Program

6:00 pm

Art exhibit opening and reception
Location: The Payne Art Gallery

12:00 noon

Opening reception
Location: HUB 410 A and B

12:30 pm

17:30 UTC

Words of Welcome & Land Acknowledgement
– President Bryon Grigsby, Moravian University
– Dr. Katie Faull, Executive Director of the Institute for Moravian History and World Heritage
Location: HUB 410 A and B

1:30-3:15 pm

18:30-20:15 UTC

Session 1 – Indigenous Encounters and Land-Based Epistemologies
Location: HUB 410 C
Moderator: Katie Faull

• Susan Ellis, Moravian Historical Society and Katelyn Lucas, Delaware National Historic Preservation Officer, Lenape Ancestors Return Home: Building Relationships Between Moravian Cultural Institutions and Native Nations
• Ulrike Wiethaus, Wake Forest University, Citizens of the World? The Moravian Mission to the Cherokee in the Early Nineteenth Century as Cosmopolitan Hub and Politico-Theological Crossways [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Anca Wilkening, University of Pennsylvania, Making Relatives: Indigenous Kinship Governance and Early Moravian Missions

Session 2 – World Heritage Sites and Sustainable Communities
Location: HUB 450 A and B
Moderator: Janel Rice

• Cory Dieterly, Moravian University, Sustainable Foundations: Examining the Moravian Settlement of Bethlehem and the UN’s 17 Goals for Sustainable Communities
• Thomas J. McCullough, Moravian Archives (Northern Province), The Role of Moravian Archives in Supporting World Heritage
• Steen Rosenvinge Lundbye, Christiansfeld Site Manager (remote?), Christiansfeld – 10 years as a world heritage site – the past and the future

3:30-5:15 pm

20:30-22:15 UTC

Session 3 – Indigenous Moravian Spaces and Contemporary Connections
Location: HUB 410 C
Moderator: Christina Petterson (remote)

• Joanna Kodzik, University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines/ University of Paris Saclay, Arctic Life Stories – Conceptualizing the Indigenous “self” in missionary writing from Greenland
• Armando Lampe, Independent researcher (remote), John was Their Name: About the Conversion of Two Maroons to the Moravian Church in the Slave Society of Suriname [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Olga Lauter, University of Texas at El Paso, Creation of Indigenous Moravian Spaces in an Alaskan City [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Rachel Wheeler, Indiana University, Indianapolis, Remembering Gnadenhütten: Painful Histories and Public History

Session 4 – Slavery, Post-Emancipation, and the Caribbean
Location: HUB 450 A and B
Moderator: Scott Gordon

• John Balz, University of Wisconsin-Madison (remote), The Creole Diaries: Carriols in Eighteenth-Century Moravian Mission Stations on St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Paul Peucker, Moravian Archives (Northern Province), Zinzendorf, Slavery, and the Curse of Ham [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Andrew Williams, University of the West Indies, Post-emancipation settlement near New Carmel Moravian Church, Westmoreland, Jamaica, 1835–1865

8:15-9:15 am

Light breakfast refreshments
Location: HUB 410 A and B

9:15-10:45 am

14:15-15:45 UTC

Session 5 – Heritage Preservation: Case Studies
Location: HUB 410 C
Moderator: Craig Atwood

• David J. Johnston, Gracehill Trust, Reviving Gracehill’s Old Shop: A Case Study in Heritage Preservation and Community-Led Restoration
• Winelle Kirton-Roberts (remote), New Herrnhut to Norre Gade: Moravian Mission From The Estate To The Street, 1732-1882 [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Peter Vogt, Herrnhut Moravian Church, Corpse House and Burial Vaults: Unexpected Discoveries and Challenges of Heritage Preservation in Herrnhut [ABSTRACT PDF]

Session 6 – Digital Humanities: Digitization Projects
Location: HUB 450 A and B
Moderator: Cory Dieterly

• Zack Biro, Walt Rice, Carol Smith, A Demonstration of the Philadelphia Congregations Project’s Interactive AI Using Records from the First Moravian Church of Philadelphia
• Meaghan O’Riordan, Moravian Archives (Southern Province), Digitizing the Daily Text [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Victoria Starbuck, Independent researcher, Quantifying the Count: A Network Analysis of Themes in Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf’s Hymns [ABSTRACT PDF]

11:00 am-12:30 pm 

16:00-17:30 UTC

Session 7 – Endurance and Belief: The Saamaka in the Modern World
Location: HUB 410 C
Moderator:

• Rogério Brittes W. Pires, Federal University of Minas Gerais (remote), “God above”: Notes on Saamaka Moravian Maroons in the 21st century
• Giovanna Montenegro, Binghamton University, Saamaka Resilience: Amidst Environmental and Cultural Destruction

Session 8 – Transatlantic Perspectives
Location: HUB 450 A and B
Moderator: Jill Vogt

• Sally Ann Johnston, Moravian Archive of Ireland, To See Ourselves as Others See Us: 18th-19th Century Travellers’ Accounts of the Moravian Settlement of Gracehill [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Livingstone Thompson, Belfast School of Theology & Moravian Church (British Province) (remote), Exile, Refuge and Commemoration: Rev B. Patras Zula’s Thermopylae Garden at Kilwarlin Moravian Church

12:30-2:00 pm

Bag Lunch and Open House
Location: Moravian Archives

2:00-3:45 pm

17:00-20:45 UTC

Session 9 – Community Transitions and Institutional History
Location: HUB 410 C
Moderator: Paul Peucker

• Frank L. Crouch, Moravian University, School of Theology, Moravian Resistance to and Complicity with Segregated Education in the US, 1890s-1920s and Beyond [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Joshua Follweiler, Princeton Theological Seminary, Moravian Communities in Transition: Bethlehem and Winston-Salem in the Mid-Nineteenth Century [ABSTRACT PDF]
• C. Riddick Weber, Moravian University, School of Theology, The Single Brothers Deal with the Death of Their “Never-to-be Forgotten Christel”

Session 10 – Cross-Cultural Missions in Asia
Location: HUB 450 A and B
Moderator: Christian Rice

• John Bray, Independent scholar (remote?), Moravian Christianity in the Tibetan Buddhist World of the Western Himalayas
• Susan Lena Kennedy, Independent researcher, Paradise Garden: Jerusalem’s Leper Home 1865 to the Present
• Pragya Sharma, University of Brighton (remote), Moravian Missionaries and Hand-Knitting in Colonial India c.18th–19th

4:00-5:15 pm

21:00-22:15 UTC

Session 11 – Moravian Diaspora In Europe
Location: HUB 410 C
Moderator: Heikki Lempa

• Wolfgang Breul, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Constructing an European Network of True Believers – The Moravian Diaspora Conferences 1760–1765
• Vanessa Romero, Moravian University, The French Moravian Diaspora, 1806–1870

Session 12 – Moravians in Tanzania
Location: HUB 450 A and B
Moderator: Richard Anderson

• Ronald J. Mbao (remote) and Revocatus Meza, Teofilo Kisanji University (TEKU), Moravian Bishopric Office: Historical Developments and Its Pitfalls in the Tanzanian Context
• Lorraine Parsons, Provincial Archives of the Moravian Church of Great Britain and Ireland, The Pioneering Medical Work of Dr Arthur and Adie Keevill with the Moravian Missions in Tanzania

5:15-5:50 pm

Posters & Networking
Location: HUB 4th Floor Lounge

• Cory Dieterly, Moravian University, Moravian Seminary and College for Women’s Newspaper Digitization Project
• Mark Koscinski, Moravian University, Jan Hus: The Pre-Reformation Root of Moravianism and Independent Catholicism [ABSTRACT PDF]
• David J. Johnston, Gracehill Trust, Sister Shawkirk: Our First World Heritage Guide – A Transatlantic Moravian Life

Open Networking

6:00-6:30 pm

Schattschneider Award presentation
Location: HUB 410 A and B
– Citation by Dr. Peter Vogt for the recipient, Dr. Hans Rollmann

6:30-8:30 pm

Conference Banquet (tickets required)
Location: HUB 450 A and B

8:15-9:00 am

Light breakfast refreshments
Location: Bahnson Center Kitchen and Lounge Area

9:00-10:30 am

14:00-15:30 UTC

Session 13 – Access, Interpretation, and Public Engagement
Location: Genadendal
Moderator: Peter Vogt

• Richard Anderson, Moravian University, Interpreting World Heritage Through Undergraduate Video Documentary: A Case Study
• Christina Petterson (remote?), History as Heritage, Heritage as History

Session 14 – Music, Performance, and Moravian Identity
Location: Saal
Moderator: Joanne McKeown

• Kyle Johnston, Moravian Music Foundation, Creating a (Nearly) Complete Collection of Moravian Chorales
• Catherine Moore, Moravian Academy, The Benigna Monologues: Interpreting Moravian History Through Performance [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Inga Strungytė-Liugienė, Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Where are the limits of religious text transformation? The case of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf’s hymn [ABSTRACT PDF]

11:00 am – 12:30 pm 

16:00-17:30 UTC

Session 15 – Digital Humanities: Network Analysis and AI
Location: Genadendal
Moderator: Wolfgang Breul

• Alexander Lasch, Institute of German Studies at Dresden Technological University (remote), Digital Humanities and Reparative Practices: From Primary Digitization to New Forms of Narrative
• Aaron Palmore, Loyola University, The role of Latin in the Moravian world of the early Americas [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Thomas Ruhland, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (remote), Moravian Botany – The Scientific Legacy of the Moravian Church’s Global Network [ABSTRACT PDF]

Session 16 – Moravian Music as Moravian Heritage
Location: Saal
Moderator: David J. Johnston

• Devandré Boonzaaier, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Embodied Spirituality: The Role of the Body in Moravian Congregational Music
• Sarah Eyerly Florida State University, Interpreting Moravian Heritage Through Sound and Music [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Tom Gordon, Professor Emeritus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Meeting through Song: Pre-contact Inuit and Moravian Music Traditions in Dialogue [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Christopher Ogburn, Moravian Music Foundation, Finding a Voice: Music and Identity for Nineteenth Century American Moravians [ABSTRACT PDF]

12:30-2:00 pm

Lunch with Panel: Presenting and Interpreting Cultural Heritage – Echoes from a Symposium in Christiansfeld 2025
Location: Saal
Introduction:
Moderator: Sally Ann Johnston

• Alice Caldwell, Independent Scholar, Supporting the Work of Performers Approaching Moravian Music with Historical and Cultural Authenticity
• Christina Ekström, University of Gothenburg, Strategies for presenting results from the project “Music-making in the Single Sisters’ House in Christiansfeld” outside the academy
• Joel Speerstra, University of Gothenburg, Embodied Music-Making as Global Cultural Heritage: The Clavichord from a Moravian Perspective
• [ABSTRACT PDF]

2:00-3:00 pm

19:00-20:00 UTC

Session 17 – Heritage Preservation: Southern Province and Beyond
Location: Genadendal
Moderator: Thomas McCullough

• Martha Hartley, Old Salem Museums & Gardens, Historic Preservation and Moravian Legacy in the Southern Province: Old Salem and Beyond [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Justin Rabbach, Board of World Mission of the Moravian Church in North America, What We Wish We Knew: Designing Born-Digital Mission Archives for Future Moravian Heritage [ABSTRACT PDF]

Session 18 – Zinzendorf’s “Litany of the Wounds”
Location: Saal
Moderator: C. Riddick Weber

• Elisabeth von Baumbach, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (remote), Zinzendorf’s 34 Homilies on the Litany of the Wounds – A Moravian Emotional Style?
• Cosima Edith Macco-Winter, Heidelberg University (remote?), At Home in Cities, Temples, Tents, and Nests: “Heimat” as Metaphor in Zinzendorf’s Sermons on the Litany of the Wounds [ABSTRACT PDF]
• Chaz Snider, The Heart Still Speakers: The Heritage and Theology of Arthur J. Freeman

5:30-7:00 pm

Reception
Location: Bahnson Center Kitchen and Lounge Area

9 and 11am

Worship at Central Moravian Church/Old Chapel
The worship service at Central (9:00 am Old Chapel and 11:00 am Sanctuary) offers a celebration of the decision to choose Christ as the Chief Elder for the Moravian Church. This decision, made on Sept. 16, 1741 and announced to congregations on November 13, recognizes that in our diversity throughout the Moravian world, we return and recenter ourselves in the leading, teachings, and love of Jesus Christ. This service will offer Holy Communion. All are welcome.    

1:15 pm departure;
2:00 pm concert

Optional trip to Nazareth
“1776 Tannenberg Organ Program“
Location: Moravian Historical Society (Whitefield House)
214 East Center Street, Nazareth, PA

History comes to life through the extraordinary sound of the Moravian Historical Society’s 1776 Tannenberg Organ, celebrating its 250th birthday this year alongside the nation’s 250th anniversary. This special concert invites audiences to experience the remarkable voice of one of America’s most historic instruments. The Moravian Historical Society’s Tannenberg organ is one of only nine surviving organs built by Moravian organ builder David Tannenberg, recognized as one of America’s most important early instrument builders. Originally installed in the Single Brethren’s House in Bethlehem, the organ was played for George Washington when he visited Bethlehem. The program will feature organist Thomas Dressler, a specialist in historic performing practices, who has performed for more than fifty years, frequently on some of the oldest and most significant organs in the United States. 

Tickets: $15 | $10 for MHS members | $5 for students with ID
Tickets are available here

Learn more at https://www.moravianhistory.org

2:00 pm

World Heritage Bethlehem tours
Tickets are available here