The Hinge: International Theological Dialog for the Moravian Church
The Speaking
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From the very beginning of the Renewed Church—that is, from 1722 on— each member of the Gemeine participated in a monthly speaking or Sprechen prior to communion that was designed to invite the individual to reflect on his or her own path or Plan. Initially, according to historical accounts, Zinzendorf himself counseled the men and married couples in Herrnhut, and Anna Nitschmann counseled the single sisters. However, as the Gemeine grew and new congregations were formed around the world, the office of choir helper was established for the choirs of the single brothers, single sisters, married persons, and widows and widowers. This office holder was privy to the most intimate details of individuals’ lives: their spiritual and emotional state, their physical condition, and for the married persons, even their economic status or health. As a confidante the choir helper had to be a person of the highest integrity, with the ability to keep confidences and the discretion to avoid prying too deeply into the private emotions of individuals (doing so might cause resistance). He or she needed tact and a friendly and trustworthy demeanor that invited people to “open a window to the soul.” The earliest mention of the “speaking” is in Christian David’s Beschreibung und zuverlässige Nachricht von Herrnhut in der Oberlausitz of 1735. A brief mention of the “speakings” can also be found in Johann Martin Dober’s Verfassung der Herrnhutischen Mährischen Brüder-Gemeine, of 1733, where he states, “Before Communion Day all persons are accounted for by the Laborers examined, and their condition reported to the Pastor.”8 The speaking, as conceived, was the result of a process of close self-examination of the soul. In 1775, Spangenberg wrote, “It was observed incidenter that the speaking that takes place before communion should not be taken for the actual examination which actually should occur beforehand.”9 This notion is long lived in the Moravian community, as we find in the minutes of the Provincial Conference held with the “laborers” of the Moravian Church in Great Britain in 1795. The minutes record the explicit statement, “No communicant should imbibe the idea that self-examination is less necessary when there is speaking, or more, when there is none: because our conversation with our Savior can never be supplied by the activity of any human being.”10 In other words, self-examination is conducted with the Savior prior to the speaking, where the condition of the body and soul are inquired upon. The speakings are to be conducted in the following manner: If Brn and Srs come to Speak with their laborers, glad to have a bosom-friend, appointed by our Savior himself, with whom they are indebted to converse in a confidential manner, and desirous to obtain the aim of Speaking with their respective laborers: then none will have occasion to lament that the Speaking does not answer the purpose. This regulation in the Unity of the Brethren is both a privilege and a duty. And the whole Prov. Conference is so fully convinced of the essential blessings to be derived from it, that we resolved, that whoever neglects coming to the