Risk-Takers in Old Salem
Ray, John, and I spent three encouraging days at the NCHE convention.
I don’t know when we were ever packed up before 6:00 p.m. after a convention, but that’s what happened Saturday night in Winston-Salem. Ray and I were excited about getting to spend a relaxing evening with John before he flew back home to his family and we drove back to Tennessee on Sunday.
I have wanted to visit the historic Moravian town of Old Salem for a few years. I knew we were too late to get into the historic buildings, but I hoped we might be able to eat supper. When we found out that The Tavern in Old Salem was open until 9, we headed that way.
I left Ray and John to wait for a table, asking them to call me when it was time. They graciously agreed. The sun was low in the west and casting a glow on the buildings on the east side of Main Street. I wanted to capture some of that light, knowing it would be gone when we finished eating.
In a few minutes, I was back inside where I found more history and light.
Our table was in one of the small dining rooms, located on both the main and second floors.
This message of faith hung above our table.
The Tavern in Old Salem was built in 1816 as an annex to the main tavern which was constructed in 1784. It was part of the Salem community built by Moravians in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
After dinner, we took off on the brick sidewalks for a stroll.
Our Saturday night visit made me want to learn more about the Moravians of Old Salem. I learned that, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, some Moravian Protestants suffered persecution in their native Moravia, which is now part of the Czech Republic. Austrian nobleman Nicholas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf, sheltered them at his estate, known as Wachau.
Zinzendorf and the Moravians formed a church called the Unity of Brethren or the Moravian Church. The church has roots in pietism, which emphasized heartfelt devotion to God. It also has roots in the teachings of early reformer Jan Hus, a Catholic priest who was sentenced to death in 1415 for teachings the Catholic Church considered heresy.
Many members of the Moravian church migrated to Pennsylvania in the 1700s. They settled in Bethlehem and Nazareth, Pennsylvania. With the help of Count von Zinzendorf, some eventually came to a 100,000-acre tract in North Carolina that they called Wachau or Wachovia in his honor. They began to settle there in the mid-1700s, and in 1766 they started building the town of Salem.
Salem eventually merged with nearby Winston. In 1913 the name Winston-Salem became official. In 1947 a group of citizens formed a committee to work to preserve the history of Old Salem. In 1948 the area became an historic district. Today Old Salem Museum and Gardens operates a living history museum that depicts life there from 1766 to 1840.
Like so many people who have immigrated to America, the Moravians were risk-takers. They were non-conformists. They weren’t afraid to risk something very different from what the conformists were doing around them. A risk-taker, a non-conformist–that’s what you are.
And do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
so that you may prove what the will of God is,
that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2-3