From Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Church Records of the 18th Century, Vol.4 by F. Edward Wright, published by Willow Bend Books, Westminster, Maryland, 2000. MORAVIANS Missionaries from the Society of United Brethren, whom the English called "Moravians" entered Pennsylvania in 1742 to work among the Indians, and they established a base of operations for that purpose at Bethlehem. Observing a dearth of ministers among the German population, the Moravians began circulating among them also, holding Christian revivals and providing services of baptism, marriage, and burial. The Moravian missionaries presented themselves as pan-denominational. Supported by their own economy around Bethlehem, their preachers declined to take money for their services. Their activity caused much concern among the ordained clergy of the German Reformed and Lutheran churches, and it significantly increased the entropy among the German congregations. By 1748 it became mutually obvious that the Moravians should desist in their attempts at ecumenicism and declare themselves to be a new, separate denomination. The congregations concerned were asked at that time to choose whether they wanted to continue as Reformed, or Lutheran, or as part of the new Moravian denomination. Yvonne