Dr Livingstone Thompson and Professor Peter Gubi, along with several scholars in the Worldwide Moravian Church, are currently engaged in bringing together a book entitled: Current Trends in Moravian Theology and Mission: The legacy of 13th August, 1727.

On 13th August 1727, during a Holy Communion service at the Lutheran parish church in Berthelsdorf, the members of the Herrnhut community experienced a profound moment of spiritual renewal and reconciliation. It was like an outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which manifested itself in that, as one person observed, ‘we learned to love one another’. For this reason, the day is considered the spiritual ‘birthday’ of the renewed Unitas Fratrum (Moravian Church). It also has been called the ‘Moravian Pentecost’, although there were no signs of ecstatic or extraordinary spiritual manifestations. With this new sense of unity and purpose, the Herrnhut community was transformed to grow into a movement for mission and evangelism of international scope. 13th August 1727 is therefore a reference point within the Renewed Moravian Church. The year 2027 marks the 300th anniversary of that event.

The book, which will be released to mark the 300th Anniversary, aims to celebrate that event, but also to reflect on the legacy of the Renewed Moravian Church in today’s Church, and to encourage thinking across the Unitas Fratrum of how the past may help determine a future direction for the Worldwide Moravian Church.

One would think that such an important event would have been artistically represented in some way, but search as we have, there seems to be no such artistic representation. So, we are launching an art competition to create an image that captures this event of 13th August 1727. Artists, from across the Unity are being invited to participate and to submit entries for this competition.

The image adjudicated to be the winning image will feature on the cover of the book and the winner will be awarded £500. A maximum of three complimentary awards of £100 will also be given for other submissions that are selected for inclusion in the book. All awarded works will reside in the Moravian Archives of the British Province and be owned by the Moravian Church, British Province.

The closing date for the art competition is 31st July 2026. Please submit your images digitally to Professor Peter Gubi at peter.gubi@moravian.org.uk or by post (postal address available on demand). We look forward to your participation and to seeing products of the creative talent across the Unity.

Launching in February this year is The Gathered Stream

What is it? Well, the hope is that The Gathered Stream will be made up of Moravians across the British Province who wish to develop their relationship with God and connection with each other in a form of online Bible Study with every fourth week being a shared time of worship.

The initiative for this is motivated by the NCD study which has shown areas for development which include ‘Passionate Spirituality’ and ‘Loving Relationships’ and the way the Bible is a ‘source of inspiration in my life’. However, it’s also inspired by the work that Sr Lindsey Newens headed up in relation to the diaspora for many years, reminding us of the need to create space and find ways of connecting those who live all over the U.K. but call the Moravian Church their home.

The team beginning this new initiative together are: Sr Lorraine Shorten, Br James Woolford, Sr Sue Groves and Sr Claire Maxwell. Please do not hesitate to be in contact with any of us via our Moravian.org e-mail if you have any questions or using the poster details let us know you are coming so that we can send you a link to our online meetings.

We will meet each week on Tuesdays, and our hope is to form a supportive community of Moravians who want to come together and share a bit of life together each week. We are excited as a team to be starting this new initiative with the support of Provincial Board and will be beginning with a Bible Study which focuses on the book ‘Our Moravian Treasures’.

Sr Claire Maxwell

Minister of Lower Wyke and Horton Moravian Churches

Moravians in Conversation is a group made up of sisters and brothers from across the Unity that meets four times a year to discuss topics of shared interest. The group is organised by Br Niels Gaertner from Herrnhuter Missionschilfe, the Moravian Mission Society in Germany. It is open to anyone who is interested.

I recently attended the planning meeting for 2025. The dates and topics will be:

• Wednesday 29th January at 2pm – Fear
• Wednesday 21st May at 2pm – The Nicene Creed (which is 1,700 years old in 2025)
• Wednesday 24th September at 2pm – Creation
• Wednesday 19th November at 2pm – The Kingdom of God

I will share the full details including Zoom links with all the ministers and church secretaries a few weeks before each meeting.

This group has been going for a few years now and is a fantastic opportunity to get to know and learn from sisters and brothers from around the world. I hope that you can join us.

Br Michael Newman