Excerpted from the 1999 version of Encyclopedia Britannica
Moravian church
A Protestant denomination founded in the 18th century but tracing its origin to the Unitas Fratrum - Unity of Brethren of the 15th-century a Hussite movement in Bohemia and Moravia.
History.
During the 16th and 17th centuries the Bohemian Brethren movement survived suppression by the Counter-Reformation and proscription by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) through the efforts of a so-called hidden seed of loyal adherents. In the meantime Protestantism in general had lost some of the vitality of its beginning. Revival came in the form of German Pietism in the late 17th century, increasing the unrest among the underground Protestants in nearby Moravia and Bohemia. Flight to Protestant portions of Germany became widespread, and Pietism had a profound influence upon many of the nobility. Thus it was that the young Count became the agent through whom the "hidden seed" was restored.
A group of families adhering to the tradition of the Bohemian Brethren fled Moravia in 1722 and settled on the count's estate in Saxony, where they founded Herrnhut. The village almost immediately attracted a growing stream of exiles from Bohemia and Moravia, as well as Pietists from Germany and beyond. The community worshiped and partook of the sacraments in the Lutheran parish church of the adjacent village of Berthelsdorf. There were also many extra-church services in an assembly hall in Herrnhut. Lutheranism
The count, a devout Lutheran, tried to keep the refugees within the state church. His aversion to what seemed like sectarianism was overcome when he realized that he was confronted with a remnant of a church older than his own. Reluctantly he helped them to revive their own tradition, though the ultimate development was twofold. Herrnhut became the mother community of what came to be called the church. It also became the centre for a network of societies on the established Pietist pattern, working for the nurture of spiritual life within the state churches, mostly Lutheran, but also including some Reformed churches. This latter phase of Moravianism on the European continent came to be known as the "diaspora" and its members far outnumbered those who belonged to the Moravian church as a denomination.
A remarkably unifying experience of fellowship at a special Communion service on Aug. 13, 1727, dispelled dissension from the community and created lasting evangelical zeal. Herrnhut within a few years became the centre of a worldwide program of Christian outreach. The first diaspora evangelists began their itinerations in 1727, and the first foreign missionaries left Herrnhut to work among black slaves in the West Indies in 1732. Within two decades missions to Greenland, Suriname, South Africa, Algiers, and among the North American Indians followed. This concern for missions characterized the church thereafter.
In 1735 David Nitschmann was consecrated the first bishop of the Renewed Moravian Church. With Nitschmann the Moravians restored their own ministry and soon thereafter the three orders of bishop, presbyter, and deacon.
Herrnhut developed a unique type of community in which civic and church life were integrated into a theocratic society, a prototype for about 20 such settlements in Europe, the British Isles, and America. Christian nurture through fellowship groups, daily worship featuring both singing and instrumental music, boarding schools, and concentration on foreign missions and diaspora evangelism characterized these exclusive Moravian villages. They supported themselves and their projects by thriving handicraft industries.
In the British Isles.Moravians came to London in 1734 en route to mission work in the American colonies and made contacts that led to the formation of the Fetter Lane Society in 1738, the forerunner of churches in England, Wales, and Ireland.John Wesley came to know the Moravians on board ship enroute to Georgia in 1735-36, and upon his return home two years later both he and his brother Charles affiliated with the Moravians. They worked together until 1740, after which Methodism and Moravianism went their separate ways. The former, better suited to the English temperament, became a mass movement; while the latter, after the peak of the revival had passed, became one of the small denominations of the British Isles, with about 40 congregations and fewer than 5,000 members.
In North America.
The first Moravian venture in the Americas was a mission among black slaves in the West Indies (1732); however, their mission motive and uncertain status in Europe eventually brought them to Georgia in 1735. Zinzendorf saw in America an opportunity to evangelize the Indians and a haven from possible suppression at home. Unsuccessful in Georgia, the group went to Pennsylvania in 1740 and founded Nazareth and Bethlehem. The prospect of organizing the many German settlers of Lutheran and Reformed background, not to mention sectarian bodies, into a union church was an additional factor in Zinzendorf's interest in Pennsylvania. He spent 14 months in America (1741-43) and set up a program patterned after that of Europe. His plan of church union failed, but he did succeed in establishing the Moravian church in the New World.
Both in Europe and America some Moravian churches were closed settlements and some churches were in communities with other denominations. For about a century only church members lived in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Lititz in Pennsylvania and in Salem (present-day Winston-Salem) in North Carolina. Moravians from Bethlehem founded the first of the North Carolina churches in 1753. From these centres radiated a program of missions and evangelism among Indians, neighbouring European settlers, and primitive peoples overseas. Many children from outside the church, especially after the American Revolution, were educated in Moravian boarding schools. Diaspora rather than denominational outlook, European control, and closed communities kept the church small. Extensive growth did not come until the mid-19th century when a reorganization of the international body gave the Americans more autonomy. Immigrants from Germany and Norway accounted for much of the growth in the North, while in North Carolina church extension came largely from native population increase.
The Moravian Church in America was divided into northern and southern provinces for administrative convenience by 1771. In the late 20th century, the provinces shared a common board of foreign missions, a common theological seminary, and a free exchange of ministers. Salem College in Winston-Salem and Moravian College in Bethlehem were two of the church-related schools. Another U.S. Moravian group, the Unity of the Brethren, had close relations with the Moravian church and cooperated in missions overseas.
Organization, doctrine, and worship.
Each regional administrative unit of the worldwide Moravian church is self-governing through its provincial synod with administration by a provincial elders' conference. All are linked by a general synod of elected representatives, meeting every 10 years, which is authoritative in all matters of doctrine and constitution common to the whole church. The power to ordain in the Moravian church is reserved for the bishops, but the episcopal office does not in itself have an administrative function. In practice, however, bishops more often than not are elected to administrative office.
The Moravian church adheres to its original principle of the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice. It subscribes to both the Apostles' and Nicene creeds but does not have a distinctive creed of its own, believing that in the various confessions of the main bodies of Protestantism the chief articles of the Christian faith are already set forth. Its litany used at the Easter sunrise service is generally accepted as summarizing its main beliefs. Worship is liturgical and follows the traditional church year. Communion is observed about six times a year and in some areas monthly. German chorales figure prominently in the hymns used. Strongly Christocentric, the Moravian church places emphasis upon the sufferings of Christ during Holy Week preceding Easter.
