John Christian Bechler

John Christian Bechler (7 January 1784 in Oesel, Governorate of Livonia (present-day Estonia) – 18 April 1857 in Herrnhut, Saxony (present-day Germany)) was a Moravian bishop, composer, and organist. Biography Bechler was educated at the Moravian school in Niesky, Germany and continued studies at the Theological Seminary in Barby, Germany. He was called to the United States in 1806 to teach at the boys school of Nazareth Hall, in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, as a tutor. In the following year the Moravian Theological Seminary was founded in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and he was appointed one of its first professors. In 1817 he accepted the principalship of Nazareth Hall, and subsequently had charge of various churches in Pennsylvania and on Staten Island. In 1829 Bechler was transferred to Salem in North Carolina, and presided over the Moravian work in the South (Wachovia Tract) around what is now Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He was consecrated to the episcopacy at Lititz, Pennsylvania, 17 May 1835. In the following year he went to Europe as a member of the general synod, and did not return, but was transferred to Russia, where he stood at the head of the Moravian establishment at Sarept