An Account of Easter Sunrise Worship With the Moravians in Winston-Salem, North Carolina

I spent the week of July 14-18, 2002, at the 80th Annual Conference of The Hymn Society in the US and Canada at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The event was wonderful, with lots of hymn festivals, grand singing, worship, fellowship, and workshops. One day in particular stands out, and that was the morning we spent with the Moravians. These are the same Moravians who over two hundred years ago had such an impact on John Wesley on his trip to America and after. The original Moravian settlement in Savannah was essentially abandoned due to battles being fought in that area, and the group moved north and joined another at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the 1740s. In 1752-53 they purchased land in North Carolina and started a settlement at Bethabara, then called Bethania. Salem itself was a planned town that was started in 1766, after the other two towns were already up and running, and the French and Indian War had ended. Unlike some other historical restorations, the Moravians take pride in the fact that 77 of their roughly 100 buildings in the historic district of Old Salem are original, restored buildings, and that when visitors tour the historic buildings, they are chiefly touring the original structures. I suppose it is to Moravians what Temple Square in Salt Lake City is to Mormons. The Home Moravian Church is there, a wonderfully picturesque and hallowed place, with beautiful stained-glass windows, a large organ, and choir loft up behind the center of the chancel. Music obviously remains of central importance in their worship. I noted that there were no right angles in the sanctuaryall the angles and edges where walls and ceiling meet have been roundedwhich in part accounts for the wonderful acoustics of the room. I also noted the absence of crosses in the sanctuaryI saw only one, and it was in one of the stained-glass windows. The Moravian hymnal is a thick edition, filled with European chorales from the Reformation era and later, as well as selections that would be contained in most hymnals. It also included some more modern songs and choruses from a variety of traditions.

We were there to attend a sunrise service, the same sunrise service that has been held for well over two hundred consecutive yearsno missed years! The members of a dozen Moravian churches in the area join with members of the Home Church every year on Easter morning to offer this service to the community, and they were gracious to do the same for us last week. The service is held in "God's Acre," the Moravian cemetery near the church. The first burial there was in 1769, after Salem was constructed, thus the earliest eight settlers who came to Winston-Salem are not buried there. Some early settlers might be there, but most would be at the Bethabara God's Acre, particularly if they died prior to 1769. As is their custom, the dead are buried in "choirs" which reflect their station in life: married men, married women, single men, single women, and children. Thus, family members are not buried together but in different parts of God's Acre. One of our Moravian speakers told how every Easter, as she walks throughout the expanse of the cemetery to place flowers on her own family members' graves, the layout of the cemetery and their "choir" burial custom reminds her that for Moravians the family extends far beyond immediate blood relatives. Moravians sit in these same choirs in worship. According to Home Church records, this sunrise service was not held the first year of the Winston-Salem settlement, since there were no deaths that year and no one was buried, thus there was no cemetery. The second year, however, one of the original male settlers died and became the first to be buried in God's Acre, and the custom was born that year.

Every year at around midnight on Easter morning, members of the instrumental bandmostly brass with a few woodwinds and a drummer or twogather at the Home Church for breakfast and prayer. They then divide into small ensembles and move throughout the business and residential areas of the city all night long, playing festive hymns to remind the community that it is Easter and the service will take place at sunrise. The service is always open to the public and is a major event for residents and tourists alike, drawing hundreds. For about thirty years in the late 18th century, the Moravian leadership decided the service should be kept for Moravians alone, and it was closed to the public. But after a time, new Moravian leadership persuaded them that the sunrise service was an opportunity for outreach into the community, and since then it has always been open.

On the morning that The Hymn Society attended this service, about five hundred of us gathered in the Wake Forest University Chapel parking lot at 5:45 AM, well before dawn. We boarded buses that took us to the Home Moravian Church where the service began in the sanctuary with a festive organ prelude and the liturgy for this service, which is contained in their hymnal. We sang Easter chorales and hymns, as well as music for commemorating and remembering the dead. The liturgy was at the same time filled with the joy of Easter morning as well as the more solemn celebration of the lives of the past saints, and sometimes the still fresh tears of mourning for the recent death of a loved one. After about forty-five minutes in the sanctuary, we were asked to solemnly and in silence move to God's Acre where the service would conclude.

As we left the sanctuary for the walk up and then down a hill that led to God's Acre, I heard a band playing short snippets of hymns and chorales. As I got closer and could recognize the music, I thought maybe they were simply rehearsing the opening measures of each song, or tuning their instruments, or getting their music in the correct order. After a few more steps I could hear faintly off in the distance a second band which, upon reaching the top of the hill, I could then see clearly on the other side of God's Acre at the top of the next hill. The musicians had been divided into two bands and were playing the hymns and chorales antiphonally across the thousands of gravestones. The music served to unite all presentthe saints who had gone on before us, the Moravians, the musicians, their guests from The Hymn Society, even creation itselfin glorious resurrection worship as the sun began to rise over the trees. As I walked past the first band in the direction of God's Acre, the volume of the second band on the next hillside grew louder. As we made our way on the path through the tombstones, the two bands became equal in volume. After we had reassembled on the common green area of the cemetery, the two bands continued to play antiphonally and moved to join us. As they joined into one band on the green, they ceased playing antiphonally and were joined in unison playing from then on. We continued the singing, the playing, the liturgy, and the prayers, and heard a sermon by the pastor. The Hymn Society and the band joined together in singing "The Heavens Are Telling," and, following the final prayer, the band concluded with Haydn's St. Anthony Chorale, the music of which is adapted in our Hymnal (number 67) with the words, "We, thy people, praise thee."

We made our way back to the Home Church and the band continued to play as they followed us. The congregation served all five hundred of us breakfast in their fellowship hall, just as they do for the public every Easter morningeggs, home-baked sweet rolls and biscuits, bacon, and coffee and juices. They announced to us as we were finishing eating that the meal we had shared that morning was the largest they had ever served in one sitting.

The living history museum in Old Salem does not enact actual religious ceremonies still pursued by the Moravian Church in Winston-Salem and elsewhere. Thus, in order to arrange participation in the Easter Sunrise service in Winston-Salem, visitors must contact the Home Moravian Church and not Old Salem. This is an annual worship service of the Moravian Churches and not an offering of Old Salem.

A trip to Winston-Salem to visit the historic Moravian settlement is always interesting and educational; but if you can arrange to share an Easter sunrise worship with them there, it will also be inspirational and unforgettable.