Sarah was born in Reading\u00a0in 1714 and was elder sister to John Cennick, the famous Methodist then Moravian Church evangelist and hymn writer.\u00a0Sarah\u2019s\u00a0father was from a Quaker family and her mother was an Anglican.\u00a0They lived next door to the Vicarage where\u00a0Sarah spent much of her time until \u2018the servants sought to bring her into all\u00a0manner of wickedness and she was shocked almost to death\u2019.\u00a0 She never said what this was but was in such\u00a0a state that she decided to dedicate herself to the Lord and enter a\u00a0cloister. However her family was well to do and sent her to London\u00a0for \u2018further improvement’, she had a very happy time there and visited all the public places and curiosities and concluded that she was made for the world after all.<\/p>\n
By this time her mother and brother were involved with John and Charles\u00a0Wesley but Sarah was not happy about this.\u00a0When she was 28 she met the Moravian minister Br John Toeltschig who was also involved with the Wesleys and Rev Benjamin Ingham and James Hutton.\u00a0Br Toeltschig was very helpful to her and so, along with her brother, she became involved with the Moravian Church.<\/p>\n
She started working with the Moravian Church as a Single Sisters Labouress and this became her life\u2019s work.\u00a0Her first\u00a0experience of this work was when she went to help her brother John who had set\u00a0up a Society in Kingswood, near Bristol.\u00a0There she was to look after the single women,\u00a0unfortunately for her they were rather rough collier women and although she\u00a0tried hard, she found it very difficult and returned to Reading, longing more than ever to enter a\u00a0cloister.<\/p>\n
John then asked her to join him in East Tytherton,\u00a0Wiltshire. There she was heartened by a visit to Tytherton by Count and Countess\u00a0Zinzendorf and learnt more about the \u2018Brethren\u2019s Church\u2019 particularly about the\u00a0Single Sisters. The Single Sisters House sounded something like a convent and\u00a0both she and her brother thought that its life would suit her.\u00a0So in 1747 she applied to go to Herrnhaag, (a settlement in Germany)\u00a0to visit the Single Sisters there.\u00a0She\u00a0saw with delight the congregation life and the regulations of the Single\u00a0Sisters and joined the congregation at Herrnhaag.<\/p>\n
Later Sarah was \u2018called\u2019 back to work in England at the new settlement\u00a0in Yorkshire, Lambs Hill, later to become Fulneck, its buildings masterminded\u00a0by John Toeltschig. Then in 1750 she was \u2018called\u2019 to London before being sent on to Dublin and then the following year\u00a0she was \u2018called\u2019 to Northern Ireland and then in 1758 \u2018called\u2019 back to\u00a0London.\u00a0On the journey back from Belfast to Liverpool the\u00a0 ship ran into a great storm and they spent a day grounded on the sandbanks, but\u00a0eventually arrived back safe and sound.<\/p>\n
After a month in Fulneck she travelled to Bedford\u00a0and then onto Germany\u00a0visiting seven settlements including Herrnhut and was ordained a\u00a0Deaconess there.\u00a0She went back to London and then to Bedford\u00a0where she was to care for the young women.\u00a0In 1764 she moved back to Fulneck to help with the Single Sisters and\u00a0Great Girls.\u00a0After a while here she moved to Gomersal to look after the Single Sisters Oeconomy there.<\/p>\n
The Single Sisters at Gomersal contributed to her maintenance although some were a bit resentful as it was said \u2018not working herself but spending the\u00a0time reading magazines\u2019.\u00a0Nevertheless\u00a0Sarah counted her six years at Gomersal as the happiest of her life.\u00a0The work was hard, in winter when the weather\u00a0was bad and the roads were almost impassable she continued to visit Sisters in\u00a0outlying Societies.\u00a0Occasionally she was lent a horse but usually she walked.\u00a0She\u00a0called these walks her Liturgical walks and described how her best friend\u00a0(Jesus) \u2018made perfect his strength in her weakness \u2013 I have been so comforted\u00a0and strengthened that I with surprise found myself nearer my journey\u2019s end than\u00a0I could have thought.\u2019\u00a0Her great joy at Gomersal was the Parsonage garden which she likened to paradise.<\/p>\n
In November 1769 Sarah caught a violent cold and felt strangely\u00a0ill.\u00a0She was moved back to Fulneck to be\u00a0looked after.\u00a0As she lay in bed she\u00a0asked to see all the Sisters from Fulneck, Gomersal and Littlemoor Hall room by room.\u00a0In January 1770 she closed her\u00a0eyes to finally sleep in the arms of her everlasting Bridegroom.<\/p>\n
Written by\u00a0Molly Lythe, c<\/em>ompiled from\u00a0Ruth Strong\u2019s article about Sarah Cennick in the Moravian History Magazine,\u00a0The Choir House archives and Sarah Cennick\u2019s own memoirs in the Church\u00a0 archives.<\/em><\/p>\n She left a very comprehensive Will bequeathing all\u00a0 her clothes to the Sisters in the Fulneck Sisters House specifying particularly \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In\u00a0 addition she left ‘To each Sr in my Class at Fulneck a\u00a0pair of white leather mits my will and desire is that a\u00a0<\/em>most thankful acknowledgment be made of that real Jesus like Love & genuine\u00a0Heartiness which I have enioy’d in this Hous.’<\/em><\/p>\n Ref: Borthwick Institute of Historical Research: original\u00a0Prerogative Wills November 1771<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sarah was born in Reading\u00a0in 1714 and was elder sister to John Cennick, the famous Methodist then Moravian Church evangelist and hymn writer.\u00a0Sarah\u2019s\u00a0father was from a Quaker family and her mother was an Anglican.\u00a0They lived next door to the Vicarage where\u00a0Sarah spent much of her time until \u2018the servants sought to bring her into all\u00a0manner … Continue reading Sarah Cennick<\/span> \n\n
\n To\u00a0 Sus Rous <\/em><\/td>\n my\u00a0India\u00a0Silk Hankerchief<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n to\u00a0 Sus Brook\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n my old stays, garden sleeves and the pocket Hankerchiefs she\u00a0gave\u00a0 me<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n To\u00a0 Jane Stockwell <\/em><\/td>\n a\u00a0pr stuff shoes, small pr pattens and the Hand\u2019f ‘she aave me\u00a0with\u00a0a check’d red and white cotton ditto<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00a0to H’h Walton\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n mv\u00a0best brown coat and iacket. a pr old sleeves, and if the\u00a0piece of\u00a0camblet(cambric?) be the same that to, to make her a\u00a0gown <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n To\u00a0 S Bullock\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n my\u00a0blew and white strip’d Holland\u00a0coat and jacket <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n To\u00a0 Mar’a and H’h Stevenson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n each\u00a0a large shift and pieces of the same cloth wch\u00a0was taken of mv under coats, and to Mar’a my strip’d German apron<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n to\u00a0 G Harrison\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n a\u00a0linnin Sprig’d contush (?) and red and white check’d cotton\u00a0Had’f <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n to\u00a0 Mar’a Fowler <\/em><\/td>\n my\u00a0fine small strip’d large cotten apron<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n toSr\u00a0 Hasse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n that\u00a0last made corse shift of 2 sorts of cloth <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n to\u00a0 Br Hasse\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n 2\u00a0yds of fine linen cloth <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n to\u00a0 E Spaught\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n 3\/6\u00a0pr week for her loving and faithful service to me, and that\u00a0she have my brown Holland sprig’d jacket, the pieces of wch is in Gumersal<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n \u00a0To Sally Ubank\u00a0 <\/em><\/td>\n I\u00a0give the red contush the same to my gown and the smallest\u00a0piece\u00a0of the Same for sleeves <\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n To\u00a0 Jenny Rhodes <\/em><\/td>\n my\u00a0black silk quilted coat and 2 pr of fine woven cotton\u00a0stockings<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n To\u00a0 Beniana Moore <\/em><\/td>\n my\u00a0flower\u2019d German silk Hankerchief<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n