10TH MORAVIAN WOMEN’S CONFERENCE
Joy on the Mountain
The tenth Moravian Women’s conference at St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, was an uplifting, spiritually amazing, well organized event in which almost 600 Moravian Women from around the world gathered to express heartfelt “Joy on the Mountain.”
The beautiful St. Olaf campus, situated at the top of Manitou Heights, was a perfect location for this inspirational experience. Our worship services and group gatherings were held in their newly remodeled chapel that had many stained glass windows depicting the life of Christ, the history of St. Olaf, and other Christian events.
The opening communion service held on Wednesday, June 27, 2007, officiated by the Rev. Kelly Moore, began the conference in the full spirit of togetherness as 12 Moravian women pastors presented monologues in the voices of Biblical women’s encounters with Christ. Hymn verses provided the congregation with the opportunity to respond to these thought-provoking and sometimes whimsical meditations. Over twice that number of women clergy served the large crowd the sacraments.
Joanne Wallace addressed the group on Thursday. Joanne is an award-winning author, speaker, and media personality whose ministry inspires women to discover who they are by realizing God’s total love, acceptance, and forgiveness through Christ. She challenged the conference to speak words of love and reminded us that attitude is a choice and that we should affirm others. Sometimes in doing this, we need to reach out of our comfort zones to be effective Christian witnesses. Conference attendees were encouraged to walk the talk and noted that discouraged people do not need critics.
Friday and Saturday speaker Kim Bolton, a musician whose humor and song brings the truth of God’s Word to today’s women, addressed the group. A wife and mother of four, her heart-felt message grew from an experience that left her fearful for her family. Through her faith in God, she was able to accept that event and not live in fear. Recognizing life is often storm-filled, she reminded the gathering that some storms are like hurricanes for which we can prepare and others are like tornados that hit unexpectedly. In all storms God’s love will sustain us.
The 26 small group sessions provided a well-rounded variety of topics from Bible women to exercise techniques, to child-rearing advice, to the celebrating of the 550th anniversary of the Moravian church.
Special entertainment prior to each evening’s program was provided by a wide variety of groups including a harp ensemble comprised of students ages 10-17, dancers demonstrating traditional dances of Mexico and India, Nordic Jam — a group of Nordic dance music lovers who play traditional tunes on a variety of instruments including fiddles, mandolins, guitars, string bass, and even a banjo — and Northfield Trombones, a group of 12 musicians who set aside their usual tenor trombones to play “Moravian style” using soprano, alto, tenor, bass, and contrabass instruments.
Time was set aside on Saturday afternoon for conference attendees to rest, shop, play board games, swim, fellowship, or take one of three tours. Tour options included one of Minneapolis and St. Paul with stops at various cultural and historical sights. For those looking for adventure, the St. Paul Gangster tour visited sites of the Swift payroll robbery, the Dillinger shoot-out with the FBI, the kidnapping site of the Hamm Brewery heir, and other notorious crimes in the upper Midwest. A third opportunity included a trip to Mall of America. The Friday evening worship celebration was International Night, a celebration of the worldwide Moravian Unity. International delegates from Jamaica, Tanzania South West Province, Guyana, the Netherlands, and India presented reports on ministries of women in their respective communities. The Jamaican women’s motto “With Goodwill Giving Service As To the Lord” sums up the mission and ministry of these groups despite very diverse cultures and geographic locations. Moravian women throughout the world are engaged in ministries of service whether providing food and shelter in the wake of natural disasters, spiritual comfort, educational opportunities, or working to fight discrimination against women and children.
The closing service on Saturday night was a Lovefeast and Candlelight service. For this service, the large crowd was served a napkin, bun, and cup of coffee by members of the Main Street Moravian Church in Northfield and participants in the conference. The congregation was instructed rather than eating from their own bun, to share their bun with others, to enjoy the fellowship of sharing with others in the seats, and to speak personally to them in their sharing. This was indeed the true spirit of lovefeast.
During the service a special conference offering was collected for Likewise Ministries, the Board of World Mission’s global HIV/AIDS ministry and to help support the 2008 Women’s Consultation “Valiant Women in a Violent World” to be held in Herrnhut, Germany.
The conference program said it well…“We offer you respite here on the mountain to replenish your spirit as we worship and learn together…May we return to our own communities with our light restored, shouting for joy, and proclaiming peace and salvation throughout the world!” Theme scripture was Isaiah 52:7-8, Psalm 51:12, and Matthew 5:13-16.
The conference committee’s dedication to a spiritual conference was evident and they deserve our heart-felt thanks. Conference committee members from the Northern Province were Pat Baldwin (Chair), Thelma Carol Armstrong and Martha Liebenow. Southern Province committee members were Nancy Jackson and Valerie Westmoreland. Marie Abbuhl was Conference Registrar and Reba Kollman was Conference Treasurer. Bravo, ladies, well done! Please visit www.moravianwomensconference.org to view pictures of the event.
Submitted by Nancy Chandler, member of Hope Moravian Church, Hope, IN, and past president, Provincial Women’s Board; and Teresa Holzhueter, member of Lake Mills Moravian Church, Lake Mills, WI, and member of Provincial Women’s Board.
