Patrick Comerford
A special service took place in two churches in Co Antrim yesterday (Monday 18 March 2024) to celebrate the deepening relationship between the Church of Ireland and the Moravian Church.
In recent years, the two Churches have been developing a closer formal relationship that allows for clergy from both denominations to serve in either.
To celebrate this, a special service took place yesterday, starting in Saint Patrick’s Church (Church of Ireland), Ballymena, Co Antrim, at 1:30 pm and continuing in Gracehill Moravian Church at 3:30. Archbishop John McDowell of Armagh preached in Saint Patrick’s Church, with Bishop Sarah Groves of the Moravian Church, leading Holy Communion in Gracehill. Trees were planted in the grounds of each church to mark the celebrations, with a reception in Gracehill.
Bishop Sarah has expressed her joy at what has become known as the ‘Armagh Agreement’ between the two Churches. She says she is sure this will ‘bring increased vitality to both denominations enriching their worship and enabling them to share the resources of people, faith and service.’ Bishop Michael Burrows and Bishop Sarah Groves also talk about the relationship between the Moravian Church and the Church of Ireland in a new video.
Ballymena and Gracehill were appropriate venues for these celebrations on Saint Patrick’s weekend. Gracehill is at the heart of the Moravian presence in Ireland. Both are close to Slemish Mountain, where Saint Patrick is said to have spent six years as a shepherd slave, from the age of 16 to 22.
I was involved with Archbishop John, Bishop Michael, Bishop Sarah and others in the talks between the two churches in 2012-2014, so it is a particular, personal pleasure to see these talks have resulted in the ‘Armagh Agreement.’
The talks began in response to a request from the Standing Committee of the Church of Ireland in 2012, asking the Anglican Affairs Working Group of the Commission for Christian Unity and Dialogue to consider the relationship between the Church of Ireland and the Moravian Church.
The request also asked us to bear in mind the continuing possibilities of the Fetter Lane Agreement, between the Church of England and the Moravian Church, and also asked the group to consider the report Finding our delight in the Lord, which has brought about full communion between Moravians and Episcopalians in the US and later in Canada.
The group members were asked too, ‘if appropriate, to make suggestions … concerning the possibility of similar developments in Ireland.’
While the Moravian Church in Britain and Ireland is structured as a single province, the discussions with the Church of Ireland took place as a bilateral conversation and the participants include bishops of both traditions.
The talks began at a two-day meeting of representatives of both Churches in Kilkenny in January 2013. The delegates from the Church of Ireland that year were: the Right Revd Michael Burrows, then Bishop of Cashel and Ossory and now Bishop of Tuam, Limerick and Killaloe; the Right Revd John McDowell, then Bishop of Clogher and now Archbishop of Armagh; Canon Ian Ellis, then the editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette; Canon Helene Steed of Clones, Co Monaghan; and myself.
The delegates from the Moravian Church were: Bishop Graham Rights, the Revd Sarah Groves (now Bishop Sarah Groves), the Revd Philip Cooper, Ecumenical Officer and Provincial Elder of the Moravian Church; and the Revd Paul Holdsworth, then chair of the Irish District of the Moravian Church.
Bishop Graham Rights had travelled from North Carolina for the talks in Kilkenny. Bishop Burrows described the talks as ‘a warm, thorough and fruitful examination of the issues facing our Churches if a relationship of full communion is to be achieved between.’
The talks continued in Gracehill and Ballymena, Co Antrim, the following January (2014), when they also involved representatives from the Moravian Churches in England and the US, the Episcopal Church (USA) and the Church of England. During our discussions, we explored the two traditions’ understanding of sacramental life, the ordained ministry and Church membership.
The participants in the talks also involved the Revd Dr Callan Slliper, representing the Church of England’s Council for Christian Unity; the Revd Dr Tom Ferguson, Dean of Bexley Hall Theological Seminary, Columbus, Ohio; and Bishop John McOwat of the Moravian Church.
In our talks, we explored what we mean by sacraments, ministry and mission, we shared our stories and tradition, and we dined together. We were taken on a walking tour of Gracehill, and later that day we took part in the Holy Communion in the village church.
The Moravian settlement at Gracehill, 3 km outside Ballymena, was founded in 1765. The first group of Moravians arrived in the area 10 years earlier in 1746, the church was founded in 1759, and the name of the village reflects their religious convictions. A plaque on the church wall commemorates John Cennick (1718-1755), the first Moravian evangelist in mid-Antrim, who arrived in Ballymena in 1746, and the meetings were held in the Cennick Hall behind the church.
A communiqué said: ‘We enjoyed the hospitality of the Gracehill congregation and we were introduced to the history of the community in Gracehill. We also shared and enjoyed Eucharistic hospitality. We agreed to report back to the relevant bodies in the Church of Ireland and the Moravian Church. Meanwhile, we continue to work on advancing this process of dialogue.’
Later, in May 2014, I was the speaker at the launch of a booklet on the history of the Moravian Burial Ground at Whitechurch, Co Dublin. Dr Rosemary Power’s publication, The Moravian Burial Ground at Whitechurch, County Dublin, looks at the burial ground where over 700 people of the Moravian tradition had been buried since 1764. It also provides a brief guide to the Moravians and a history of some of the people buried there.
Speaking at the launch, I paid tribute to Dr Power’s work as a historian and folklorist, but also as a pioneering ecumenist. Bishop Sarah Groves, who was also part of the talks, also spoke that evening. She paid tribute to the then Rector of Whitechurch, Canon Horace McKinley, who had been the ‘unofficial custodian’ of the Moravian Burial Ground for many years.
The Moravian Church or Unitas Fratrum (the ‘Unity of the Brethren’) is one of the earliest Protestant traditions, with a story that dates back long before the Reformation. Their story can be traced to the Hussite movement and Jan Hus (1366-1415), a reforming priest and theologian at Charles University in Prague who wanted the church in Bohemia and Moravia to return to early practices, including celebrating the liturgy in the language of the people, receiving Holy Communion in both kinds and ending clerical celibacy.
His teachings lead many to see the Hussites as the first Protestant church. The movement gained royal support in Bohemia – then an autonomous kingdom in the Holy Roman Empire and now a part of the Czech Republic. The Unitas Fratrum became known as the Moravian Church after exiles who fled persecution in Moravia arrived in Saxony in 1722.
The Moravians are a tiny church in Ireland. They came to Ireland in the mid-18th century through the mission work of the Revd John Cennick (1718-1755). His best-known hymn, ‘Lo! he comes with clouds descending’, was first sung by Moravians in Dublin 1750. The present version is a mixture of verses by John Cennick and Charles Wesley.
The best-known Moravian hymn writer, James Montgomery (1771-1854), spent part of his childhood in Gracehill, where his father was the Moravian minister. His hymns include ‘Spirit of the Living God’ and ‘Hail to the Lord’s Anointed’.
The Moravian Church values the dictum: ‘In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things, love.’
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