Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-01
MORAWAN BISHOP
DIES AT AGE OF IS
Right Rev. Edward Rond-
thaIer. Conducted Easter
Services So Years..
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
WIESTON-SALEM, NJ c., January
31.-Right Rev. Edward Rondthaler,
88, Bishop of the Southern province of
the Moravian Church, died of bronchial
pneumonia at his home here this
afternoon.
For So years Bishop Rondthaler con-
Quoted the annual Easter sunrise serv-
ices of the Moravian Church, which
drew great crowds of visitors from far
and near to this city.
The venerable bishops fatal illness
began Tuesday, when he developed
influenza.
Faith of Fathers.
Love for the simple faith of his
fathers carried the Right Rev. Edward
Rondthaler of winston Salem. N. c.,
TO the bishoprie of the Southern province
of the Moravian Church.
From the day he was born, July "a,
1912, in the Moravian parsonage at
Schoeneck, Pa, his life had been
his denomination and ministry in view
His father, for whom he was named,
and his grandfather were both Moravian
ministers. The. ministerial tradition has
been followed by Bishop Rondthaler's
only son, the Rev. Howard Rond-
thaler, now president of Salem College,
an institution his father once headed.
Although highly educated, not only
in theology, but in classical and
academic studies as well. and the
recipient of two honorary degrees, his
Unsuitable desire for further know
ledge never left him. Even after he
had reached his eighty-eighth birth
day he found the study of foreign
languages fascinating and only recently
announced his intention of adding other
tongues to his linguistical ability.
Bishop 40 Years.
For 40 years, he served his church as
bishop of the Southern province, having
been ordained a bishop of Unitas Fra
tum UNITED Brethren) in 1891, after
serving as a pastor since 1865.
From the Moravian Preparatory
School for Boys, Nazareth Hall, at Naz-
areth, Pa, he entered the Morayian
Theological Seminary at Bethlehem,
Pa. Completing his studies there, he
entered the University of Erlangen,
Germany, for further work, particularly
with languages.
In 1864 he returned to a United
States torn by civil strife to teach at
Nazareth Hall. A year later he was
ordained a deacon of the Moravian
Church and appointed to the paStorate
of a congregation in Brooklyn, N. Y.
While miniStering to the Brooklyn
congregation he fell in love with Miss
Mary E. Jacobson of Bethlehem, Pa,
daughter Of Bishop John Christian
Jacobson Of the Moravian Church, and
in 1857 they were married
After six years in Brooklyn, during
which time he rebuilt the church and
parsonage, which had been destroyed
by fire, he accepted call to the First
Moravian Church in Philadelphia,
which he served until 1877, when the
call of the South reached him.
The young minister accepted the call
to the new field and went to North
Carolina, arriving in Salem October 10,
1877, with Mrs. Rondthaler and their
two children, Alice and Howard.
His specific work was to succeed the
Rev. Albert L. Gerter as pastor of the
home church in Salem, but his inf1u-
ence soon extended far beyond the
borders of his pastorate and State.
One of the features of his ministry
was the annual Moravian sunrise serv-
ice which the bishop himself conduct
ed each Easter day for the last So
years. Crowds of from 10000 to 80, 900
persons have attended the services in
recent years.
Winston-Sa1em voted him its most
outstanding citizen in 1890.