This post is an excerpt from the inspiring Book: "Red Moon Rising"
The Moravians
The Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrum, of which Zinzendorf was
a bishop, had been founded hundreds of years before his great Herrnhut
experiment. Prior to Zinzendorf, the Moravian Church had never, as far as we
know, dreamed of praying round the clock; this was an idea flowing within
monasticism. But the Moravian Church had a long and very remarkable history
that inspired and shaped Zinzendorf and the renewal movement he catalysed.
The Moravian roots
The Moravian Church served the cause of
Christ in two distinct eras: the Ancient Unity and the Renewed Moravian Church.[1]
The roots of Christianity in Bohemia and Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic)
could be found in the mission work of two Greek Orthodox bishops, Cyril and
Methodius. They, like the Celtic believers, had much in common with other
branches of Christendom, but didn't always feel comfortable with the policies
of the current rulers in Rome. The inadvertent founder of the Unitas Fratrum was Jan Huss,
the President of the University of Prague, who, years before Luther, railed
against the sale of indulgences and the belief that you could buy forgiveness
of sin. What's more, Huss insisted on preaching in the language of the people
and not in Latin. As a result he soon had the ear of the masses and the heart
of the people. He was eventually tricked into attending a church court,
imprisoned and killed.
His death was a catalyst for revolt and
helped spawn three different sets of supporters. One of these, the Moderates,
believed in the 'heart religion' that had been practised by the primitive
Christians of the New Testament. In March 1457 they formed the Brethren of the
Law of Christ, a group that sought to influence the church of the day rather
than split from it.
They were often persecuted, emphasizing
that faith must find expression as a 'faith that works'. Like Huss, they
passionately believed that the gospel should be made accessible to ordinary
people and so they had the extraordinary distinction of being the first to
translate the Bible into a native tongue, the Kralitz Bible. They went on to
publish a further 50 books despite the attempts of the authorities to find and
burn copies of their Bible.
The seventeenth century saw their number
decimated by persecution and many fled Bohemia to Moravia, Silsia and
modern-day Poland.
John Amos Comenius
This ancient Moravian bishop later became
known as the Father of Modern Education and was hailed by Life magazine as one of the 100 most influential people of the last
millennium. He created a new educational philosophy called Pansophism, or
universal knowledge, designed to bring about worldwide understanding and peace.
Comenius advised teachers to use children's senses rather than memorization in
instruction. To make learning interesting for children, he wrote The Gate of Tongues Unlocked (1631), a
book for teaching Latin in the student's own language. He also wrote Orbis Sensualium Pictus (1658; The Visible World in Pictures, 1659)
consisting of illustrations that labelled objects in both their Latin and
vernacular names. It was one of the first illustrated books written especially
for children.
Comenius was asked to assist in Swedish
educational reforms, but his first passion was the church and this is where he
devoted much of his time and genius. Faced with bitter persecution, he resolved
to plant a 'hidden seed', and on his death bed, convinced that he was a
failure, urged the Brethren to 'take care ... that the foundations of our unity
may not be so entirely ruined as to make it impossible for our posterity to
find them'.
The 'hidden seed' was to spring back into
life in 1722 when a Moravian carpenter called Christian David encountered
Nicholas Ludwig Von Zinzendorf, and asked if he could find them a place where
they could practise the heart religion of the early church without persecution.
Zinzendorf promised to give it some thought, and returned to his estate in June
to find that Christian David had presumed he would say yes and had arrived
already. They began building a new community on Zinzendorf's Berthelsdorf
estate, which would become known as Herrnhut, a phrase that meant 'the watch of
the Lord'.
Count Zinzendorf
Zinzendorf was to prove an able leader for
the religious refugees who began to arrive on his land. Raised in a devout
family, Count Zinzendorf seemed set aside for spiritual leadership from an
early age. Church reformer and education pioneer Spener prayed with him at the
age of four with respect to his spiritual destiny! At the age of 16 he
graduated from Halle University, but not before informing the principal that in
his time at the college he had started no fewer than seven different prayer
groups and asking him to keep an eye on them.[2]
One of these prayer groups was named the
Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed and contained a number of future leaders,
including John Potter, who was to become an Archbishop of Canterbury. Together
with his friends in the Mustard Seed prayer group Zinzendorf made a solemn
pledge that would shape the destiny of the rest of his life. He vowed:
• to be kind to all men;
• to be true to Christ;
• to send the gospel to the
world.
Each member of the order wore a ring
inscribed with the words 'No man liveth unto himself.
The count's youthful vows were to be a
constant theme in the life of the Renewed Moravian Church. But first he had to
try and bring some structure to the diverse group that was sprouting up on his
land. The count was a voracious reader and was delighted to discover one of the
foundational documents of the Moravians, a 'Covenant' document penned by the
great Comenius himself. To this he added some local law and some of his own
thought, and in May 1727 presented it to the warring factions on his estate.
The earliest historian of the
eighteenth-century Moravians, Spangenberg, suggested that there were seven
aspects of the 'Brotherly Agreement' that reflected the influence of
Zinzendorf.[3]
• The need for personal
conversion.
• A commitment to simplicity and
integrity as marks of a true church.
• A refusal to be hostile to
other believers - even when you believed they were not understanding the
Scripture as you might.
• The belief that the sin of some
believers was their fault, not that of the church. Zinzendorf believed in
discipline but not in coercion.
• A wariness of labels and names
that might divide rather than unite.
• An active quest for spiritual growth. There was to be no reliance on the
blessings of the past. The people of God were to be intentional.
• A readiness to lay aside one's
personal desires and be ready to make sacrifices for the sake of others.
These seven aspects captured the heartbeat
of a movement that sought to be active, simple, good, peace-making and
sacrificial. Turn to 'Vision and Values' (p. 305) to see how we have sought to
reflect the thinking of the Moravians and our own distinctive culture in the
early twenty-first century.
Zinzendorf arranged for his new community
to gather in small groups or 'bands'. In time, this developed into a more
formal 'choir system' based on age, sex and marital status. These groups met
daily for prayer or worship. Often they would gather simply to sing. Zinzendorf
was a prolific hymn-writer so they never lacked new material!
Following a Holy Spirit visitation at an
August 1727 communion service, the warring factions in the group finally made
public peace. A 24-hour prayer meeting was initiated two weeks later, which
would last for 100 years. Twenty-four of the single men and 24 of the single
women began an hourly intercession. Their prayers were informed by a weekly
meeting where letters and messages from other Moravian Christians were read.
This gave the praying believers specific people and places to pray for. In
1732, five years after their pentecostal experience, the group began to go out
around Europe and the world to take Christ to the ends of the earth.
An emerging generation
Many of the people in this emerging
generation of Moravians would later travel the world as missionaries. The
Moravian community at Herrnhut spurred a movement that sponsored 3,000
missionaries in its first 200 years of existence. Many believe that it was one
of the wellsprings of the modern mission movement.
The commitment to mission took them to the
far corners of the earth. Two missionaries, it is said, sold themselves into
slavery to reach the Caribbean community of St Thomas, and others travelled to
Greenland. Greenland was to prove a watershed. Moravian historian James Hutton
described what happened:
In the past they had discoursed [with
non-Christians] about the Fall of Man and the Plan of Salvation; hence forward
they gave the people the Passion Story in detail; and the Eskimos themselves
soon noticed the difference. At the story of Adam and Eve they had merely
wondered; at the story of the Crown of Thorns they wept; and, sometimes, at
the baptismal service, their tears dripped into the font.
When informed of the success of the
Greenland Mission, Count Zinzendorf said, 'Henceforth, we shall preach nothing
but the love of the slaughtered Lamb.' From that time forward Moravian
evangelists were schooled in telling the Passion Story - the story of Christ's
death on the cross for humankind - as succinctly and as simply as possible.[4]
The Moravians would eventually go to
Surinam, Ceylon, South Africa, Cairo, Jerusalem and Baghdad. But they also
touched the life of another man whose ministry would take their values and
ideas to the far-flung corners of the world.
John Wesley
The impact on Wesley arose partly from
their conduct in a terrifying storm. Wesley noted them as he returned from a
disheartening trip.
At seven I went to the Germans. I had long
before observed the great seriousness of their behaviour. Of their humility
they had given a continual proof, by performing those servile offices for the
other passengers which none of the English would undertake; for which they
desired, and would receive no pay, saying it was good for their proud hearts,
and their loving Saviour had done more for them. And every day had given them
occasion of showing a meekness, which no injury could move. If they were pushed,
struck, or thrown down, they rose again and went away; but no complaint was
found in their mouth. There was now an opportunity of trying whether they were
delivered from the spirit of fear, as well as from that of pride, anger, and
revenge. In the midst of the psalm wherewith their service began, the sea broke
over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship, and poured in between
the decks, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible
screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sang on. I asked one of
them afterwards, 'Were you not afraid?' He answered, 'I thank Cod, no.' I
asked, 'But were not your women and children afraid?' He replied, mildly, 'No;
our women and children are not afraid to die.'[5]
He subsequently visited their Fetter Lane
church in London. It was here at an extended prayer meeting that he first felt
the 'strange warming' of real relationship with Christ. One of Wesley's first
acts was then to sail for Holland, where he was met by Zinzendorf and escorted
back to the Berthelsdorf estate. Methodism, founded of course by Wesley, has
helped shape the Christian witness on every continent, not least through its
subsequent influence on Holiness, Pentecostal and Salvation Army groups.
The Moravian Church never grew
particularly large, even though it was widespread, because of its commitment to
Christian unity. Many, perhaps the majority, of its converts were given away
to other denominations. However, the influence of the Moravian tradition has
been massive, as the brief history above makes clear. The Moravian Texts are
today the world's best-selling daily devotional, used by 1.5 million people
each day in 50 languages and dialects.
Source: Red
Moon Rising
[1] Material
about the Ancient Unity is based on an article found at http://www.everydaycounselor.com/archives/sh/shistory.htm
[2] Material
in this section draws from John R. Weinlick, Count Zinzendorf (The Moravian
Church in America, 1984).
