Above: The Moravian star, with its 26 or 40 points, originated in the 19th century at a Moravian boys’ school in Germany as a geometry lesson. It has since become a symbol of Advent and Christmas, representing the guiding star of Bethlehem in Moravian Christian tradition. Courtesy IBOC Moravian Church
Christmas traditions are fluid and ever evolving, shaped by a myriad of cultural, religious, and regional influences. In Delaware, the adoption and adaptation of the lovefeast exemplifies this phenomenon. The ritual, initially of Moravian heritage, became a cherished holiday event for many local Methodist churches. It later found its way into First State Presbyterian tradition.
The modern history of the lovefeast began when Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf and the German Moravians introduced a service of sharing food, prayer, religious conversation, and hymns in 1727. They brought the lovefeast tradition to their new world communities in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Old Salem, North Carolina.
John Wesley first experienced the service among the Moravians in Savannah, Georgia, ten years later, according to the United Methodist Book of Worship. His diary notes: “After evening prayers, we joined with the Germans in one of their love–feasts. It was begun and ended with thanksgiving and prayer, and celebrated in so decent and solemn a manner as a Christian of the apostolic age would have allowed to be worthy of Christ.”
The lovefeast quickly became a feature of the Evangelical Revival and a regular part of Methodist society meetings in Great Britain and throughout the English–speaking world. As Methodists immigrated to North America they made lovefeasts an important part of early American Methodism.
The lovefeast is similar to the New Testament Agape meal. Both involve a community of believers gathering to share a meal, partake in food and drink, and engage in worship and prayer. These communal gatherings foster a sense of unity, love, and fellowship among the participants, which reflects the core values of the Christian faith. As the Moravian congregation sings familiar carols, women “dieners” (German for servant) serve coffee and homemade buns, which worshippers partake of as the choir continues singing.
The Christmas version of the service features the traditional ‘Morning Star’ carol, during which trimmed beeswax candles are distributed and lit by attendees. The hymn’s lyrics were written by Johann Scheffler (1624-1677) and translated by Bennet Harvey, Jr. (1829-1894) and Martin Hauser (1799-1875). Francis F. Hagen (1815-1907) composed the tune in 1836 while teaching at the Boys’ School in Salem, NC. It was first performed that Christmas Eve in Salem and dedicated to the children of Home Church, Hagen’s childhood church.
By the mid-nineteenth century, “Morning Star” was traditionally performed at Christmas with a child soloist and the congregation singing responses.
“The Apostle Paul had to caution the church at Corinth about the abuse of the lovefeast,” Reverend Vaughn S. Collins told his parishioners at Wilmington’s St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church in a 1915 sermon, “because some ate so much they became gluttonous, and drank so much wine that they became drunken—making the Chris-tian Iovefeast on the same plane as their feasts to the heathen gods.
“But Mr. Wesley, quick to see the good in all things, and seeing the power for good that might come from eating and drinking together as children of God, re-established the lovefeast, but limited the eating to one morsel of bread, and the drinking to one swallow of water. He thus emphasized the truth that it is not the amount of food we eat, nor the amount of the drink taken, but the spirit of love that we have for God and for each other that counts.”
During the 1970s and 1980s, First and Central Presbyterian Church in Wilmington adopted the lovefeast, incorporating the rite into their own mode of worship. The candlelight service was preceded by carols played by a brass quartet from the church steps, a nod to the trombone quartet held in high esteem by the Moravians.
Love of that instrument traces back to the German village of Herrnhut, the spiritual center of the Moravian sect. Several residents from the town, goes the story, visited nearby Berthelsdorf in 1731 to serenade Pastor Rothe on his birthday with trombones. Later that year, trombones accompanied the singing of a chorale to celebrate the arrival of colleagues from Moravia. Also, that year, trombonists accompanied voices at a funeral in Herrnhut.
In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Moravian settlement, trombones played for the first time during the August 1754 celebration of the Single Brothers’ Festival. The 4 trombones they used—a soprano, an alto, a tenor, and a bass—were presumably new instruments purchased recently from Europe.
Avenue United Methodist Church of Milford organized a 1986 Barratt’s Chapel Christmas service that, like Wilmington’s First and Central Presbyterian Church, nodded to this Moravian tradition, with a brass quartet directed by John Dressler. American Methodist lovefeasts for the most part have not historically included trombone or brass quartets.
The evolution of the lovefeast in Delaware demonstrates the adaptability of religious practices. As communities encounter new ideas, they incorporate them into their traditions, creating something new while maintaining a connection to the past.
