Unity of the Brethren (Czech Republic)

The Unity of the Brethren (Czech: Jednota bratrská) is the

Unity of the Brethren
Ecclesiastical province of the Moravian Church in the Czech
Republic. Due to a schism in the province in 2000, eight of its Jednota bratrská
original congregations comprise the so-called Herrnhut Seniorate
of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.[1]

It is located in the lands (Bohemia and Moravia) of the origins of

the Bohemian Reformation, a movement that later created the
Moravian Church.[2][3]

Origins
The movement was originally started by a Catholic priest named
Jan Hus in approximately 1405 as part of the Bohemian
Classification Protestant
Reformation, making it one of the oldest Protestant denominations
in Christianity. Hus is considered by some to be the first Church Orientation Hussite
reformer, although some believe this to be John Wycliffe.[4][5][6] (Bohemian) with
Lutheran Pietist
Hus opposed many aspects of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, influences
including the Bohemian view of ecclesiology, simony and the
Eucharist. He established a new group as a reaction to these Polity Presbyterian
practices and attempted to return the Church in Bohemia and Head bishop Evald Rucký
Moravia to the practices of early Christianity. The movement
Associations Moravian Church
gained royal support for a time but was eventually forced to be
subject to Rome. Some of his followers publicly recognised Region Czech Republic
Rome’s authority; however, the remaining Hussites continued to Headquarters Liberec, Czech
operate outside Roman Catholicism and, within fifty years of Hus's Republic
death, had become independently organized as the 'Bohemian
Origin 1880
Brethren' or Unity of the Brethren.
Other name(s) Evangelical
This group maintained Hussite theology (which later leaned Church of the
towards Lutheran teachings). The first Brethren's congregation Brethren
was founded in Kunvald, Bohemia, in 1457. After the expulsions
Herrnhutian
of the Protestants from Czech lands during the 17th and 18th
Church of the
centuries, some families from Moravia, specifically from Fulnek
Brethren
and adjacent area, who preserved the traditions of the old
Bohemian brethren, found refuge in Saxony. They established a Official website jbcr.cz (http://ww
new village called Herrnhut between 1722 and 1727. This was the w.jbcr.cz/)
beginning of the Moravian church as it is known today.

History
Since 1781, Protestantism was tolerated again in the Czech and Austrian lands and most of the secret
Protestants and Bohemian brethren entered the newly established Evangelical churches of either the
Augsburg or the Helvetic confessions (the modern Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren and Silesian
Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession). The Moravian church as it was established in Herrnhut
in the early 18th century could establish its congregation in the Czech lands first after the imperial
Protestant patent in 1861. The first congregation of the "renewed Unity of the Brethren" was established in
1870 in Potštejn. Until the end of World War II, a third of the congregations were German-speaking. In
1957, the independent Czech province of the Moravian church was officially established during the general
synod of Unitas Fratrum.[7]

In 1998 and 1999, a conflict escalated in the province concerning many theological and ecclesiological
questions and it was not possible to maintain the unity of the province any further. Part of the congregations
that wanted to retain the traditional forms of liturgy left the independent Czech province (Jednota bratrská)
and formed a newly-established Herrnhut Seniorate (Ochranovský seniorát) of the Evangelical Church of
Czech Brethren which remained part of the world-wide Moravian Church.

In 2023, the Moravian Church consists of 19 provinces and several mission fields on four continents. The
Unity is bound by the Church Order of the ‘’Unitas Fratrum’’, a document written by the Unity Synod (the
highest legislative body within the Moravian Church).[8]

The province also runs a number of schools and vocational training centres.[9]

Beliefs
The church follows the beliefs of the Apostles’ Creed, the Athanasian Creed, The Nicene Creed and
Luther’s Shorter Catechism.[10]

See also
History of the Moravian Church
Unity of the Brethren (Texas)
Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren

References
1. Halama, Ondřej. "Introduction" (http://www.jednotabratrska.cz/en/). UNITAS FRATRUM –
Jednota bratrská. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
2. Jednota Bratrska official website (History page) (http://www.jednotabratrska.cz/en/brief-histor
y)
3. "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20200726154429/http://www.jbcr.cz/images/st
ories/ustava_JB_19.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (http://www.jbcr.cz/images/stories/
ustava_JB_19.pdf) (PDF) on 2020-07-26. Retrieved 2020-07-26.
4. Demy, Timothy J.; Larson, Mark J.; Charles, J. Daryl (2019). The Reformers on War, Peace,
and Justice (https://books.google.com/books?id=50e6DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT5). Wipf and
Stock Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 978-1-4982-0698-3. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
5. Walker, Williston (2014). A History of the Christian Church (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=VW3QCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT56). Ravenio Books. p. 56. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
6. Verhoeven, Ludo; Perfetti, Charles (2017). Learning to Read across Languages and Writing
Systems (https://books.google.com/books?id=t-w0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA372). Cambridge
University Press. p. 372. ISBN 978-1-107-09588-5. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
7. "History: Moravian Church Prague" (https://jbprahaen.webnode.cz/history/).
jbprahaen.webnode.cz. Moravian Church Prague. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
 8. Jednota Bratrska official website (History page) (https://www.jednotabratrska.cz/en/brief-hist
ory)
9. JBCR website (https://www-jbcr-cz.translate.goog/index.php?_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr
_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc#g-feature)
10. JBCR website (https://www-unitasfratrum-org.translate.goog/about-unitas-fratrum/the-ground
-of-the-unity?_x_tr_sl=cs&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc&_x_tr_sch=http)

Further reading
Nešpor, Zdeněk R.; Vojtíšek, Zdeněk (2016). Encyklopedie menších křesťanských církví v
České republice [Encyclopedia of smaller Christian churches in the Czech Republic] (in
Czech). Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press. ISBN 978-80-246-3315-2.

External links
Official website (http://www.jbcr.cz/)
Jednota Bratrska official website (https://www.jednotabratrska.cz/en/)

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