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Fulneck Moravian Church and its associated settlement were established on the Fulneck estate,
Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds, City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford, Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of ...
, in the
West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, in 1744 by Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a Moravian Bishop and
Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
priest, following a donation of land by the evangelical Anglican clergyman,
Benjamin Ingham Benjamin Ingham (11 June 1712 .S./small> – 1772) was an English cleric who was the founder of the Moravian Church in England as well as his own Inghamite societies. He was born and raised in the West Riding of Yorkshire in Northern England. ...
. Fulneck is now part of the
City of Leeds The City of Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. The metropolitan borough includes the administrative centre of Leeds and the towns of Farsley, Garforth, Guiseley, Horsforth, Morley, Otley, Pudsey, Rothwell, W ...
,
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...
.


History


Foundation

Representatives of the
Moravian Church The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
, descended from the Bohemian Brethren's Church of 1457 and renewed in 1722 in Saxony under the leadership of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, first came to England in 1728 and 1734 to establish good relations with the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
and to help organise missionary work in the
American colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centur ...
. In 1738, a Moravian Society was established at
Fetter Lane Fetter Lane is a street in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It forms part of the A4 road and runs between Fleet Street at its southern end and Holborn. History The street was originally called Faytor or Faiter Lane, then Fe ...
,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. With this Society were associated for a while
John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English people, English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The soci ...
and his brother
Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...
. In Yorkshire, Benjamin Ingham, an evangelical priest of the Church of England, had created many small groups of fervent Christians. Unable to support them all himself, he sought help from the Moravians. Br John Toeltschig from
Herrnhut Herrnhut ( Sorbian: ''Ochranow''; cs, Ochranov) is an Upper Lusatian town in the Görlitz district in Saxony, Germany, known for the community of the Moravian Church established by Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf in 1722. Geography It is ...
on Zinzendorf's estates in Saxony visited Ingham in November 1739 but it was not until 26 May 1742 that the Moravian Bishop
August Gottlieb Spangenberg August Gottlieb Spangenberg (15 July 170418 September 1792) was a German theologian and minister, and a bishop of the Moravian Church. As successor of Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf, he helped develop international missions and stabilized the theology a ...
, with the support of the
Fetter Lane Society The Fetter Lane Society was the first flowering of the Moravian Church in Britain, and an important precursor to Methodism. It was founded in 1738. Although the original meeting house was destroyed in the mid-20th century, the society still meets i ...
, agreed to establish a 'Yorkshire Congregation' for this work. In July 1742, the Moravians established a headquarters at Smith House, a farmhouse near Halifax. A Moravian family by the name of Gussenbauer were sent to work in Pudsey and took up residence at Bankhouse at the western end of the Falneck ridge. In February 1743, Zinzendorf arrived in Yorkshire and went to see the Gussenbauers as their child was seriously ill. Impressed by the vista from Falneck, he decided to build a settlement there on the model of the one established at
Herrnhaag Herrnhaag (Lord's Grove) was a communal spiritual centre for the Moravian Church, Moravian Unity, an early form of Protestantism. It and Marienborn, a nearby sister community, are located in the Wetterau, an area of Hesse, north of Frankfurt am Ma ...
in the
Wetterau The Wetterau is a fertile undulating tract, watered by the Wetter, a tributary of the Nidda River, in the western German state of Hesse, between the hilly province Oberhessen and the north-western Taunus mountains. Bettina von Arnim writes of We ...
in west-central Germany. Ingham obliged by buying the estate and donating part of it to them for building.


Name of the settlement

The Moravians originally called Fulneck "Lamb’s Hill", which referred to two aspects of the
Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...
, i.e. the
Lamb of God Lamb of God ( el, Ἀμνὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ, Amnòs toû Theoû; la, Agnus Dei, ) is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God wh ...
and the City Set Upon a Hill. This name was used between 1744 and 1760 and from 1750 until 1763 the church building was known as Grace Hall. After that the name Fulneck was adopted. This was partly because it was similar to the estate's original English name, Falneck or Falnake (a contraction of "Fallen Oak") but also as a tribute to Bishop
John Amos Comenius John Amos Comenius (; cs, Jan Amos Komenský; pl, Jan Amos Komeński; german: Johann Amos Comenius; Latinized: ''Ioannes Amos Comenius''; 28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considere ...
, who had ministered to the Bohemian Brethren in
Fulnek Fulnek () is a town in Nový Jičín District in the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,500 inhabitants. The historic town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone. Administrative par ...
,
Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...
, during the
Counter Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
. In 1661, Comenius had commended the dying ''
Unitas Fratrum The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
'' to the care of King Charles II and the Church of England in his "Exhortation of the Churches of Bohemia to the Church of England".


Moravian settlement system

In the eighteenth century, the Moravian Church had settlements which were largely self-contained communities. The settlements usually had a chapel, a Single Brethren's House, a Single Sisters’ House, a Widows’ House, schools and an inn. Single members would live, work and worship together in their communal Houses. A settlement might have its own doctor, bakery, shop, farm, shoe makers, glove makers and carpenters. These businesses – for the common good rather than private profit – were known as ‘diaconies’. The congregation was organised into Choirs, e.g., the Married Choir, the Single Sisters’ Choir, the Great Girls’ Choir and the Little Girls’ Choir, each of which was a sub-community serving Christ in its own way.


Building the settlement

The settlement was built on land given to the Moravians by Benjamin Ingham. The land was acquired in January 1744 and the decision to build there was taken in May 1745. Building of the Congregation House, known as ‘Grace Hall’ and which included the chapel, began in 1746. The edifice was consecrated on 2 June 1748. The building followed a style that was then typical of the Moravians. There was no clear distinction between residential accommodation for congregation labourers and the chapel. Rather, a hall in the centre of the residence served as a space for communal worship. The hall occupied the central part of the first and second floors of the building and was distinguished by a single row of tall windows. The natural lighting, furnishing and decor of the hall have been described as giving a ‘lightness of touch’ and a ‘sense of rest and stillness’ while ‘the organ’s exuberant fretwork case increased the elegance’. The hall had no altar, font or pulpit. The leader of worship sat behind a table, flanked by his fellow pastoral workers. The congregation sat in their choirs, with the sexes separated and sitting adjacent to the entrances from their single choir houses. Ingham disapproved of the imposing buildings, describing them as "finer than my Lord Huntingdon's house". Podmore ascribes this grandeur to Zinzendorf's aristocratic sense of style and notes that the buildings attracted a stream of distinguished visitors including "gentry, baronets, peers, MPs and the Dean of Carlisle". Moravian historian Peter Zimmerling of Leipzig says that Moravian settlements were deliberately built on a grand scale with stately public buildings because they were to indicate that these "towns of the Lord" were noble in their purpose, serving as way-stations for the Moravian missionaries and evangelists and supporting their work and sending them out.


Choir Houses

A number of brethren's and sisters' houses were quickly established at Fulneck and in 1752, two great choir houses were built. At the west end of the quarter-mile long terrace stood the Single Brethren's House and at the east end the Single Sisters’ House. These also had recreational gardens that ran down the slope in front of the terrace. The front door of these choir houses opened into a dining room. A central staircase led up to the first floor, where there was a choir hall for meetings. The first and second floor had a number of work and living rooms. The third floor consisted of a single open-plan dormitory. "The spirit of these houses was of cleanliness and order, of work and godly conversation, of frugal living in surroundings of some grandeur, and above all of stillness". The building of a Widows’ House followed in 1763, then a shop and inn in 1771 and a cupola was added to the church in 1779. In 1754 between eighty and ninety people occupied the choir houses.


Br James Charlesworth

The warden of the Single Brethren's Choir at Fulneck in 1751, James Charlesworth, was a "man of superior business ability" who succeeded in raising money to help stave off the bankruptcy of the whole Moravian Church in the face of its burgeoning missionary work. Br Charlesworth had developed a cloth weaving business for the benefit of the church and traded with Portugal and Russia. In 1754, Br Charlesworth was also able to effect a reconciliation between Zinzendorf and Ingham, the former owner of the Fulneck estate.


God's Acre

The burial ground or
God's Acre God's Acre is a churchyard, specifically the burial ground. The word comes from the German ''Gottesacker'' (''Field of God''), an ancient designation for a burial ground. The use of "Acre" is related to, but not derived from the unit of measureme ...
stands at the eastern end of the terrace. This also was laid out with elegance and simplicity with the ground, beyond a white triumphal entrance arch, divided into four squares. People were buried in their choir houses rather than together as families. There was one body in each grave. Equality even in death was marked by all occupants having a small and standard gravestone, lying flat on the earth, showing just name and dates. In 1751 the Fulneck elders noted that their "beautiful burial ground was often the reason for deathbed requests for reception" into the Moravian Church. The funeral of a single sister in 1751 involved a procession led by the band of musicians, then the Minister and pastoral labourers, with the Single Sisters’ Labouress dressed entirely in white, the coffin carried by eight single brethren's labourers, the sisters and then finally the brethren. At
dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's horizo ...
on Easter Sunday, the congregation would gather in God's Acre to process around the graves with music to celebrate the Resurrection and remember their faithful departed. In 1753, this service attracted a crowd of some 10,000 which proved difficult to manage so the elders chose to cancel the procession in 1754.


Schools

Boarding schools were opened at Fulneck in 1753 for boys and 1755 for girls. The two schools merged in 1994. A new boys' school building was erected in 1784. A notable student of Fulneck School was the hymn writer James Montgomery (1771–1854), whose father had been converted by the evangelist
John Cennick John Cennick (12 December 1718 – 4 July 1755) was an English Methodist and Moravian evangelist and hymnwriter. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, England to an Anglican family and raised in the Church of England. According to Moravian Bisho ...
and became a Moravian minister.


Theological college

On 12 October 1808, a theological seminary was established in the Brethren's House at Fulneck. The principal was Henry Steinhauer and there were five students. Before then, candidates for ordained ministry had to attend schools in Germany for training. Br John Hartley, the Head of the Schools at Fulneck, had made a proposal in 1795 at a provincial conference in Fulneck for the school to provide collegiate studies for future Ministers. However, this was pronounced to be impracticable by Bishop Samuel Liebisch from the Unity Elders’ Conference. Br Liebisch's pessimism seemed justified when the Fulneck seminary had to be closed in 1828. Ordinands then had to go again to
Niesky Niesky ( Sorbian and pl, Niska, cz, Nízké) is a small town in Upper Lusatia in eastern Saxony, Germany. It has a population of about 9,200 (2020) and is part of the district of Görlitz. Historically considered part of Upper Lusatia, it was ...
or Gnadenfeld for training. In 1858 the British Provincial Synod decided that a theological college had become essential and so a new one was opened at Fulneck in October 1860. This college was also given the task of training teachers for Moravian Schools. Br John England was appointed as its principal. The college took occupation of the Single Brothers’ House. The Fulneck Seminary was transferred to Fairfield Moravian Settlement in Lancashire in 1875 as a result of a decision by the 1874 Provincial Synod. This was so that the Seminary could benefit from a relationship with Owen's College (later the
Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. Afte ...
).


Music

Fulneck was like the continental Moravian churches in having bands of musicians in the eighteenth century, e.g. trombone players who would anticipate the trumpet sound of the general resurrection in the Easter dawn services. This is a tradition which has survived in the Moravian Congregations in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark as well as the United States but not in England. On 30 March 1912, the first Yorkshire Moravian Choir Festival was held at Fulneck. Around the same time, the Fulneck organist, Br C S Nelson, retired after forty-seven years of service. With his brother and father before him, this family had provided the Settlement with organ music for ninety-two years. In the last decades of the 20th century Harold Jones ARCO, LRAM, also Music Master at
Fulneck School Fulneck School is a small independent day and boarding school, situated in the Fulneck Moravian Settlement, in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, England. It provides education for pupils between the ages of 3 and 18. The School is part of the Fulneck est ...
, served as organist for an extended period; some of his musical settings are to be found in the Moravian Hymn Book. The church has a pipe organ by
John Snetzler John Snetzler (or Schnetzler) was an organ builder of Swiss origin, who worked mostly in England. Born in Schaffhausen in 1710, he trained with the firm of Egedacher in Passau and came to London about 1741. When he retired in 1781, his business ...
dating from 1748 with work from J J Binns 1930. On the first Thursday of each month (the second Thursday in January) at 11.00 am Fulneck resident Dr
Simon Lindley Simon Lindley (born 10 October 1948) is an English organist, choirmaster, conductor and composer. He was Leeds City Organist from 1976 to 2017 (named City Organist Emeritus in Summer 2017) and is Organist Emeritus of Leeds Minster, having been o ...
gives a recital on the organ. Dr Lindley also conducts and directs a special weekend of music in Fulneck Church on the weekend before the late August
Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...
.


The Church Today

Fulneck Moravian Church is still a busy congregation with activities for all ages and various interests. Family Worship is at 10.30 am every Sunday, and the traditional
Lovefeast An agape feast or lovefeast (also spelled love feast or love-feast, sometimes capitalized) is a communal meal shared among Christians. The name comes from ''agape'', a Greek term for 'love' in its broadest sense. The lovefeast custom originat ...
and Communion service is held on the first Sunday of the month at 2.30 pm (except January and August). Morning Prayers are held every Thursday at 9.45 am. Fulneck Museum is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2 pm to 4 pm between Easter and the end of October.


Buildings

Fulneck Moravian Church is a Grade I
listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. More details of external links showing other listed buildings in the settlement can be found on the
Fulneck Moravian Settlement Fulneck Moravian Settlement is a village in Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. The village (grid reference ) lies on a hillside overlooking a deep valley. Pudsey Beck flows along the bottom of the val ...
page.


See also

*
Fulneck Moravian Settlement Fulneck Moravian Settlement is a village in Pudsey in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, West Yorkshire, England. The village (grid reference ) lies on a hillside overlooking a deep valley. Pudsey Beck flows along the bottom of the val ...
*
Grade I listed buildings in West Yorkshire There are over 9,000 Grade I listed buildings in England. This page is a list of these buildings in the county of West Yorkshire, by metropolitan district. Bradford Calderdale Kirklees ...
*
Listed buildings in Pudsey Pudsey is a ward in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It contains 47 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is listed at Grade I, the highest of ...


Notes and references


Bibliography

* Comenius, John Amos (1661) ''An Exhortation of the Churches of Bohemia to the Church of England'', London, printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Three Crowns over-against the great Conduit, at the lower end of Cheap-side * Hamilton, J T and Hamilton, K G (1967) ''History of the Moravian Church: the Renewed Unitas Fratrum 1722–1957'', Bethlehem, Pa, and Winston-Salem, NC, Interprovincial Board of Christian Education, Moravian Church in America * McQuillan, T (1950) ''Two Hundred Years of Christian Witness: A Brief Account of the Story of the Moravian Church in Dukinfield'' * Mellowes, F H (1977) ''A Short History of Fairfield Moravian Church'' * Podmore, C (1998) ''The Moravian Church in England 1728–1760'', Oxford, Clarendon Press * Rican, R (transl Crews, C Daniel) (1992) ''The History of the Unity of the Brethren: A Protestant Hussite Church in Bohemia and Moravia'', Bethlehem Pa, and Winston-Salem, NC, Moravian Church in America


External links


Fulneck Moravian Church, Settlement and Museum
* http://www.moravian.org.uk/index.php/uk-congregations-list-for-the-moravian-church/yorkshire-district/fulneck
Fulneck School


{{Listed buildings in Leeds Congregations of the British Province of the Moravian Church Grade I listed churches in Leeds Pudsey Moravian churches in the United Kingdom