Herrnhut Church Hall
Our church hall is dear to us like no other building in Herrnhut. We cannot imagine congregational life without it. It used to be called the "community hall" or "prayer hall." The foundations of our church hall date back to 1756. On the night of May 8-9, 1945, the church hall, along with large parts of the town center, burned down completely after an arson attack. From 1951 to 1956, the hall was rebuilt and now once again seats approximately 600 people. Since 2005, it has been undergoing extensive renovation in several phases.

It is the most important meeting space for the congregation and its guests. The white color of the walls and pews symbolizes purity, joy, and salvation. The simple design highlights the most important thing: the congregation gathered together. Until the mid-20th century, women and men sat separately in the Great Hall, and even today, the left side is called the "Sisters' Side" and the right "Brothers' Side." All meetings can be video-streamed to the Moravian Church buildings.

Text / Source: Moravian Church of Moravia
herrnhut.ebu.de/kirchensaal

Translated by Google •

Uwe Drescher

April 23, 2022

The Moravian Moravian Church's prayer room is not a house of God, not a sacred building that is holy in itself. It is a meeting place for the congregation: for Sunday worship, but also for secular gatherings.

The first prayer room of this type was consecrated in Herrnhut in 1726, three months before the most famous Protestant church building of the Baroque period: the Dresden Frauenkirche. Today, congregational prayer rooms are built in this style everywhere.

It is a simple, rectangular room, entirely white and therefore very bright, without any decoration. There are no pictures, no altar, no pulpit, and no cross. In the middle of the long side is the liturgical table, where the preacher sits, expounds the Bible, and leads the service. The congregation sits on simple white wooden benches. In the past, women sat on the right, men on the left. The hall has two galleries, also entirely white. The organ is located on one gallery.

The prayer room appears very simple and functional, and therefore sometimes surprisingly simple and perhaps not so inviting to people accustomed to ornate places of worship at first glance. The value becomes apparent at second glance: everything here is focused on seeing, hearing, and praying. Nothing physical disturbs personal devotion. The aesthetic experience lies in simplicity. This allows all attention to be turned from the outside to the inside.

Translated by Google •

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Location: Herrnhut, Görlitz, Upper Lusatia, Saxony, Germany

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