According to the Ground of the Unity In a lecture series delivered at the Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Shawe described the Spirit of the Moravian Church as having five characteristics: simplicity, happiness, unintrusiveness, fellowship, and the ideal of service:

  • is a focus on the essentials of faith and a lack of interest in the niceties of doctrinal definition. Shawe quotes Zinzendorf's remark that "The Apostles say: 'We believe we have salvation through the grace of Jesus Christ....' If I can only teach a person that catechism I have made him a divinity scholar for all time" (Shawe, 1977, p. 9). From this simplicity flow secondary qualities of genuineness and practicality.
  • Happiness is the natural and spontaneous response to God's free and gracious gift of salvation. Again Shawe quotes Zinzendorf: "There is a difference between a genuine Pietist and a genuine Moravian. The Pietist has his sin in the foreground and looks at the wounds of Jesus; the Moravian has the wounds in the forefront and looks from them upon his sin. The Pietist in his timidity is comforted by the wounds; the Moravian in his happiness is shamed by his sin" (p. 13).
  • Unintrusiveness is based on the Moravian belief that God positively wills the existence of a variety of churches to cater for different spiritual needs. There is no need to win converts from other churches. The source of Christian unity is not legal form but everyone's heart-relationship with the Saviour.
  • Fellowship is based on this heart-relationship. Shawe says: "The Moravian ideal has been to gather together kindred hearts... Where there are 'Christian hearts in love united', there fellowship is possible in spite of differences of intellect and intelligence, of thought, opinion, taste and outlook.[...] Fellowship [in Zinzendorf's time] meant not only a bridging of theological differences but also of social differences; the artisan and aristocrat were brought together as brothers and sat as equal members on the same committee" (pp. 21,22).
  • The ideal of service entails happily having the attitude of a servant. This shows itself partly in faithful service in various roles within congregations but more importantly in service of the world "by the extension of the Kingdom of God". Historically, this has been evident in educational and especially missionary work. Shawe remarks that "none could give themselves more freely to the spread of the gospel than those Moravian emigrants who, by settling in Herrnhut [i.e., on Zinzendorf's estate], had gained release from suppression and persecution" (p. 26).

Worship

  • Hymnals
  • Liturgy
  • The Sacrament of the Holy Communion
  • The Sacrament of Baptism, Infants and Adults
  • Marriage
  • Confirmation
  • Christian Burial
  • Ordination of Bishops, Presbyters and Deacons
  • Consecration of church buildings and facilities

Traditions

thumb|A Moravian diener serves bread to fellow members of her congregation during the celebration of a [[lovefeast.]]

  • Lovefeast
  • Feet washing
  • Settlements
  • Cup of Covenant
  • Christingle (object) and Christingle service
  • Hosanna Anthem
  • Moravian Advent star
  • Daily Watchwords, sometimes called Moravian Daily Texts
  • Advent Wreath and Candles
  • Passion Week/ Holy Week Reading Services
  • God's Acre and Easter sunrise service
  • Drawing of lots
  • Music
  • Watch Night Service on New Year's Eve
  • Dead house

Former traditions

  • The drawing of "lots" in decision making
  • Single Brethren's and Single Sisters' Houses: in the old original Settlement Congregations of Europe, Britain and the US, there were separate Houses caring for the spiritual and also temporal welfare of the Choirs of Single Brethren, Single Sisters, Widows.
  • Wide/Short layout of church interiors
  • Separate seating of sexes in churches
  • Mission ships (the Harmony and the Snow Irene)
  • Choirs: the word "Choir" has been used in the Moravian tradition since the 18th century to indicate a group of congregation members classified according to age and sex. Formerly there were in several congregations separate Houses caring for the spiritual and also temporal welfare of the Choirs of Single Brethren, Single Sisters, Widows.

The two North American provinces are in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The Northern Province of the Moravian Church voted 18 June 2010 to enter into full communion with the Episcopal Church. The Moravian Church's Southern Province voted to enter into full communion with the Episcopal Church during its synod in September 2010. Each province can independently enter into full communion relationships. In the 1980s there were discussions in England by which an agreement was created that would have created full communion between the Moravians, Presbyterians, Methodists, and the Church of England. The Presbyterians and Methodists would have accepted the Historic Episcopate, but since the Moravians already had this, they would have changed nothing. This agreement fell through, because the General Synod of the Church of England did not give approval.

One aspect of Moravian history and mission is the diaspora work in Germany and Eastern Europe, seeking to deepen and encourage the Christian life among members of the territorial churches, particularly in Poland and the Baltic states and throughout German-speaking lands. Count Zinzendorf's ideal was a fellowship of all Christians, regardless of denominational names, and the Moravian Brethren sought in the Diaspora not to convert people to the Moravian Church but to awaken the hearts of believers and make them better members of the churches to which they already belonged.

At first the object of suspicion, in the course of time the Moravian Diaspora workers became valued co-workers in eastern Europe. This Diaspora work suffered almost total destruction in World War II, but is still carried on within the territorial churches of Germany. With the restored independence of Estonia and Latvia, it was revealed that much of the Diaspora Work there had been kept alive in spite of occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union, which had held to the doctrine of state atheism.

none|thumb|507x507px|An ongoing service in a moravian congregation in [[Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden, the two existant moravian congregations are part of the Lutheran Church of Sweden.]]

In Sweden, the Lutheranism was the established state religion in the form of the Church of Sweden, when moravian thoughts and influence reached the country in the mid 1700s. Because of the conventicle act, membership and worship outside of the state church was forbidden, and both priests and lay people who were influenced by Moravian theology stayed within the Church of Sweden and formed small societies worshipping, rather than independent churches. Even after abolishing the laws and until this day the small moravian movement has stayed within the Lutheran, now dis-established, Church of Sweden and therefore fully adhere to its Lutheran confessions. There are currently two Moravian congregations in the country, one in Stockholm and one in Gothenburg, both served by priests ordained in the Church of Sweden. There, a member of the movement is commonly called Herrnhutare, meaning "a Herrnhuter" while the movement in general is called Herrnhutism.

Historical societies

  • American North: the Moravian Historical Society and Historic Bethlehem (Pennsylvania)
  • American South: the Wachovia Historical Society as well as Old Salem
  • British: Moravian Church House, London
  • Continental Province
  • „Via exulantis", Suchdol nad Odrou (Zauchtenthal or Zauchtel), The Moravian Brethren's Museum. The permanent exposition of the exile of 280 inhabitants from Suchdol nad Odrou to Herrnhut in Saxony in the 18th century, where they renewed the Unity of the Brethren and then established missionary establishments in all parts of the world.

Goals of the Moravian Missions

  • Moravians sought to unify the converts into "one people."
  • (former title: ), the periodical of the Continental Province
  • , the publication of the Continental Province's historical society
  • The Moravian Magazine, the publication of the North American Provinces
  • The Moravian Voice, a publication of the Moravian Church in Jamaica
  • The Moravian Messenger, periodical of the British Province
  • Moravian History Magazine – published within the British Province but deals with the work worldwide.
  • Journal of Moravian History – scholarly journal, published by the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

See also

  • English Covenant
  • Minor Party (Unity of the Brethren)
  • Old Salem
  • Ronneburg, Hesse
  • Schwarzenau Brethren, an Anabaptist denomination in the tradition of Radical Pietism
  • University of Olomouc, established in 1573 as Jesuit University in order to re-Catholicize the population of the March of Moravia.
  • Gracehill, a Moravian village in Northern Ireland which was awarded UNESCO World Heritage status in 2024.

References

General and cited references

  • Church of England & the Moravian Church in Great Britain and Ireland, Anglican-Moravian Conversations: The Fetter Lane Common Statement with Essays in Moravian and Anglican History (1996)
  • Engel, Katherine Carte. Religion and Profit: Moravians in Early America (2010)
  • Fogleman, Aaron Spencer. Jesus Is Female: Moravians and the Challenge of Radical Religion in Early America (2007)
  • Freeman, Arthur J. An Ecumenical Theology of the Heart: The Theology of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1998)
  • Fries, Adelaide. Records of the Moravians in North Carolina (1917)
  • Fries, Adelaide. The Moravians in Georgia, 1735–1740 at Project Gutenberg
  • Gollin, Gilliam Lindt. Moravians in Two Worlds (1967)
  • Hamilton, J. Taylor, and Hamilton, Kenneth G. History of the Moravian Church: The Renewed Unitas Fratrum 1722–1957 (1967)
  • Hutton, J. E. A History of the Moravian Church (1909)
  • Hutton, J. E. A History of the Moravian Missions (1922)
  • Jarvis, Dale Gilbert. "The Moravian Dead Houses of Labrador, Canada", Communal Societies 21 (2001): 61–77.
  • Langton; Edward. History of the Moravian Church: The Story of the First International Protestant Church (1956)
  • Lewis, A. J. Zinzendorf the Ecumenical Pioneer (1962)
  • Linyard, Fred, and Tovey, Phillip. Moravian Worship (Grove Worship Series No 129, UK), 1994
  • Peucker, Paul. A Time of Sifting: Mystical Marriage and the Crisis of Moravian Piety in the Eighteenth Century. University Park, Penn.: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015.
  • Podmore, Colin. The Moravian Church in England 1728–1760 (1998)
  • Rican, Rudolf. The History of the Unity of the Brethren (trans. by C. Daniel Crews) (1992)
  • Shawe, C. H. The Spirit of the Moravian Church (1977)
  • Teich, Mikulas, ed., Bohemia in History, Cambridge University Press, 1998, p. 384
  • Tillman, Benjamin; Imprints on Native Lands: The Miskito-Moravian Settlement Landscape in Honduras; Tucson 2011 (University of Arizona Press)
  • Weber, Julie Tomberlin (trans.) and Atwood, Craig D. (ed.) A Collection of Sermons from Zinzendorf's Pennsylvania Journey (1741-2; 2001)
  • Weinlick, John R. Count Zinzendorf: The Story of his Life and Leadership in the Renewed Moravian Church (1984)
  • Zinzendorf, Nicholaus Ludwig. Nine Public Lectures on Important Subjects in Religion (1746; translated and edited by George W. Forell 1973)
  • Official website of the Moravian Church in North America
  • Official website of the Moravian Church in the United Kingdom
  • Unitas Fratrum: An international organisation of Moravians
  • Moravian Archives
  • Moravian Music Foundation
  • Moravian Heritage Network