Festival of August 13
“We Learned . . .”
“We learned to love one another.” These are sacred words spoken in a transformational moment in our history. Many of our congregations will today celebrate the August 13th “Festival of the Spirit.” This celebration of our Moravian story reminds us through a feast of love that we are joined in fellowship through our Chief Elder, Jesus Christ. The shared cup and bun will raise up the unity we discovered as a community of faith on that day—August 13, 1727, on the estate of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf.
However, that celebration comes on the tail end of those words “We learned to love one another.” “We learned . . .” reveals the difficult reality that what proceeded this day was not love, but disagreement, division, and likely ill will within a faith community struggling to stay together. Perspectives clashed, and community was broken. Simply put, people felt differently on things they deeply cared about.
As I observe this time in the life of our Moravian faith community around the world, I realize, in my most honest moments, that there exists once again a very real and difficult struggle to find our unity and sense of community. Some would say it’s about politics; some would say it’s about theology; some would say it’s about ministry vision; some would say it’s about injustice. However, what we can all agree upon is that there is a lot of disagreement in our midst.
We are the descendants of those who “learned to love one another.” In this sacred and more-than-symbolic action of sharing this lovefeast, is woven a deep question for our hearts and souls, a question whispered still today by our Chief Elder: ”Can we learn to love one another . . . again?”
David Bennett, president
Northern Provincial Elders’ Conference