Foreword: In order to appreciate the Festival of the Chief Elder, one must understand the principal of the Lot. The early Moravians submitted many decisions to the Lot. When a matter had been discussed, and a decision reached, one of the elders would reach into a bowl containing a collection of texts, some affirming, and some denying the decision, and draw out a single text. This single text affirmed or denied the action. The use of the Lot eventually fell from favor, but for a time it one mark among many of the total faith and radical obedience of our church.
The first Chief Elder of the Moravian Church, think of him as a CEO, had been man named Augustin Neisser, and the second a man named Martin Linner. Both were plain men. Linner in particular was poor; was humble, and weak in health. He spent most of his time praying for the Church and attending to the spiritual needs of the Single Brothers, of which he was one. As long as the office lay in Linner’s hands, there was no danger of the Chief Elder becoming a Pope.
In 1735 Leonard Dober was elected to the post of Chief elder by Lot and called back to Germany from his mission to the Caribbean. Dober was a magnetic personality, and, because he was elected by Lot, he was assumed to possess Divine authority of the kind commonly attributed to kings, and queens, other secular rulers, and popes.
Dober became the supreme authority in all matters of importance to the church. He had authority over all the Congregation at Herrnhut where the church was headquartered, over the pioneers in England and North America, over the missionaries in Greenland, the West Indies, South Africa and Surinam. He even had authority over all the Bishops, and over Zinzendorf himself.
Dober felt unfit; he had no desire to become a Protestant Pope; and, therefore, being a modest man, he asked permission to lay down his office. The question was submitted to the Lot, and the Lot allowed Dober to resign. The church was in a quandary. We could never do without a General Elder, it would mean that we would degenerate from a church to a sect. Representatives of the church, including Zinzendorf, met at a house in Red Lion Street in London to thrash out the question. On September 16th, 1741 the issue was finally resolved. In telling the story, Zinzendorf writes:
As we began to think about the Eldership it occurred to us to accept the Saviour as Elder. At the beginning of our deliberations we opened the Textbook. On the one page stood the words, ‘Let us open the door to Christ’; on the other, ‘Thus saith the Lord, etc.; your Master, etc.; show me to my children and to the work of my hands. Away to Jesus! Away! etc.’ Immediately and unanimously we resolved to have no other than Him as our General Elder. It was submitted to the Lot, and the lot was in the affirmative. We looked at the Watchword for the day. It ran: ‘The glory of the Lord filled the house. We bow before the Lamb’s face, etc.’
The minutes of the meeting contains the resolution, “That the office of General Elder be abolished, and be transferred to the Saviour.”
Now some have suggested that this resolution tends to pride and arrogance on the part of the Moravian Church, if not to out and out blasphemy. Albrecht Ritschl, the great 19th century protestant theologian, declared that the Brethren put themselves on a pedestal above all other Churches, implying a special relationship with Jesus Christ.
This was never the intent. According to our great historian, Bishop Hamilton, the election of Jesus Christ to the Chief Eldership was a simple rejection of all human authority in spiritual matters. The Moravians would never bow down to a king, a pope, or a human chief elder. The same conference elected an Elder’s Conference of Twelve members, and thus laid the foundations of the same democratic system of government that exists in the Moravian church in the present day. In proclaiming Christ as Chief Elder, the Unity became the first Free Church in Europe, setting a standard followed today by Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptist, and countless other denominations around the world.
The decision of September 16th, was ordered published to all the congregations of the Unity on the same day, November 13th, 1741. Since that time, on the Sunday closest to November 13th, we have celebrated the festival of the Chief Elder, which is at one and the same time, a celebration of Christ as Head of the Church, and a celebration of our own rights and duties, to govern ourselves democratically, in submission to God’s Supreme Law of Love.
And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8