From the archive, 8 February 1982: Moravian Church in God's own country

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2013/feb/08/moravian-church-yorkshire-fulneck

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The tea came round after the first hymn, served in antique cups without handles by women in bonnets and white shawls, and men in dark, sombre suits. Moments later, they returned, offering a sweet bun from oval baskets to each congregation member.

Britain's largest Moravian settlement, at Fulneck, near Pudsey, in Yorkshire, was celebrating its love-feast; a monthly holy tea party which precedes a Communion Service.

In July, the 65 synod members of the smallest among the four English Churches discussing recognition of each other's members and ministries in covenant proposals will vote in that church in favour of the unity scheme.

It is one of the mysteries of English church life that the Moravians have remained hidden for so long. Their influence far outweighs that suggested by 4,000 members centred on four major settlements. Some 80 people live in Fulneck; 90 per cent of them Moravians.

The settlement is a time capsule of Georgian village life, cottages and public buildings running in parallel terraces. Christian education has always been regarded as a priority, and 800 children attend the two single-sex schools.

All but one of the buildings are owned by the Church and there is a waiting list for the 40 houses.

The Church was founded in rebellion. A settlement was first established in Bohemia in 1457 by "The Unity of the Brethren," protesting at the corruption they found among contemporary Roman Catholics.

Moravian worship, overseen by 30 clergy in Britain, including three women, combines the simplicity of the Free churches with the discipline of Anglican liturgy.

Men and women do now sit together in the congregation and the tradition of deciding important matters - including marriage partners - by lots, disappeared in the 1830's.

The settlement was an act of faith for Moravians newly arrived in Britain, in 1744, and continues a tradition laid down by a distant Synod, that Moravian congregations "should be cities set on a hill, whose inhabitants let their light shine before men..."