Moravian Church
Listen
Walk along East Main St to the walkway to the church.
#5 Church Square
Moravian Church, 1787.
In William Penn’s charter of 1682 founding Pennsylvania, he included the right to religious freedom. After the first wave of Quakers settled in Philadelphia and it’s collar counties, other western Europeans seeking religious freedom settled the Lehigh and Susquehanna valleys.
One of the Germanic sects was the Moravians. Lititz Moravian Congregation traces its founding to 1749 when the Gemeinhaus or Community House was consecrated. It stood less than half a mile to the east along Lititz Run (formally Carter’s Run) (East Main St. and Elm St.). In 1755 John George Klein deeded the community 491 acres for a 70 pound annuity over his lifetime. The plan of the village was made a year later. This Moravian-only community leased lots to members. A hundred years later, they became dissatisfied with the restrictive community life and lots were sold to residents.
Lititz was named after Litice Castle (Litice nad Orlici or People Upon the Eagle River) (pronounced Lititz in German) near the village of Kunvald, Czech Republic, where the early Moravian Brethren found refuge in 1456 (ancient Bohemian Brethrens’ Church formed in 1457). (Or Lidice in Czech, Liditz in German, a village to the west of Prague.)
The Moravian Congregation was divided into groups called choirs: little boys and girls, single Sisters, single Brothers, married Sisters, married Brothers, widowed Sisters, widowed Brothers. Sisters and Brothers each had their own church entrance and seating areas were segregated by choir.
Today, music plays a significant role in the life of the church. In the church the choir is in the balcony in the back around the organ. Many Love-Feasts are part of the liturgical schedule.
The Moravian Church is the oldest Protestant denomination in Christianity. Globally it has over one million followers, 700 of them here. (Dec. 1775: 319 members, including 179 communicants and 76 children.)
Now walk to just before Church Sq. Avenue.
( #4 Church Square, Corpse House (Leichenkapelchen), 1786. Moravians believe when a person dies their soul departs so the body remains and was prepared for burial in this building.)
(#12 CS Moravian Cemetery 1758 Behind the church and beyond the parking area. Cemetery arch translation “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” John Sutter and wife Anna are buried at the bank of the road on the right. Present cemetery is divided into four sections with section one known as God’s Acre with flush gravestones symbolizing equality in death.)