THE UNITAS FRATRUM THE UNITY BOARD MEETING SOUTH AFRICA, MARCH 11-18, 2005

MESSAGE TO THE PROVINCES OF THE UNITY

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We the members of the Unity Board of the Moravian Church (Unitas Fratrum) meeting in Cape Town, South Africa greet you warmly in the Name of our Chief Elder, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is a special joy to send you this message from our meeting, a full report of which will be sent to your Provincial Board.

Our host has shown great hospitality, allowing us to share meaningfully in the life and worship of the Province and to experience something of what makes South Africa a great country. We regret that due to difficulties with visa arrangements the representative from Honduras was not able to attend. However, to our great delight we had representation from all the other Unity and Affiliated Provinces.

This meeting was the first being chaired by our new president Br. Robert Sawyer, of the USA Southern Province, who took over as President of the Unity Board on January 1, 2005. We thank our outgoing President, Br. Angetile Musomba of the Tanzania Southern Province, for the leadership he gave to the Unity during his tenure. Our meeting also elected Sr. Angelene Swart of the South African Province as Vice-President.

We have had the chance to hear directly from the representatives about life in the Unity. We learned about the challenges being faced in Labrador and have asked the American Provinces to journey with Labrador in making a careful review of the work with a view to its strengthening. We heard of the joys and challenges being experienced in Nicaragua, Suriname, Alaska, Britain, and Northern Ireland. We assured the Eastern West Indies and Guyana of our love and support as they recover from recent disasters and congratulated Jamaica as they too recover while observing the 250th year of witness in their country. We rejoiced with the four Provinces in Tanzania for the rapid growth that they are experiencing and encouraged the American, Czech, and Continental Provinces in the new initiatives for growth they have implemented.

When we realized that there are now several areas of new work being undertaken in the Unity (including Albania, Belize, French Guyana, Zambia, Malawi, Congo, Cuba, Latvia, Slovakia, Eastern Siberia, Eastern Germany, the Northern and Lake Tanganyika areas of Tanzania, Florida, and among the Garifuna in Honduras) we concluded that we are at an exciting moment in the life of our church. For that reason, we felt that the time we spent discussing the meaning and role of the Unity today was well spent. We were able again to affirm that we are a single church, existing in provinces that exercise a ministry of mutual accountability and guidance under the administration of the Unity Board. It was a moment then to call each other to fulfil this role of mutual guidance, under the authority of the Unity Synod and the Unity Board, and so foster the unity to which we have been called.

It was with great regret, therefore, that the Unity Board had to call the Czech Province and the Czech Unity Undertaking, which is being supervised by the Continental Province to see that by their actions over the recent years they both have effectively broken fellowship with the Unity. The Unity Board had consensus in its belief that the fellowship must be restored for both of them to have their usual participation and privileges in the gatherings of the Unitas Fratrum. We have specifically asked the Czech Province to take steps to re-order the practice of the ordained ministry in their Province, so that it comes in line with the rest of the Unity. The Czech Unity Undertaking for its part needed to show further compliance with the request of the Unity Board. We expect that both the Czech Unity Undertaking and the Czech Province will give evidence of their conformity to the spirit and provisions of the Church Order of the Unitas Fratrum. Until there is compliance, certain rights and privileges they enjoy will be suspended. The details of the decision of the Unity Board in this matter will be communicated to your Provincial Board.

And so as we close our meeting in South Africa, we ask you members of the Moravian Church to make the work of our Church in all its Provinces a matter of ongoing prayer. Moreover we urge you to strive to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Yours in Christ’s Service,

Robert E. Sawyer
President, Unity Board