The Moravians – A Brief Introduction to the Oldest Protestant Church

This is the story of a Protestant denomination that is 550 years old in the year 2007. When newcomers to the Moravian Church hear this, they are apt to ask, “Does this mean you began before Martin Luther?” And the answer is, “Yes.”

A second question then follows: “Are you a foreign or ethnic group?” The answer is a simple, “No.” As a matter of fact, very few Moravian congregations in North America have members with roots in Moravia or Bohemia – both provinces of the Czech Republic.

Name

The name “Moravian” started out as a nickname in eastern Germany in the 1720s because refugees belonging to the church came from Moravia to the estate of the wealthy Saxon nobleman Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf. It is probably fortunate that the nickname was not “Bohemian,” because of other connotations of that word. But since many refugees also came from Bohemia, it might have turned out that way.

Actually the official name is the Unitas Fratrum, or Unity of the Brethren. This was the original name of the church when it was founded back in 1457 in the Bohemian forests.

Ecumenical

The Moravians are not a sect. They number three-quarters of a million worldwide and stand in the mainstream of Protestantism. They have been members of the World Council of Churches sine its inception. They are also active members of the National Council of Churches in the US. The Northern Province of the American church has held observer status in the Consultation on Church Union, indicating the intention to keep seeking common ground with fellow Protestants.

Where Found

In the United States, one is most apt to encounter Moravians in eastern Pennsylvania or Forsyth County, North Carolina. Winston-Salem is the hub in the latter state, while old established congregations in Pennsylvania are found in the area of Bethlehem and Lititz.

Actually, though, the first Moravian settlement in the United States was Savannah, Georgia, in 1735. This endured for just five years. Only after more than 200 years did the Moravians return to Georgia – to Stone Mountain, outside of Atlanta. This followed the rather recent entry of the Moravians into Florida, in Longwood (Orlando), Miami, West Palm Beach, Tampa, and Sarasota.

Along the eastern seaboard of the United States there are also Moravian churches in New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Midwest congregations are in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. Churches in California were founded in the second half of the 1900s.

A cluster of congregations dating back to the late 1800s is found in and around Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta, Canada. More recently, a Moravian Church has also been organized in Toronto, Ontario. Among natives of Alaska and Labrador the Moravians have worked for many years. The Alaska province is now independent, while Labrador exists not as a member of the Unity Board but as an affiliated Province. (see Where to Find Us for current congregations and other regions of the world where Moravians have a presence)

Complexion

For centuries the church “at home,” particularly in Europe, has aimed to quicken a heart relationship to Jesus Christ rather than add to its numbers. This has been accompanied by a vigorious missionary evangelism abroad, especially among people far form the centers of power – people to whom other churches were not ministering.

Of the more than 700,000 Moravians worldwide, only about 80,000, therefore, live in the predominantly white Western world. The remainder are concentrated in Tanzania, South Africa, and the Caribbean.

In the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, there is a very interesting painting called The First Fruits. It looks as though it might have been a kind of eighteenth-century United Nations group. Gathering around a representation of Jesus (who almost looks like Count Zinzendorf) are men, women, and children from seventeen different lands. In each case the person is the first convert from his or her tribe or nation. The angels pictures are Germans – the whole painting imaginative and impressive. It reflects the Count’s strategy between 1732 and 1760 to gather such first fruits of conversion as God would see fit to give.

More on the ministries of the Moravian Church and what the Moravian Church believes

Music

Along with their missionary work, Moravians are well known for their music. In 1501 the Unitas Fratrum published a hymnal in Prague, in the Czech language. When the church came to America, it brought along brass instruments for trombone choirs.

The stately German Chorales became the most familiar hymns sung in the Moravian Church. But choirs on the American frontier also sang original anthems written by their pastors and organists. This unusual treasury of sacred music from the late 1700s and early 1800s is celebrated and preformed at Moravian Music Festivals in Moravian centers in the Unites States and Canada – usually every four years.

Excerpted from All About the Moravians – History, Beliefs, and Practices of a Worldwide Church by Edwin A. Sawyer. For copies of this book in its entirety, visit our online catalog.

Other suggested resources

Customs and Practices of the Moravian Church by Adelaide L. Fries, revised edition 2003

Moravian Church Through the Ages by John R. Weinlick and Albert H. Frank, revised edition 2007 (available Spring 2007, now taking preorders).

Through Five Hundred Years and Beyond, A Popular History of the Moravian Church by Allen W. Schattschneider and Albert H. Frank, revised edition 2007 (available Spring 2007, now taking preorders)

The Moravian Covenant for Christian Living

The Ground of the Unity