Sharon Moravian candlelight Christmas Eve services planned
Sharon Moravian Church near Tuscarawas recently announced its plans for Christmas Eve services. The church has a long history in the area beginning in 1810.
In keeping with the Moravian tradition, which started with candlelight services approximately 276 years ago in a castle at Marienborn in Wetteravia, Germany, Sharon Moravian Church near Tuscarawas has announced its candlelight services for Christmas Eve.
“At 6 p.m. we will have our Lovefeast and candlelight service. Then at 8 p.m. we will have a candlelight service, but the Lovefeast will not be served at that service,” said Rev. Lloyd Gooden, pastor at Sharon Moravian.
Until the end of the 19th century, only the children received candles in the service. Emphasis was placed upon the candle as representing Christ, the light of the world. The light shed by the burning candle suggests the Lord’s command to “Let your light so shine.”
The first record in the New World of a candle service like this is in the diary of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where it was an important event of Christmas 1756. The small, lighted candles distributed to Moravians in America were made from beeswax. Beeswax, considered the purest of all animal or vegetable waxes, suggested the purity of Christ.
“Giving candles to the whole congregation has become an accepted and beautiful part of the Christmas Eve vigils in many places,” Gooden said. “The grown-ups are permitted to share in the childlike joy of the Savior’s birth, to become children again, if only for a brief moment.”
On Christmas Eve, Moravians in a cross-cultural context around the world celebrate the birth of Christ with candlelight services. The lighted candles are raised during the closing hymn of the service, and worshippers are reminded of the symbol of the light Jesus brought to the world.
The church has a long history in the area. Sharon Moravian Church got its start in 1810. Brother George G. Mueller started holding services once a month in the home of John Uhrich, just south of Tuscarawas. A year later the services were moved to a schoolhouse close to the present site of the church.
On New Year’s Day in 1815, the first service was held in the home of George Blickensderfer, north of the current site of Sharon Moravian, with Brother Abraham Luckenloch, a missionary from Goshen, conducting the service. In 1817 a 26-by-32-foot log church was built. Then on May 29, 1856, the cornerstone was laid for the current church. An addition was added 101 years later in 1957 that included classrooms, offices, a kitchen and a dining/meeting space.
Sharon Moravian Church is located at 4776 Moravian Church Road, New Philadelphia, near Tuscarawas.