The Oldest Protestant Church Celebrates Its 550th Anniversary

Craig D. Atwood, Wake Forest University School of Divinity

The year 2007 marks the 550th anniversary of the founding of the Unitas Fratrum, which is known as the Moravian Church in North America. The church was established in Kunwald in eastern Bohemia by a young man named Gregory, who called “the Patriarch” by his followers. Gregory and his band called themselves the Jednota Bratrsky, the Unity of the Brethren (in Latin: Unitas Fratrum) to distinguish themselves from the state church. They hoped to recreate the original church of the apostles, which they believed was a non-hierarchical community of faith that was ruled by love rather than fear. By the time Martin Luther posted his Ninety-five Theses, the Unitas Fratrum had thousands of members and a rich tradition.

The Unitas Fratrum was one of the most important fruits of the Hussite Reformation of the 15th century. Shortly after the execution of Jan Hus by the Council of Constance in 1415, the Czech reform movement split into two main factions. The Utraquists were the most conservative became the national church of Bohemia. Until the 17th century, the Utraquists hoped for reconciliation with Rome, but the other Hussite body, the Church of Tabor, was much more radical theologically, liturgically, and politically. In 1437, the feared Taborite army was defeated by a coalition of Catholics and Utraquists.

The original Unitas Fratrum included many former Taborites and adopted much of the doctrine of Tabor, but not the apocalyptic violence of Tabor. The Brethren were strongly influenced by the Waldenses, especially the idea of the “Constantinian Fall” of the church. Persecution had kept the Waldensians from developing a church structure and separate priesthood, but the Hussite Reformation provided room for the Unitas Fratrum to develop into a church. In 1467 the Brethren made a decisive and permanent break with the Catholic Church by ordaining their own priests and establishing their own succession of bishops. In the 16th century, bishops of the Unity engaged in fruitful dialog with reformers in Germany and Switzerland.

The biggest influence on the early Unity was the Czech writer Peter Chelčický, who was the most persistent critic of feudalism in the Middle Ages. Chelčický argued that Christians are bound by the Law of Christ as revealed in the Sermon on the Mount. Gregory’s followers often called themselves “Brethren of the Law of Christ.” Chelčický may also be considered the first pacifist theologian of Western Christianity, and the Unitas Fratrum adopted Chelčický’s peace witness. Initially the Brethren would not even serve on juries for fear of sanctioning torture and execution.

The Brethren became active participants in the Reformation of the 16th century, establishing productive relationships with Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, and Calvin. They also published the first Protestant catechisms, the first Protestant hymnal, and the first Czech-language Bible. Their understanding of confirmation and the Eucharist influenced Protestant doctrine and practice, but the Brethren’s commitment to religious toleration was unacceptable to the magisterial reformers.

The Unitas Fratrum was famous for its system of humane education. The famous educational theorist, John Amos Comenius, was a bishop of the Unitas Fratrum. In addition to advocating for universal education for men and women, Comenius actively promoted peace and ecumenism. Despite his efforts to preserve the Unitas Fratrum during the turmoil of the Thirty Years War, the Brethren were left out of the Peace of Westphalia. Protestants in Bohemia and Moravia were forced back into the Catholic Church, but many remained Brethren in secret. The thousands of Czech Brethren who chose exile gradually assimilated into the Reformed Church. A few congregations of the Unitas Fratrum survived in Poland until the 19th century.

In 1722 a small group of Czech Protestants led by Christian David fled Moravia and sought refuge on the estate of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf in neighboring Saxony. There they established a community named Herrnhut. More Czech émigrés joined the Herrnhut community, and they longed to resurrect the Unitas Fratrum of their ancestors. Drawing on the works of Comenius, the Brethren’s hymnal, oral tradition, and the ideas of German Pietism, the refugees helped created a community of faith similar to the original Unitas Fratrum. Zinzendorf called this religious community the Brüdergemeine, or community of brothers.

Like the original Unitas Fratrum, the Brüdergemeine was a voluntary church that promoted ecumenism and religious toleration. The connection between this “Renewed Moravian Church,” as it is sometimes called, and the old Unitas Fratrum was formalized in 1735 when David Nitschmann was consecrated a bishop of the Unitas Fratrum by Daniel Ernst Jablonsky, the grandson of Comenius. In 1741, the Brüdergemeine established a permanent presence in the United States with the founding of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.

By the middle of the 19th century, the Brethren were known simply as “Moravians,” and the Moravian Church in North America now has about 60,000 members in four provinces: Northern, Southern, Labrador, and Alaska. The church was a pioneer in missions, and there are some 750,000 Moravians world-wide, with more than two-thirds living in Africa. In 1957 the church was reorganized, with the former “mission areas” becoming semi-autonomous provinces that are part of the Unity. This year’s anniversary of the founding of the church will be observed from Moravia to Surinam; North India to South Africa. Though small in numbers, the Moravian Church has made substantial contributions to the ecumenical church over the past 550 years, especially in the areas of music, liturgy, education, ecumenism, and missiology.