Salem Moravian Graveyard

Salem Moravian Graveyard, long known by the old Germanic name God’s Acre (Gottesacker), is a burial ground shaped by simplicity, uniformity, and the Moravian belief that the dead are sown as perishable seed to await resurrection in imperishable form. The departed are buried chronologically, in the order in which they are called home to be with the Lord, and the recumbent stones express the equality of rich and poor in God’s sight, without statues or monuments to set graves apart. Men, women, and children are buried separately as a continuation of the Choir System introduced in Herrnhut, Saxony by Count Zinzendorf, in which the congregation was divided by age, sex, and marital status for spiritual care, sat together in those groups at worship, and in death were buried not by earthly families but as they had been seated in church, with Brethren on one side, Sisters on the other, and the choirs together. God’s Acre remains in use by the Salem Congregation, made up of twelve Moravian churches in Winston-Salem, and the dead are still buried according to the choir system. On the Saturday before Easter, members of the Salem Congregation churches decorate every grave with flowers, turning the graveyard into a great garden for the Easter Sunrise Service, continuing a tradition begun in 1735 in Herrnhut and first observed here in 1772. On Easter morning, the congregation gathers there as the Church Militant amid the graves of the Church Triumphant to affirm faith in the Risen Lord.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina · United States