Image - God's Acre

God’s Acre (German Gottesacker, lit. Field of God) is the traditional name given to the graveyards of Congregations of the Moravian Church.



God's Acre
Salem, North Carolina
Image Credit: Anonymous

The name, God’s Acre, comes from the biblical, understanding that the bodies of followers of Jesus are "sown as seed" - as in a field, so that they can rise again upon the Second Coming of Messiah Jesus. For that reason Moravian dead are buried facing east. They rest in hope.

Over the years I have watched as hundreds of bodies were lowered into their respective graves. The bodies of those that were believers will rise from their graves. (see: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18) I will never cease to be amazed by that truth. Though they were sown a perishable body, they will be raised imperishable; they were sown in dishonor, they will be raised in glory; they were sown in weakness, they will be raised in power; they were sown a natural body, they will be raised a spiritual body (read: 1 Corinthians 15:42–44). Moravians historically take these Scriptural truths quite seriously. A renewed emphasis upon the bodily resurrection of the believing dead is always in season and is an impetus for missionary work.

Notice that the gravestones in God’s Acre are recumbent. They denote the Moravian belief in the democracy of death and make it impossible to distinguish between the graves of the well-to-do and the poor. All stones are uniform except for those marking the graves of children which are smaller than those for adults.

God's Acre is not literally one acre. Some are considerably larger and some even smaller.



God's Acre looking south
Salem, North Carolina
Photo Credit: Anonymous

Moravians bury their dead according to “choirs” or groups, rather than by families. “The “choirs” are: Married Men and Widowers, Married Women and Widows, Single Men, Single Women, Older Boys, Older Girls, Little Boys and Little Girls.” Burial in God’s Acre is limited to members of the Moravian Church.

The words of committal in the Moravian Book of Worship sum up well the things about which this post speaks.

“We now commit this body to the ground, in sure and certain hope of the resurrection of all believers to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. He shall change our weak, mortal bodies and make them like his own glorious body, using that power by which he is able to bring all things under his rule.”

Image - Moravian Doors

The following words seemed to capture for me the foundation of the Christian religion and my hope for the Moravian tradition. 

“On him we’ll venture all we have, our lives, our all, to him we owe.

None else is able us to save, naught but the Savior will we know;

This we subscribe with heart and hand, resolved through grace whereby to stand.” 

The early American Moravians were uncommonly aware of their need to manage and conserve their environment. To their newly purchased 100,000 acres, in the 1750's, in North Carolina, they employed innovative land use policies and conservation practices. For example, to manage and steward wood a forester was appointed in 1759.

Moravian stewardship theory was combined with German ingenuity in the Moravian villages. The doors of older buildings are a case in point.

The construction of Salem Church, later known as Home Church, was begun in 1798 and its doors were and continue to be bivalve. That is to say, one panel was and is wider than the other. 

Excursus: The name "bivalve" is derived from the Latin bis, meaning "two", and valvae, meaning "leaves of a door". The larger definition of “bivalve” applies to a class of  mollusks with bodies enclosed by a hinged shell. Thus, a bivalve door is a door with two leaves.

Doors in early Moravian buildings were made as small as possible. They needed to be large enough to admit a person, but also let in the least cold in winter and heat in the summer.

Church doors were more complicated in former times, from the point of view of stewardship, because they were multifunctional. They had to be wide enough for a casket to enter. If the doors had two equally wide panels it would have necessitated opening both doors to admit the casket. The practical solution was to have two panels with one wider than the other. One being for people and the other for a coffin as the photographs illustrate.

Stewardship continues to the present to be a Moravian value. It is well to recall that humankind was given the mandate for stewardship of the environment. We read Genesis 1:26-30; and Genesis 2:15, in that regard.

As I close I cannot help but see a metaphor in the pictured church doors. It was Jesus that said the door and pathway to life are narrow and the door to death, alas, is wide Matthew 7:13-14. It is not curious that at Home Moravian Church the living entered by the narrow door and the dead, the wide. Though this symbol was not intended, I do not think I will ever see the church doors the same again. Food for thought.

Moravian Oral Tradition



Single Brother's House
Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Moravians have been a lively presence in America for hundreds of years. Not surprisingly there is an abundance of Moravian lore. The tales may be urban myths, strange truths or campfire tall tales. You decide.

Here is a piece of Moravian oral tradition for your consideration.

Moravian College, in Bethlehem, PA, was founded in 1742, which makes it America's sixth oldest college. The building that currently houses the music department at the college, the Brethren's House, built in 1748, was originally the residence of the single men of the Moravian Community.

The building later was used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War. George Washington himself came to visit in 1783. The building was a witness to much suffering.

Ghosts reportedly roam the building at night. Many of the ghostly activities are believed to be caused by the spirits of those men who spent their lives for our nation and their final moments in the Brethren's House. It is also said that the Brethren's House is haunted by the ghost of a Revolutionary War nurse. Hummm. So, what do you think?

Image - Dear Diary

Artifact of Colonial Williamsburg

“I'd love the chance to read someone else’s diary but I'm sure they'd hate me for it!”

That is what one person said about the fantasy of finding someone's diary - and reading it. 

This edition of Moravian Ruminations features a diary - one that you can read - guilt free.  Let me set the stage with historical context.

The Moravians in Bethlehem, PA had as a goal the acquisition of a large tract of land in America. They sought territory on which to build a central town for administration, with trades, industries, and schools. The town, they hoped, would be a leaping off point from which to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Indians. These were Gospel people who wanted to share what God had given them by His grace.

Happily, land was comparatively cheap in North Carolina. Lord Granville, the proprietor, made an attractive offer to the Moravians. Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg, superintendent of Moravian affairs in Pennsylvania, was commissioned to select a suitable site. With five of the brethren he set out from Bethlehem the 25th of August, 1752. Late in December a site was selected. A tract of 98,985 acres was surveyed, purchased and named Wachovia.

A party of twelve single men set out from Bethlehem in October of 1753. They had six horses and a wagon loaded with their effects. The party included a minister, a business manager, a physician, multiple carpenters, a gardener, several farmers, a baker, a tanner and a shoemaker.

It is the account of their journey that is given in this diary which was written most likely by Brother Grube. The original document is preserved in the Archives of the Moravian Church at Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the translation which is here printed is by  Adelaide L. Fries.

Notice as you read the diary how much time was given to communal prayer. Also note the overarching sense of well-being and joy in the midst of a daunting journey. Indeed, from the beginning Moravians in America were numbered among the Savior's happy people.

I hope you enjoy the diary (click here).

The Hinge

One of the early offices of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem, Pa. was that of the Hinge. This was someone whose task was to examine “everything and bring troublesome factors within the congregation into mutual accord without their first having to be taken up publicly in the congregation council.”

     -- (September 1742, The Bethlehem Diary, vol. 1, tr. by Kenneth Hamilton, p. 80).

I find the above language interesting and the concept of the Hinge insightful. The quote seems to have had each word chosen with care. This produced a single sentence packed with holy and practical concepts.

Do you think your local church would benefit from a Hinge? Is this a dated concept or it is contemporaneous in all eras of the church’s life?

As for me? I believe “the Moravian past is the key to the Moravian future.”  I am wondering if you the reader are catching that vision?