Halloween Post

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 bit 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?

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).

The concept of the Hinge insightful. The quote in the paragraph above 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 or is it a dated concept? 

Facts about 18th century alcohol consumption

Average 18th century Americans consumed 3 - 5 gallons of hard liquor and at least 15 gallons of beer and cider per year. 

Men, women and children all partook of alcohol.

The temperance movement would not begin in earnest until about 1830, well into the 19th century. That said there were voices in opposition to alcohol consumption. One such is Thomas Jefferson: "I wish to see ... beer, become common instead of the whiskey which kills one third of our citizens and ruins their families." John Wesley opined in 1743: "that buying, selling, and drinking of liquor, unless absolutely necessary, were evils to be avoided"

Woman and children tended to drink lower alcohol content beverages such as small beer, wine and cider. Small beer is drawn at the end of the brewing process and therefore contains less alcohol. 

The Gunsmith

The gunsmith heads back to work having enjoyed his dinner break.

18th century mixed drinks

There were mixed drinks available in 18th-century. 

Punch was common and contained five ingredients: distilled or fermented spirits, sugar, citrus fruits, spices and water. Grog was prepared with a 3 to 1 ratio of water to rum. Toddy is a mixture of rum, water and sugar.

Problems surrounding alcohol consumption in Salem

Having recognized that the consumption of alcohol was widespread if not universal, one can assume that there was in one degree or another a problem with drunkenness. The Salem council notes both In 1787 and 1804 recognize problems with Brandy. 

"Brother S., Has been drinking too much. Brandy has been forbidden to him and everyone has been told not to let him have it." July 11, 1787

"Brother L. M. Has again been drinking too much ... especially as he has bought whiskey in quantity it was wished that a innocent drink could be secured for the sake of those who have this weakness, and that beer could be brewed more often, but barley is scarce." March 13, 1804

Doors

The early American Moravians were uncommonly aware of their need to manage and conserve their environment. 

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

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

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 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. The more narrow door for people and the other for a coffin as the photographs illustrate.

I cannot help but see a metaphor in the pictured church doors. It was Jesus that said the door and pathway to life is narrow; and the door to death, alas, is wide Matthew 7:13-14. 

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 of this sacred space the same again. 

Music is valued but is not free

The Salem Brass Band 1862

Contemporary member of the Salem Brass Band

"The board (of elders) granted a donation of $15 to the Salem brass band toward the purchase of new instruments, with the understanding that the death of the member of the church be announced by blowing of the church tunes from the steeple as had been customary heretofore." -- August 7, 1860


Brother Charles Clauder who has thus far attended the organ bellows for $12 a year, asked for an increase of salary, and the board resolve to raise it to $15 dollars with an extra compensation of $5 for his attendance at rehearsals of music." February 7, 1860

Chattel slaves bought, sold and evangelized

At the same time the Moravians were converting thousands of blacks and enslaved Africans -  white brethren in the West Indies began buying slaves themselves, as if to confirm their willing acceptance of the prevailing social hierarchies.

In 1737, they bought a plantation with thirty to forty slaves on St. Thomas to support their

livelihood. In the following years, Moravian missionaries in Jamaica, Antigua, and other Caribbean colonies followed a similar course, finding it easier to join the plantation economy than to live on its fringes dependent on handouts from Europe. They might also have reason that ownership of plantations and slaves would earn them favor with authorities.
-- Moravian Missionaries and Slaves, Hamilton and Hamilton - Caribbean Studies, V, no 2 (July 1965), 4-5.

The Brethren were hardly the first to use Christianity to humanize and legitimize slavery simultaneously. But later generations of white Brethren would regret their forerunners ownership of slaves.  "We grieve over it, and believe the Lord winked at those times of ignorance," lamented a missionary in Jamaica in 1854. -- J.H. Buchner, The Moravians in Jamaica. The reference in to Acts 17:30.

Biblical symbols seen differently

"European Christian immigrants such as the Moravians perceived America as a new Israel, a refuge from the spiritual and physical "wilderness" of Europe, and a biblical model for the moral regeneration of the world.

For Afro-Christians, on the other hand, America, the land of captivity, represented the opposite image - Egypt, a wilderness of exile and bondage like that of the Israelites with whom they identified." - A Separate Canaan, Jon F. Sensbach, xxi

A Moravian brother ... Watercolor

Retire the conch shell and ring the bell

"In the future, instead of blowing (the conch shell) the bell shall be rung in the morning at 7, then about 1130, and in the evening about sunset, though not later than 7 o'clock in the summer.

Brother Koffler will take charge of this, and for the present assistance will be those who wait on the table in the brothers house.

The ringing of the bell shall be with only two strokes, as the sound will be more distinct, and all can more easily do it. Before preaching, and other solemn public meetings, the bell shall be rung somewhat longer, with one pause." -- 27 April 1772 - from Salem.

"Our bell for Salem, which we had made in Bethlehem (PA), arrived at last during the Passion Week, and immediately after Easter it was set up ..." 

"The bell weighed 275 lbs. and can be heard from one end of the town to the other" -- From the Salem Diary, April 25, 1772

Quotes from the Salem Tavern kitchen - #1

"The Elders Conference gave approval and consent giving Brother Blum permission for the adaption and arrangement of a side building to the tavern - now used as a woodshed - for a bakery, laundry, and smokehouse, now done in the kitchen but for lack of room and the addition to be built to the tavern we can no longer be done there." August 7, 1811

Quotes from the Salem Tavern kitchen - #2

"Moreover, we considered that the tavern keepers would feel a great relief if they would be enabled to open up a separate dining room, and thus win more space. Therefore, it was also found necessary that the kitchen is enlarged in such a manner that more people than before well have room to help and to cook." June 26, 1811