Moravians (religion)

From Freepedia

A Moravian is a Protestant belonging to a religious movement that originated in Moravia, Czech Republic. It is also sometimes known as the Bohemian Brethren, after the neighbouring area Bohemia.

Origins and early history: the Czech background

The establishment of the Moravian church as a Christian church occurred as a reaction against certain alleged errors within the Roman Catholic Church. This movement was started by a priest named Jan Hus in the late fourteenth century. Although Bohemia, Poland, and Moravia had been Catholic countries, Jan Hus, sensitive of the church's misconducts, simply wanted to return the church -initially just those in Bohemia and Moravia- to the purer practices of early Christianity; using liturgy in the language of the people, having lay people receive communion in both kinds, and eliminating indulgences and the idea of purgatory. This movement had royal support and a certain independence for a while, even spreading across the border into Poland, but was eventually forced to be subject to Rome.

Some of the Hussites struck a deal with Rome that allowed them most of what they wanted. These were called the Utraquists. The other followers of Hus remained outside Roman Catholicism and within fifty years of Hus's death organized the Bohemian Brethren or Unity of the Brethren.

The Moravians were some of the earliest Protestants, rebelling against the authority of Rome more than a hundred years before Martin Luther. One unique (for its time) 'shocking' belief was an eventual focus on universal education. This may have lead to their betrayal by many local nobles— what need had a peasant to read?

During the Thirty-Years War 1618—1648 which devastated not just the Holy Roman Empire, but the whole of Eastern Europe, the church was targeted by local counter-reformation nobles, and persecuted severely in its geographical homeland. As a result they eventually dispersed to other slavic lands, German states and as far as the Low Countries, where bishop Jan Comenius attempted to direct a resurgence, similar to the secret Jews, the Moranos), were forced to operate in the Habsburg — controlled Spain and other Roman Catholic lands.

After 1620, due to the Counter Reformation by the Catholic Church, abandoned and betrayed by the local nobility which had previously tolerated or supported the church, all Protestants were forced to choose to either leave the many and varied principalities of what was the Holy Roman Empire, mainly from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and parts of Germany and its many states, or practice their beliefs secretly. At this time, members were forced underground and dispersed across Northern Europe, resulting in the decentralized church of the Unity of the Brethren. The brethren lived abroad, mostly in nearby Poland, which had historically strong ties with the Czech. Those who left under persecution regrouped in Germany under the influence of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf and formed the church which is now known as Moravian Church (in Canada and the United States except Texas), Jednota Bratrská (in the Czech Republic) and Unity of Brethren (in local languages mostly everywhere else, including Texas).

In the Netherlands the brethern are known as the Evangelische Broederschap and perhaps more as Herrnhutters from the main Moravian settlement at Herrnhut in Germany. Zeist is the historical centre for the Dutch brethren. From the Netherlands many brethren went to Suriname.

The Moravians in the United States

The Moravians who came to the United States in the early 1700s were immigrants originating from settlements on the estates of Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf in present-day Germany.

The original attempt to found a Moravian community was in Georgia, but that attempt failed. The Moravians later found a home in Pennsylvania, where the colony provided some of the greatest religious freedom to be found in the world. The towns of Bethlehem, Nazareth and Emmaus, Pennsylvania were founded as Moravian communities. Later, colonies were founded in North Carolina, starting with Wachovia, and later Bethabara, Bethania and Salem (now Winston-Salem).

Bethlehem became the headquarters of the northern church, and Winston-Salem became the headquarters of the southern church. The Moravian denomination persists in America to this day, with congregations in eighteen states. There are also congregations in three Canadian provinces. The denomination is organized into four provinces in North America: Northern, Southern, Alaska, and Labrador. There are about 40 Moravian congregations in England.

The Moravian Church in the present

The modern Moravian church still focuses heavily on tradition in its music and types of worship services. It continues on the tradition of the lovefeast, originally started in 1727, and still continues to use older and traditional music in worship. The Moravian Brothers have a long tradition of missonary work, for example in Sri Lanka and Greenland. The Moravians in Germany are very active in education and social work. The central settlement is still at Herrnhut.

The motto of the Moravian church is:

In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love,, from the Latin In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas

See also

• Hussite

References

• Jackman, John. "The Moravian Music Foundation: FAQs". Retrieved April 24, 2005.

External links

• The American Moravian church
• The British Moravian Church
• The Alaska Moravian church
• Moravians in Labrador
• Evangelische Brüdergemeine, Germany
• Evangelische Broederschap, Netherlands
• Unitäts-Archiv der Evangelische Brüder-Unität Herrnhut (Moravian Archives)
• Moravian Music Foundation