Eastern District - The 550th Anniversary, the State Theater, and Me


By Jon Burcaw
November 2007

What do you get when fourteen musical performances from fourteen Moravian organizations converge on the State Theater in Easton, Pennsylvania to celebrate 550 years of Moravian history? If you were there, you’d know the answer to that riddle.

If November 10, 2007, came and went and you missed it, you’ll just have to read on.

It was one hour to show time. We had practiced for three months and we all knew the songs cold. Regardless, I felt a bit nervous as I paced back and forth with drumsticks in hand and could feel the excitement grow as our choir and praise band waited to go onstage. We chatted together. I made friends with one of the members of the steel drum bands from New York City waiting in the hall with us, outside the auditorium. He explained to me how the drums were made. The making of the drum was as much of an art as playing it. We talked about our homes, our families, and our music. While our accents and the colors of our skin may have been different, we cared about the same stuff. After all, we were Moravians. And tonight our purpose was as common as ever… to celebrate our faith with music.

As the beginning of the show drew near, the band members began to congregate and the choir members found their respective places in line in the hallway. Then the trombones began and we knew our time was close. Anxious butterflies fluttered within me as our group made its way to the stage. Not too many people can say they did that. After this night, more than two hundred Moravian singers and musicians can say with great pride that they “played” this grand old historic place.

The stage was packed with all things musical. Rows of shiny handbells adorned burgundy covered tables that crossed the front of the stage. Behind them were a grand piano, electric keyboards, and guitar amplifiers. At the center of the stage stood rows of risers. Everywhere else there was space there were drums, drums, and more drums. And where there was no room for anything else, there were microphones. There was so much stuff on the stage the curtains couldn’t be closed. And it didn’t even matter

This amazing gala variety show was the brainchild of my friend, the Rev. Chris Giesler. He had this crazy idea that it would be cool to bring together all sorts of musical talents from various churches throughout the Eastern District of the Northern Province to celebrate the 550th anniversary of the worldwide Moravian Church and in the process, raise money to benefit the Hope Conference and Renewal Center and Moravian Open Door, Inc. To say the event was cool would be a classic understatement.

Hosted by comedienne Hazelle Goodman, daughter of Moravian pastor the Rev. Virginia Goodman, the evening began with class and just got better and better as it went. Fourteen different organizations brought with them fourteen different flavors of music. And there wasn’t a sour apple in the bunch.

Praise music? Had that. Bell choirs? There were three of them… all three were delightfully different. There were two steel drum bands with two distinctive sounds. Choirs, trios, duets? We had all that too… and instrumental soloists…Lord almighty we had them as well. There was a cellist and an organist that made me stand up and cheer when they were through. Then again I was having so much fun, I stood up and cheered for everyone. So did most other folks.

Our time onstage was fleeting, and seemed to be over before it even started. But then the rest of it came along and I began to realize that we were all becoming a part of something very special and bigger and more beautiful than we could ever create separately. To paraphrase the hymn “What Brought us Together” which we sang together to close the momentous evening, we truly rejoiced in our faith and in the knowledge we all have one Father and that heaven is indeed our home.

Oh, and the answer to the riddle? It’s magic of course, in biblical proportions.

Here is the list of performers in order of appearance…

Jon Burcaw is a member of East Hills Moravian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Photos by Mary Elen Kollman, a member of Central Moravian Church, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.