Love Feast

Religious Life

Students raise lit candles for the last hymn of the Lovefeast

Moravian Christmas Lovefeast

A lovefeast is a service dedicated to agape, or Christian love, considered the greatest of virtues. A lovefeast seeks to remove social barriers and encourage reverence and respect for the legitimate rights of all people.

The Lovefeast at Wake Forest
Moravian student Jane Sherrill Stroupe '67 organized the first Wake Forest Lovefeast in December 1965. 200 students gathered to celebrate the traditional meal. Since then, the Wake Forest Lovefeast has grown to be the largest Moravian-style lovefeast in North America, and one of the favorite features of Wake Forest tradition. Luminaria line Hearn Plaza as guests arrive for the LovefeastThe Wake Forest Lovefeast consists of a sweetened bun and creamed coffee. It is served to the participants by dieners (German for servers). During the meal, music is offered by the Wake Forest Concert Choir, Handbell Choir, Flute Choir, and the Messiah Moravian Church Band. During the service of song and scripture reading, handmade beeswax candles decorated with a red paper frill are distributed to each worshiper. The candles are lit while the worship space is darkened except for a large illuminated Moravian Advent Star for the singing of the final hymns.

The Origins of the Lovefeast
Beeswax candles decorated with a red paper frill are distributed to each worshiperThe first lovefeast was served in Germany on August 13, 1727, following the renewal of the Moravian Church. The Lovefeast is not the sacrament of Holy Communion. It is styled after the common meal partaken in love and fellowship by the early church (described in the book of Acts) prior to their celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

The Lovefeast in North Carolina
The first love feast in North Carolina was held in November 1753 at what is now the historic settlement of Bethabara in Forsyth County. A band of 15 Moravian men had made their way down the Shenandoah Valley into North Carolina from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Their destination was the Wachovia Tract, sold to the Moravians by the Earl of Granville in England. The weary travelers celebrated their arrival at Bethabara with a love feast; their “feast” was likely pumpkin mush, and they recorded in their diary that while they ate, “the wolves and the panthers howled and screamed in the forests near by.”

They sang a hymn composed especially for the occasion:

We hold arrival love feast here in Carolina land,
A company of Brethren true, a little pilgrim band.
Called by the Lord to be of those
Who through the whole wide world do go,
To bear Him witness everywhere,
And naught by Jesus know.
Taken from "A Simple Meal" by Wanda Duncan
Our State Magazine, December 2005