South of Winston-Salem in 1923 in a community called Yontztown, members of Trinity Moravian Church and its pastor, Douglas L. Rights, saw a need for a mission Sunday school.
The area had once been served by the old Eden Chapel, begun in 1875 near Emanuel Tesch’s. That work had been superseded in 1915 by the Yontztown Sunday School, begun by Trinity. But this work too had closed in the World War.
But now on January 28, 1923, work was begun again in Yontztown. Meetings were held in a rented store building, and Samuel J. Tesch — years later a bishop of the Moravian Church but now a seminary student — was superintendent.
This time the work took hold — but not before an early scare. The store the Sunday school was meeting in was sold. Faced with disbanding yet again or raising $2,500 for a building of their own, they opted for the latter, and even sold “shares” (“par value $25.00,” “a safe investment”) to raise the money. On June 8, 1924, the “new Eden chapel, on Lexington road, just south of the city limits,” was opened. Br. Rights of Trinity presided, and E. E. Knouse, an official of the old Eden Chapel, offered prayer.
Douglas Rights continued as overseeing pastor of New Eden, and James P. Crouch and William E. Spaugh conducted the services. This arrangement lasted until 1946, when Egbert G. Lineback was called as New Eden’s pastor. In 1953 Br. Lineback became New Eden’s first full-time pastor.
It was during Br. Lineback’s pastorate that the building of a new plant by Western Electric on Lexington Road required New Eden to seek a new home. The congregation chose the site of the old Eden Chapel at Old Lexington Road and Palmer Lane. While the new brick building was going up the congregation held services in a tent. Finally the new church was opened on May 8, 1955, with a combined cornerstone laying and lovefeast.
Still growing, New Eden completed upstairs Sunday school rooms in 1964, and erected a brick parsonage across the street from the church for its pastor in 1967. But for the last number of years, New Eden has declined in membership. In April 2000 it was yoked with Immanuel to share the same pastor, and then on October 7, 2002, it made Provincial history by merging with Immanuel to form a new congregation called Immanuel-New Eden Moravian Church.