2021-03-20 07:32:40
THE MORAVIAN CHURCH The Moravian Church considers itself to be the oldest Protestant denomination and has its roots in the teaching of the Bohemian Reformer
John Hus. The Moravian Church was founded in 1457 in the Czech Republic by a small group of Hussites desiring more radical reform of the church. They established a community called the
Unity of the Brethren (or, in Latin, Unitas Fratrum) in Kunwald, and held communion with the
Waldensions.
During the time, there was strife between the Protestants and Catholics. Protestants firmly held the grip of education, and Catholics couldn't compete, forcing the Jesuits to make secret deals with the Catholic Habsburgs to invite them into the Crown of Bohemia and establish multiple schools. In 1617,
Emperor Matthias had his fiercely Catholic brother
Ferdinand of Styria elected King of Bohemia, which widened religious polarization until it all culminated into the
Battle of White Mountain.
The Protestants lost, and were forced into exile due to further persecutions, many preached underground, and scattered across northern Europe. In 1722, a small group of the Bohemian Brethren who had been living in northern Moravia as an illegal underground remnant surviving in the Catholic setting of the Habsburg Empire for nearly 100 years, arrived at the Berthelsdorf estate of
Nikolaus Ludwig Von Zizendorf, a nobleman who had been brought up in the traditions of Lutheran Pietism.
Out of a personal commitment to helping the poor and needy, he agreed to a request from their leader that they be allowed to settle on his lands in Upper Lusatia, which is in present-day Saxony in the eastern part of modern-day Germany.
The refugees established a new village called Herrnhut, about 2 miles (3 km) from Berthelsdorf. The town initially grew steadily, but major religious disagreements emerged and by 1727 the community was divided into factions, as there were Christians from various denominations and doctrinal beliefs(Calvinists, Lutherans, Anabaptists, even Catholics).
Count Zinzendorf worked to bring about unity in the town and the
Brotherly Agreement was adopted by the community on 12 May 1727. The village of Herrnhut grew rapidly following this agreement causing a transformative revival and became the centre of a major movement for Christian renewal and mission during the 18th century.
The Moravian church would be historically famous for Setting up a watch of continous prayer that ran uninterrupted, 24 hours a day, for 100 years.
They also established more than 30 settlements internationally on the Herrnhut model, which emphasized prayer and worship, and a form of communal living in which simplicity of lifestyle and generosity with wealth were held to be important spiritual attributes.
The Moravian church were the first Protestant group to begin missionary work. They have been very influential to John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, saying "They are a people that have given all up for their master, and have learned from him to be modest and lowly, dead to the world, but full of faith and the holy spirit."
Indeed, we Protestants have much to learn of the Moravian Church, but not just in fellowship between other Protestants, but with non-Protestants as well.
They have a motto, and it is this: "
In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love". Let us stop bickering and fighting over doctrines, but unite in Christ, and focus our destructive efforts on the real enemy, Satan and this accursed world.
VICIT AGNUS NOSTER, EUM SEQUAMUR!
OUR LAMB HAS CONQUERED; LET US FOLLOW HIM!
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