Origin from 1885
In 1885, the Moravian Church sent John and Edith Kilbuck and William and Caroline Weinland, with the architect Hans Torgersen, from the eastern United States to the Kuskokwim River delta in southwestern Alaska, more than a century after Parliament recognized the Moravian Church as an ancient episcopal church in 1749, already recorded here. The party reached the region in June 1885 and held the mission's first Sunday worship service on 21 June, then built the First Mission House, the first structure raised at what became the town of Bethel, a name the missionaries gave it meaning House of God. Kilbuck, who was of Lenape descent and a fluent linguist, learned the Yup'ik language and began translating Moravian church texts into it, and the mission he and Weinland founded grew into the Alaska Province of the Moravian Church, still centered on Bethel today, more than a century before the Moravian Church in Tanzania united its provinces in 1986, already recorded here.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks the Moravian Church's arrival among the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska, a specific dated milestone between Parliament's 1749 recognition of the church as an ancient episcopal body already recorded here and the Moravian Church in Tanzania uniting its provinces in 1986 also already recorded here. Connections
Associated With
This source names Alaska directly: "Kuskokwim River delta in southwestern Alaska, more than a century after Parliament recognized the Moravian Church as an ancient episcopal church in 1749, already recorded here."
Source Indigenous Moravians: The Alaska Mission (Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University)
This source names Tanzania directly: "century before the Moravian Church in Tanzania united its provinces in 1986, already recorded here."
Source Indigenous Moravians: The Alaska Mission (Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University)
Occurred In
Source First Mission House (Wikipedia)
Spread Event Of
Adds a specific, dated milestone in the Moravian Church's geographic spread between Parliament's 1749 recognition of the church as an ancient episcopal body and the Moravian Church in Tanzania uniting its provinces in 1986, both already recorded here: John and Edith Kilbuck and William and Caroline Weinland founding the Bethel mission among the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska in 1885.
Source Indigenous Moravians: The Alaska Mission (Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University)
Sources
1. Indigenous Moravians: The Alaska Mission (Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest University)
Timothy S. Y. Lam Museum of Anthropology, Wake Forest UniversityView the Source First Mission House (Wikipedia)
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.
View At A Past Year
Choose a year to see this entry's facts and connections as the atlas records them at that moment: what it held then, what it held instead, and what it had not yet adopted. Choose Present for the current record.