About Calvary

Calvary Moravian Church has been serving downtown Winston-Salem since 1889. We began as an outgrowth of the Moravian Church in Salem now known as Home Moravian Church. As Moravians moved to the newly industrialized town of Winston they desired a church in their own neighborhood. Today, with 13 other Moravian Churches in Winston-Salem  we form the Salem Congregation. While each church has its own ministry and membership the churches of the Salem Congregation share many things including sponsorship of the Eastern Sunrise Service in Salem, the Watchnight Service on New Year’s Eve and other various ministries. The members of our congregation are buried in God’s Acre in Salem.

Calvary has an active membership comprised of people of all ages and various walks of life. It is our intention to welcome all people to find a place of belonging in our congregation. We have many different programs to nurture our members in their walk of faith. As Moravians, we emphasize faith as a daily walk, giving particular emphasis to service and missions. In recent years we have felt a particular call to support our church’s global mission as well as to minister to the poor and homeless of our own community.

Our worship services are typical of most traditional liturgical churches. We use liturgies, scriptural prayer forms which are responsive in nature, and we sing the traditional hymns of Protestant worship. As Moravians, we observe special customs and practices which have been a part of our heritage, giving emphasis to our unique musical heritage which gives meaningful expression to our faith in Christ. We follow the Church year which includes a lectionary, groups of  appointed readings for each worship service. The readings are followed by a sermon usually based on one of the weekly lectionary readings.