1. The Moravian Doctrine of the Essentials, Ministerials, and Incidentals Northern Province Synod 2014 FAITH LOVE HOPE

2. Ground of the Unity 1957 “Jesus Christ maintains in love and faithfulness His commitment to this fallen world. Therefore we must remain concerned for this world. We may not withdraw from it through indifference, pride or fear. Together with the universal Christian Church, the Unitas Fratrum challenges all with the message of the love of God, striving to promote the peace of the world and seeking to attain what is best for all people. For the sake of this world, the Unitas Fratrum hopes for and looks to the day when the victory of Christ will be manifest over sin and death and the new world will appear.”

3. Ground of the Unity - 1957 Response to horrors of World War II and holocaust Confronting the fears of the nuclear age with a theology of hope Facing reality that part of church in communist lands Dealing with the end of colonial era Reorganization of Unitas Fratrum as a worldwide Unity of several autonomous provinces. What holds us together? Acknowledging advances in knowledge while remaining committed to theological heritage of the past

4. “Tradition is living faith of the dead Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” Jaroslav Pelikan

5. Motto? In Essentials Unity What is essential? What does it mean to be in unity? Can we disagree? Are we talking about just Moravian essentials or Christian essentials?

6. In non-essentials Liberty What are non-essential things? What kind of liberty? Does this mean you can act however you like so long as you believe certain things?

7. In all things Love What does this actually mean? Do you love those who do not share the essential unity? Is this love just an emotion?

8. Problems with the Motto Other than being vague on the details, as we have seen, it simply is not helpful for decision making It is not a Moravian statement. American Moravians took it over from others It was intended to address ecumenical relations not help make internal decisions We disagree over what should be considered an essential and what is non-essential If something is not essential, then it is non-essential, which makes it unimportant

9. Back to the Beginning This evening we are going to look at the way our ancestors approached the question of what is essential in the Christian life. We will learn from our own theological heritage rather than trying to fit into other churches’ doctrine I hope you will discover resources from the past that speak to how we make decisions and formulate doctrine today We’ll start in Bohemia and Moravia

10. First Moravian church in Kunwald

11. Original Moravian Church First Voluntary church - no state church First Peace church Lay Chalice: Radical inclusion of all Education for men and women, rich and poor Many Brethren killed or exiled for their faith Responded to death of church in 1627 with a new mission in 1727

12. Original “Vision Statement” - Gregory We “have decided once and for all to be guided only by the gospel and example of our Lord Jesus Christ and his holy apostles in gentleness, humility, patience, and love for our enemies. By this we may do good to our enemies, wish them well, and pray for them.”

13. An Illegal church What Gregory and his followers did was illegal. They ordained their own priests and bishops. They changed the liturgy and worship. They refused to worship in the state church They criticized those who abused power and oppressed those who were weak They understood there is such a thing as religious abuse

14. Chalice rocks where Moravians worshiped during persecution

15. Essentials, Ministerials, Incidentals Original Moravians distinguished what was essential in Christianity; what is “ministerial”; and what is incidental. Church must focus primarily on what is essential and should reform its practices and doctrines Without the essentials, a church is not a church. If you only have the essentials, you are Christian.

16. Let’s start with the Incidentals These are the less important than essentials That doesn’t mean they are unimportant But these are also things that cause a lot of conflict We could think of these as Externals Incidentals can be changed easily

17. Incidental things Matters of taste, culture, tradition Important, but should never be confused with essentials or ministerials Different denominations have different incidentals and that’s okay; we have ours and that’s okay, too Incidentals should be nothing to fight over

18. Some Incidental Things  Order of Worship or the Liturgy  Robes and vestments  Musical styles  Architecture  Language of worship  Art in worship  Choirs, praise bands, organs, and drums  District boards and pension plans  Local traditions

19. Incidentals are important, but They should never be confused with essentials and ministerials If you are fighting and getting angry over incidentals, you are doing Christianity wrong Should not force others to follow your incidentals, but you also don’t have to be ashamed of the way your church does things Celebrate the diversity as long as the differences are rooted in the essentials

20. Holy Communion 1757

21. Ministerials Sacred tools given by Christ to lead us to the essentials They “minister” to the essentials and help humans respond to God’s grace They are sacred because the essentials are sacred Sacred because of what they point to; not in themselves They are not “non-essentials” Cease being sacred if they used to abuse and hurt people. Must minister to faith, love, and hope

22. Divisions in history of Christianity Some of the worst violence in Christian history has been over the ministerial things Bitter disagreements between churches over the sacraments and church polity The Moravians believed that the doctrine of the ministerials could reduce religious violence and increase cooperation among churches Christ provided the ministerials but he did not specify precisely what they mean or how they should be used

23. Ministerials can be changed if necessary This is one of the most important insights of the early Moravians This is one of the reasons our church was founded: the established church was using the ministerial things destructively: Communion was used to exclude and humiliate people Confession was used to control and manipulate people The Bible was used to establish the power of the clergy The clergy lived off of tithes and failed to care for their flocks The early Moravians changed all of these sacred things

24. What are the ministerial things? The Bible The Church Baptism Holy Communion Creeds and Doctrine The Priesthood Church Order (polity) Ordination Confirmation Marriage Ritual Bishops

25. Traditional faith Ministerials should not be changed frivolously Some of them have served the church for nearly 2000 years They are gifts from God and should be treated with respect But The church must make remain vigilant so that the ministerials function as Christ intended We judge the ministerials by how well they lead people to the essentials

26. The Bible First and foremost of the ministerials The foundation of all of the other ministerials More on the Bible in the Hinge Moravians have always valued the Bible. It not only shapes our church’s doctrine and worship, it shapes our lives and families The Bible is the authoritative text of all Christian churches, but each church reads it differently

27. Why is the Bible not an Essential? It leads us to what is essential: Faith, Love, and Hope If you were stranded on a desert island or imprisoned by the Inquisition for sixteen years without a Bible, could you still be Christian? Were people like Timothy and Phoebe and Cornelius in the New Testament Christian? Of course – even though the New Testament had not been written! If the Bible itself was sacred, it could not be translated because translation changes the text. Moravians have translated the Bible into dozens of languages because we believe that what the Bible points to is what is sacred. You won’t need a Bible in heaven. It is for this world only.

28. Bible as Ministerial The early church decided which writings belonged in the Bible after years of discussion and argument. This is called the canon. The Bible is not all the same. Some parts are more important than others. New Testament was needed because the Old Testament was imperfect. Early Moravians believed that the Gospels, especially the Sermon on the Mount, are the most important part of the Bible We are Christians, which mean that we follow the teachings and example of Christ first and foremost Bible is not authoritative if we use it for unholy purposes – when it is used to justify slavery, child abuse, abuse of women, religious hatred, violence, greed, malice, and a host of other things contrary to Christ.

29. Sacraments as Ministerials Sacraments are for this world not the next Sacraments cease to be sacred when used to abuse people Sacraments can be changed if needed, but never frivolously Our ancestors changed the practice of Holy Communion by letting lay people drink from the chalice, by serving communion on simple tables instead of ornate altars, and by letting women serve communion We changed baptism by insisting that infant baptism must be completed in adult confirmation We serve communion and do baptisms differently from other churches – it is not the form, it is the purpose that matters

30. Ordination and Marriage At this synod you will be making decisions about ministerials: Ordination, polity, and marriage Over the centuries our church has changed its doctrine and practice of ordination, polity, and marriage many times Each change was intended to make these structures more meaningful, more life-giving, more Christlike That should continue to guide our thoughts. What is more faithful to Christ, more loving to our brothers and sisters, and produces greater hope?

31. Ordination and the Ministry We had the audacity to select our own bishop in 1467 rather than relying on the bishops of the Catholic church We insist that our clergy are servants, not lords of the church We had decided to ordain farmers and carpenters and potters as ministers and missionaries rather than scholars Originally we insisted that our priests be celibate, and then we decided that that celibacy is too great a burden to place on anyone Originally we insisted that our priests be poor. Well, we still do that! We ordained women in the 1740s, and we now have women bishops! These were not frivolous or easy changes. They required discernment, discussion, and even disagreement.

32. Marriage From the beginning our church defined marriage as a sacred vow between two people to love and cherish each other. For two hundred years the government refused to recognize our marriages, but we joined people in marriage in defiance of the law From the beginning we tried to ensure that marriage and sexuality were a blessing not a burden In Zinzendorf’s day we expanded our understanding and celebrated marriage as a living example of Christ’s love for the church Unlike other churches, we taught that marriage is not primarily to have children; it is a school of the Holy Spirit to teach us to love. In the 1960s we rewrote the Brotherly Agreement to acknowledge the painful reality of divorce in our age And now we are discussing modern marriage in terms of our history, our theology, and our understanding of faith, love, hope

33. Essential Things absolute core of faith If you have these things, you have a church; if not, then don’t If the Inquisition burns your Bibles and your church, are you Christian? What if you are isolated from all other Christians and from the sacraments?

34. Essential Works of God: Grace If God does not do these things, nothing else matters. God’s work, not ours Creation, Redemption, Sanctification God creates God saves God makes us holy

35. God creates This is God’s world, not ours Creation is fundamentally good All that is belongs to God We belong to God not ourselves Stewardship is our calling

36. God created all creatures great and small

37. God redeems God saves souls. We do not Redemption is grace: a gift of God If God does not save, we are not saved. Redemption is real. The one who makes us is the one who saves us out of love for us. We are not the only ones redeemed. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

38. Crucifixion John Valentin Haidt

39. God blesses (makes us holy) God’s Holy Spirit works within us to bless us and sanctify us We cannot become holy on our own efforts We can become better people each day through God’s work Fruits of the Spirit are the signs we are sanctified Galatians 5:22-23 Love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

40. Pentecost John Valentin Haidt

41. Review: the Essentials God Creates God Redeems God Blesses Can be expressed in Trinitarian terms as the work of the Creator, Savior, Holy Spirit, But the most important thing is that this is the work of God.

42. Essentials on our part We respond to God’s work in three ways Faith Love Hope These cannot be separated. All work together. These are what make us Christian, not just Moravian

43. Faith Faith is not just saying we believe something. It is not a creed. Faith is trust and commitment Faith is how we approach life Faith is seen in our thoughts, deeds, and desires Faith is our convictions, our “core values,” our mission, our heart

44. Faith in the Creator It means that our belief that God creates the heavens and the earth should be the foundation of our lives We truly, deeply in our heart of hearts believe that this world is God’s world, not our world We truly, deeply believe that each of us has been made by a loving Creator And we truly, deeply believe that each person in this world is made by the same God who made us and who loves them This belief is the basis of our ethics, not just our worship

45. Faith in the Redeemer What does it mean to say that we have faith in God as the Redeemer? It means that we truly believe in core of our being that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself One of our fundamental convictions is the conviction that we belong to God and we can live without fear

46. Romans 8:38-39. We are “convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

47. Faith in the Holy Spirit We truly believe and have confidence that the Holy Spirit is at work in the world We truly believe that we are holy because the Spirit of God is in us We truly believe that we are not bound by our past sins or our sinful desires but can become better people day by day We will treat ourselves with respect and love And we truly, deeply believe that other people are just as holy as we are, just as blessed as we are, just as precious to God as we are Because we have the Spirit of holiness we can treat others as sacred bearers of the image of God

48. Moravian view of heaven, 1740s

49. Love Love neighbor as yourself: Leviticus; Gospels Love brothers and sisters in church: John, I John Love world as God loves world: John 3 Love your enemies: Sermon on the Mount

50. Love is Action, not Emotion This is important if we are to understand the Moravian Essentials Love is actively seeking the good of others Love is opposite of apathy or not caring Love is also the opposite of hatred, which is seeking harm Ethics and Love are united We love with our emotions, our intellect, and our will Moravian social teaching and personal morality are rooted in compassion!

51. Love of God the Creator, Redeemer, Holy Spirit If we have faith in the Creator and love the Creator, then we will seek the good of God’s creation! We try to minimize the harm we do and maximize the good we do to the earth, the sky, the waters, living things Especially to those who bear the image of God who have been redeemed Love is the essential. Without active, visible love, we are not Christian.

52. Hope Least well-developed in Moravian writing than love Moravians view the future with confidence and eager anticipation because this is God’s world We trust that the one who creates, redeems, and sanctifies is still at work We are confident that death is not the final answer Living and loving in the midst of death

53. Ultimate Hope For most of our history the church has taught that the coming of Christ will be a time of joy Strong theme of Millennialism in Moravianism - there will be a reign of Christ on this earth and his followers are preparing the world for his reign Our vision of the millennium and of heaven should inform our actions on this world With Christ and the Holy Spirit this world can be a foretaste of heaven if we work with them

54. We rest in hope looking to the dawn

55. Hope Is what keeps us going in the those dark and sleepless nights because we know that the sun will rise again Is what makes it possible to labor day after day in ministries of justice and mercy, knowing that such labor is not in vain Is what makes it possible for us to bring children into this world of suffering and woe And it is what lifts our eyes from our own pain and misery so that we can look into another’s eyes with compassion Hope is confidence that love is stronger than death and this life is not our only life.

56. If your congregation and its ministry is Leading people away from faith and trust in God Turning people toward anger and hatred Not helping people be better stewards of creation Robbing people of hope in the future Leading people into depression and despair Rejecting those whom God has made and redeemed Not showing evidence of the Fruits of the Spirit Preaching bad news instead of the Gospel Not following the teachings and example of Christ

57. It is not a Christian church No matter how beautiful the architecture No matter how orthodox the doctrine No matter how inspiring the music No matter how eloquent the preacher No matter how rich the history No matter how meaningful the traditions No matter how contemporary and exciting the worship No matter how biblical the doctrine and sermons No matter how decent and orderly the service No matter how generous the offering No matter how liberal or conservative the politics

58. Moravian Theology Summarized  Essentials God creates; God redeems; God blesses We respond with faith, love, and hope  Ministerials: Human things that point us to God Bible, sacraments, church, clergy, doctrine Use, but don’t abuse! Keep the Gospel “Good News”! Can and should change them when we need to  Incidentals: Everything else! Don’t lose your faith arguing about traditions! “Love covers a multitude of sins”

59. Faith, love, and hope united If we have faith that God is creator and that creation is good, and if we love the world that God has made and seek the good of all creation, then we can have hope in a better age to come. If we have faith that God is the redeemer who has rescued us from “sin, death, and the power of the devil,” and we are filled with the love of Christ for our friends, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and our enemies, then we can have hope in a better age to come. If we have faith that God is the one who blesses us and makes us holy, and our love others because they are also made sacred by God, then we can have hope in a better age to come when all humans are blessed.

60. Can this synod take the essentials into the world?