philips said the ship traveled to 120 different ports from Canada to Key West, Fla., from 2007 through 2016 and only recently started sailing again. Philips said he is unsure how long Peacemaker will remain in New London, but ongoing work to the ship’s yard — a spar on a mast — is expected to be completed by next week.

“After that, we’ll see,” Philips said when asked about where the ship would head next.

New London’s Dockmaster Barbara Neff said the Peacemaker will be charged $1,000 in docking fees, and while the ship had been  expected to stay through Sept. 15, she said she now expects Peacemaker to be gone by Sept. 9.

g.smith@theday.com