While New Beginnings was forming in the suburbs of Charlotte, another Moravian church was taking shape in the suburbs of North Carolina’s second largest metropolitan district, Raleigh. And both new churches are the fruit of the process of deliberate church planting.
Actually, Holly Springs Moravian Church came about in a special way. It had a “mother church” — Raleigh Moravian.
In early 1999 the Province called Hal Atkins to be assistant pastor at Raleigh Moravian. His task was not just the established Raleigh congregation, but included beginning a new church in fast-growing southwestern Wake County. Two years of labor bore fruit when a tract of land in Holly Springs was purchased and dedicated on May 20, 2001. Later that year, on Saturday, September 15, the charter for membership in the fledgling church was opened, and the new congregation began worshiping weekly and separately from Raleigh Moravian. Assistance was also received from nearby Christ the King Moravian Church in Durham.
In the spring of 2003 church’s property received an offer of improvements from the town of Holly Springs in exchange for locating a fire station there. The site will easily accommodate a church and fire station with room to spare, and the improvements will come in handy when it comes time to build. In the meantime, the congregation is quickly outgrowing its current place of worship at Arbor Creek, a commercial shopping center.
Progress at Holly Springs has been slow but steady. Finally the charter was ready for closing on September 14, 2003, making Holly Springs the newest full church of the Southern Province, well in time for the observance of the Province’s 250th anniversary date on November 17, 2003.*
* In 2018 this congregation is now closed.