Reference
MO
Title
Bedford Moravian Congregation, St Peter’s Street, Bedford later called St Luke’s Church and then St Luke’s United Reformed Church
Creator
Admin/biog history
The following information has been compiled from material held at Bedfordshire Archives, assistance from the Moravian Church archivist (http://www.moravian.org.uk/who-we-are/church-archives), ‘Bedford St Luke’s, A Bit of Church History’ by David Bunney and online resources.
The Moravian Church was established in Bohemia in 1457 and known as Unitas Fratrum or Unity of the Brethren. In 1467 they obtained consecration by the Waldensian Bishop Stephen, withdrew from the Church of Rome and established their own Episcopal Orders, becoming the first independent Protestant Church.
The Unitas Fratrum continued to expand until the mid-1600s when it was believed that the church had been wiped out following the Counter Reformation and the Thirty Years War. However, a small number remained in the remote villages of Moravia. In 1722 refugees from Moravia settled on Count Zinzendorf's land in Saxony, near the present day border with Poland. The settlement was named Herrnhut and from here members of the congregation were sent as far afield as the West Indies and North America.
During the 1730s members of the Moravian Church passed through England on their way to spread the word across the globe. They were welcomed by some evangelical Church of England clergy, including John Wesley. The Moravian preacher, Peter Boehler became Wesley's mentor. It is said that Wesley's experience at a meeting in Aldersgate Street in London spurred him on and led to the establishment of the Methodist Church.
In 1742 the Aldersgate Street Society moved to Fetter Lane and established the first recognised Moravian Congregation. From there the Church spread across the country, including at Risely and Pertenhall in Bedfordshire.
Work in Bedford commenced in 1738 under the London Congregation until they were officially recognised as a separate unit in 1745. Jacob Rogers was the first labourer (minister) and services were carried out in a converted barn behind the home of Francis Okely, son of Ann Okely also known as Mother Okely (5-7 High Street, Bedford). On 14 June 1751 the foundation stone for the first church on a site in St Peter’s Street was laid. On 27 November 1751 the burial ground was consecrated and the first internment was Sister Mary Sherman. The Church was consecrated by Brother Peter Boehler on 28 November 1751 with 100 Communicant members.
Further building took place:
1752 Brethren’s House completed
1757 Sisters’ House completed (now 24 St Peter’s Street)
Minister’s House completed (now 26 St Peter’s Street)
Congregation Hall completed
1761 North Wing of Sister’s House completed
1801 Brethren’s House converted to a boarding school (Moravian Ladies’ School)
Bakery converted to Sunday School for Boys
1832 Organ purchased
1847 New Sunday School building erected for girls
1857 New Sunday School building erected for boys
1864 Foundation stone laid for new church
1865 New Church opened
Church Hall added
1870 Organ re-opened
1882 Enlarged Church Hall replaced vestry on the east side
1888 Apse built at northern end providing for enlarged organ and choir stalls
1891 New south windows added
1895 Corner stones of the new Church School at Queen’s Park laid
1914 Moravian Ladies’ School given up as official Moravian establishment. Closed in 1921 and bought by Bedford School
1937 Church shortened at the south end to form room below the gallery
1945 New gates and railings erected to replace those removed during Second World War
1961 Church Hall built
Lamb and Flag window re-sited
In 1893 the St Peter’s Street congregation undertook a mission in Queen’s Park area of Bedford. The hall, located on Howard Avenue was opened for worship in 1895 and the congregation formed two years later. A church was added on to the hall in 1911 and, according to their website, is now [2019] in fellowship with the Parish Church of All Saints. Some records exist within this collection concerning the Queen’s Park church, but their main archive is held by http://www.moravian.org.uk/who-we-are/church-archives.
In 1895 the name St Peter’s Moravian Church was adopted in order to distinguish it from the newly founded church in Queen’s Park. In 1952 the Bedford Congregation of the Presbyterian Church of England and the Moravian Congregation began worshipping together at St Peter’s Moravian Church due to the falling numbers of both congregations. The two congregations were unified in a formal relationship in July 1960 and formed St Luke’s Church. Records of the Presbyterian Church can be found in MO/12.
Falling numbers again made joining with another church a necessary option to ensure their survival. The Howard Congregational Church in Mill Street Bedford was founded in 1775, but with its closure in 1970 they sought to join with St Luke’s which they did, becoming a constituent member of the new United Reformed Church in 1972. The union of the two churches to form St Luke’s United Church took place in 1984 once the new structure had been agreed and St Luke’s United Church was formally constituted. Records of the Howard Congregational Church can be found in references Z521 and X420.
In October 2008 the church closed and was sold to Bedford Modern School. They later opened the building as The Quarry Theatre in the summer of 2015, http://www.quarrytheatre.org.uk/welcome-to-bedfords-brand-new-theatre/.
Archival history
The first deposit of material was in May 1960 and cataloguing of the collection used a running number. As more material was deposited it became necessary to impose a structure on the collection in order to group similar items together. This work started in October 2019 and material from the backlog was added as part of this process. Some sorting of this later material had been carried out previously so individual accessions were unable to be identified easily. These were accession numbers 9475, 9523, 9995, 10444 and 10646.
For the items already catalogued the reference MO and the running number was retained and archival levels added between to allow similar items to be grouped together virtually. For example the Elders' Conference Minutes Book with the original reference number MO25 is now MO/3/1/25.
Information about each committee can be found at the appropriate committee’s series level description.
Where abbreviations have been used in the records these have been extended where known with the following exceptions:
GG - Great Girl
MB – Married Brother
Ms – manuscript, showing that the item is handwritten
SS – Single Sister
Square brackets, [ ], have been used to include extra information not necessarily included in the document, but added from other sources.
References to ‘Archives’ or ‘Bedford Archives’ within the records appears to relate to an archive held by the church itself and not to the County Record Office, later Bedfordshire Archives.
Numbers 474, 490, 673, 733, 734, 755, 842, 1000 have not been used.
Further material related to the Moravian Church can be found in X302, Z245, Z521, CRT170/7 and 'The Moravian Church in the Eighteenth Century' in Bedfordshire Historical Record Society volume 68 edited by Edwin Welch. The latter includes extracts and transcriptions of various records from within the collection.
Catalogue structure
MO/1 Central Organisation
MO/2 Registers: baptism, marriage, burial
MO/3 Minutes and related papers for various committees
MO/4 Finance
MO/5 Legal papers
MO/6 Material related to Mission Statements and Development Plans
MO/7 Papers relating to property, land and fabric of buildings, including the burial ground and organ
MO/8 Diaries
MO/9 Correspondence
MO/10 Material related to the Ministers & officers
MO/11 Material related to the congregation, its membership, operation and organisation
MO/12 Presbyterian Church of England
MO/13 Organisations and events run by and in the Church and Hall
MO/14 Images, histories and printed material
MO/15 Newsletters
Reference
Level of description
fonds