Results of the Synod – Unitätsarchiv der Evangelischen Brüder-Unität Herrnhut

Results of the General Synod and the Unity Synod
of the Moravian Church

After the death of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf on May 9, 1760 and a brief reorientation phase, the ›interim administration‹ was established on January 21, 1762, which took over the leadership of the Moravian Church until a future General Synod. This finally met in Marienborn Castle in July 1764 and started a series of truly representative General Synods of the renewed Moravian Church. The delegates of the 1764 Synod adopted a synodal constitution, with the General Synod at the head and an intersynodal leadership body elected by it, known as the ›Unity Directorate‹. The following synodal conference in 1769, again held in Marienborn, changed the name of the intersynodal Unity Directorate to the ›Unity Elders' Conference‹ (UAC) - a structure that was retained until the end of the 19th century, when the UAC was dissolved in 1899. The conferences of the General Synod themselves were held in Herrnhut at irregular intervals from 1789 to 1931. At the General Synod of 1957, the ›General Synod‹ was renamed the ›Unity Synod‹. Today, the Unity Synod Conferences take place every seven years at different places in different provinces of the worldwide Moravian Church.