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Sunday, October 2, 2016

Moravians, EUB, Methodist


The content of this came in an email. Please understand that this next paragraph is from the sender, not from me.  I find it interesting due to the back and forth complexity I already knew about between "Methodist" and "Evangelical United Brethren (EUB)".  My parents Clyde and Luella adhereed to an EUB church most of their lives, and father's funeral was conducted by an EUB minister (husband to my aunt).   Also, when I was in Russia, the group I was part of viewed performances by various musical groups or individuals, and one was a group of wonderful Moravian women, using ??? instruments.

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Some of my "British" (Scotish & Welsh) ancestors were actually from Israelite stock -- They were followers of Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake;  ended up living near the Malvern Hills in England & were connected to "the United Brethren"...

Who Were “the Moravians”?
    “A brief History of the Moravian Church in America” makes us wonder what cultural groups gathered in “Moravia" in the early centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. No group of anti-Catholics have persisted longer than these people. Proud of its heritage and firm in its faith, the Moravian Church ministers to the needs of people wherever they are. The name Moravian identifies the fact that this historic group had its origin in ancient Bohemia and Moravia, in what is the present-day Czech Republic. Some of my family's Jewish ancestors lived in Hungary, where many people descended from the Edomites of the Old Testament. [Those who came from Esau, the twin brother of Jacob.] It seems likely that some of the Israelites (and Edomites) captured to become servants in Babylon, might have escaped when the armies of Darius captured that kingdom; or when Alexander the Great came conquering. People flee a scene of warfare if possible, and may have sought refuge in the wooded lands to the north.
    It is clear these very early Moravians were not Christians, because all the historians declare that these countries converted to Christianity chiefly through the influence of two Greek Orthodox missionaries in the mid-ninth century. [Near 850 A.D.] “They translated the Bible into the common language. In the centuries that followed, Bohemia and Moravia gradually fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Rome, but some of the Czech people protested.” This group began protesting the Roman Catholic Church practices 60 years before Martin Luther began his reformation and 100 years before the establishment of the Anglican Church.
   The Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrum (Unity of Brethren), as it has been officially known since 1457, would later spread to Poland, England, Holland, Scandinavia, and the early American colonies. A “crusade” would eventually be organized to eradicate “the Hussites” in Eastern Europe. Catholics who would take up the sword “to fight for their church” were promised forgiveness of their sins. This kind of aggressive “crusade,” according to historian Lawrence Gardener (an expert on Scottish antiquities) was sent to England in the 1100's, because the Brits clung to many “Old Testament” beliefs that Rome did not support. A few centuries later a similar crusade forced many Moravians to flee their homes and seek new areas to farm. The persecution caused the primary leader of the Moravians, John Amos Komenski or Comenius (1592-1670) to flee to England, and later to Holland, where he would die. (In Holland the Moravian faithful often called themselves “Dutch Reformed.”)  (source – Wikipedia)
     During his life, Comenius became world-renowned for his progressive views of education. According to Wikipedia, Comenius was asked by John Winthrope (possibly John Winthrope, Jr.) to come to America and establish a university. He went instead, first, to Sweden and then to several other European nations. “His prayer was that some day the 'hidden seed' of his beloved Unitas Fratrum might once again spring to new life.” During the centuries from the 1600's – 1800's, the United Brethren who had settled in England, near Wales, found sympathetic “Non-conforming” groups who called themselves “Primitive Methodists.” [These “Anabaptists” formed tight-knit groups, later called Mennonites; some were to become the Pennsylvania Deutsch.]