Moravians in West Africa: 1767 Instructions to Missionaries

The Moravian Church often supplied its missionaries with instructions to guide their behaviors and activities, and numerous instructions from the Zinzendorf era have been published. The later instructions printed here, sent with missionaries in 1767, offer standard advice (preach only the crucified Christ, practice trades and keep communal householding, learn languages) and also address the particular complexities of mission work in West Africa. The text presented is a contemporaneous translation by Mary Penry (1735–1804).