At 9:09 AM -0500 12/2/1998, Susan Schlack wrote: >The Moravian Church is a mainstream Protestant church, very similar to the >Lutheran Church. In fact, the man who renewed the church in Germany, Count >Zinzendorf, was a Lutheran. While there may be similarities with the Lutheran Church, the Moravian Church (officially the Unity of Brethren, founded in 1457) actually preceded the Lutherans by 60 years. The Brethren were followers of Jan Hus who was burned at the stake for challenging the Roman Catholic Church. After a successful early period in which the church spread to other parts of Eastern Europe, wars and persecutions forced them underground; they resurfaced in Saxony. As you pointed out Count Zinzendorf helped the Brethren renew themselves by letting them form a colony on his land. Although he tried to make his guests conform to the Lutheran Church (he had very good political reasons for doing so), he eventually broke with the Lutherans and became a Brethren. After he was ordained a minister (later bishop) he was exiled from his own lands. >From a historian's point of view, the most interesting feature of the Church is its tolerance of differing Christian creeds. Because it was inclusive as opposed to exclusive, the Moravian Church was the beneficiary of numerous doctrinal disputes among Lutherans and other protestant sects of 18th century Pennsylvania. Perhaps because they tolerated other beliefs, they were in turn tolerated in foreign lands and eventually formed congregations all over the world. For example, the English Parliament granted the Church the freedom to practice their religion both in England and certain Anglican Colonies (e.g., NC) where there was no freedom of religion. In both England and America the Moravians were an influence on the early Methodists, namely John and Charles Wesley, protestants of the protestants. If anyone is interested, I have made a timeline of church history, too long to post here. To bring this back to geneaology, my ancestors, Franz Blum and Catharina Steiger, immigrated from the German Palatinate in 1730. They left their church (Lutheran?) to join the Moravians at Bethlehem, PA in 1743. Their son Jacob moved to Bethabara, NC in 1758. I'd be interested in sharing information on PA/NC Blums (Bluhme, Blume, Bloom), Steigers, and Borns. --- Mike Warren <http://www.netunlimited.net/~mwarren> Sine Nomine Farm, Tobaccoville, NC