Reconciliation and The Brotherly Agreement
Out of this study and prayer, the community formed a document known as the Brüderlicher Vertrag, the Brotherly Agreement, a voluntary discipline of Christian community. This document, and a set of rules laid down by Zinzendorf known as The Manorial Injunctions, were signed by the members of the community on May 12, 1727. This document, which has been revised over many years, is today known as "The Moravian Covenant for Christian Living." The Moravian Church is one of the few denominations that emphasizes a code of Christian behavior over specific doctrines or beliefs.
Continued study and prayer in small groups known as banden resulted in a powerful sense of reconciliation in the community, leading to a powerful spiritual renewal on August 13, 1727 during a special communion service at the Berthelsdorf Church. This experience, referred to as the "Moravian Pentecost," marked the beginning of a new era of spiritual growth in Herrnhut. It also began a period of radical experimentation with communal Christian living as expressed in Zinzendorf's theology.
Read more about this topic: Nicolaus Zinzendorf
Famous quotes containing the words brotherly and/or agreement:
“It is not their brotherly love but the impotence of their brotherly love that keeps the Christians of today from—burning us.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Truth cannot be defined or tested by agreement with ‘the world’; for not only do truths differ for different worlds but the nature of agreement between a world apart from it is notoriously nebulous. Rather—speaking loosely and without trying to answer either Pilate’s question or Tarski’s—a version is to be taken to be true when it offends no unyielding beliefs and none of its own precepts.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)