Due to a schism in the province in 2000, eight of its original congregations comprise the so-called Herrnhut Seniorate of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.

[2][3] The movement was originally started by a Catholic priest named Jan Hus in approximately 1405 as part of the Bohemian Reformation, making it one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity.

[4][5][6] Hus opposed many aspects of the Catholic Church in Bohemia, including the Bohemian view of ecclesiology, simony and the Eucharist.

After the expulsions of the Protestants from Czech lands during the 17th and 18th centuries, some families from Moravia, specifically from Fulnek and adjacent area, who preserved the traditions of the old Bohemian brethren, found refuge in Saxony.

Part of the congregations that wanted to retain the traditional forms of liturgy left the independent Czech province (Jednota bratrská) and formed a newly-established Herrnhut Seniorate (Ochranovský seniorát) of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren which remained part of the world-wide Moravian Church.