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250th Anniversary Quilt
250th
Anniversary Quilt
The Emmaus Hymn
Now here we build a village small;
Toward its completion we give all;
Here, too, our hearts within shall flame--
Emmaus, then, shall be its name!
Here grant us, too, Thy Presence dear,
As though Thou wast in body here;
While we enjoy Thy gifts of love,
Lord, bless us richly from above.
Fore'er Thy presence, Lord, assure,
Who art the Savior of the poor;
May Thy pure Word and Sacrament
Our Christian brotherhood cement.
Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg
April 1, 1761
Translation Roy
E. Iobst - 1942
The
original hymn had 24 verses.
This Month in
Moravian History:
Henriette
Maria Louise von Hayn
visit the Moravian Archives |
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The
Moravian Church
is one of the
oldest continuing Protestant denominations. It was founded in 1457 by followers of John Hus, a
reformer from Prague, Czechoslovakia who was martyred on July 6, 1415. The
Church still officially carries its original Latin name, UNITAS FRATRUM,
which means "Unity of the Brethren." The founders of the
modern Unitas Fratrum fled from the province of MORAVIA (now part
of the Czech Republic) into Saxony in Germany, where under the leadership of
Count Zinzendorf, the Brethren completely reorganized the ancient UNITY in
1722. Thus the term MORAVIAN became the common name for the
church in English-speaking lands.
The Moravian Church has been
active in the Lehigh Valley since the early 1740's having purposely established
itself in Nazareth and Bethlehem to bring the Gospel to the American Indians. By
the 1730's there were numerous German-speaking settlers in the area mostly of
the Reformed or Lutheran faiths. There was much dissension concerning
religious matters, largely because of the newfound sense of individual freedom
and the lack of clergy resulted in the lack of proper leadership. With the
coming of the Moravians to Bethlehem in 1741, it soon became apparent that
ministering to the unchurched German settlers was as important as reaching out
to the Indians. Consequently, many ministers were sent out to the
hinterlands to help the needy.
This
situation applied to our vicinity. Two men, Sebastian Knauss and Jakob Ehrenhard were distressed by the great need for trained ministers which led them to appeal to Bethlehem for assistance. Brethren Knauss, Ehrenhard and several others eventually expressed an interest in setting up a Moravian Fellowship.
On July 30, 1747, these people formally organized into a fellowship from which our
own congregation grew.
Originally Emmaus was known by its Indian name, MAGUNTSCHE. When this area was organized into townships and was given the name SALZBURG - Salisbury today. It was not until
April 1, 1761 that Bishop Augustus Gottlieb Spangenberg officially named our town EMMAUS. From its beginnings in 1747 until 1838 Emmaus was a closed community - only those who were members of the Emmaus Moravian Congregation could live here. By the mid 1800's this system became untenable
and the community was opened to all faiths. From the 44 charter member of 1747, our church has grown to almost
800 baptized members.
The original church stood at the
foot of South Third Street. Today, only the original cemetery remains. In 1749
a new log church was built near the present location, with a still larger
edifice erected in 1766. Around 1790 a belfry was added and the old bell is on
permanent display in front of the church. Our present building was erected in
1834, and a separate chapel for the Sunday School was added in 1876. These last
two structures were combined into one building during 1926-27 with additions and
alterations made again in 1956 and 1966.
In spite of our age and strong
feelings for our past, we are today a young, forward looking fellowship with
concerns for the relevancy of the Christian gospel in today's world.
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