At a special worship service in January at Trinity Moravian Church in Winston Salem, North Carolina, the Board of World Mission presented the Trinity congregation with the 2023 Herrnhut Congregational Affirmation.
BWM’s Chris Giesler and Angelica Regalado-Cieza present the Herrnhut Congregational Affirmation to John Jackman, pastor at Trinity Moravian.
In 2019, the Board of World Mission voted to recognize congregations in North America who were doing exemplary mission and service work, both in their local communities as well as in global mission efforts. Board members decided to name this the Herrnhut Congregational Affirmation for Dedicated Mission and Service.
Why Herrnhut, you might ask? Many of you already know the answer. In 1731, the small Moravian community in Herrnhut, Germany, was introduced to Anthony Ulrich, a man of African descent, who was the slave of a Danish nobleman. Anthony told the community about the conditions under which several of his family members lived as enslaved persons on sugar plantations on the island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. On that day, hearts were stirred to action, and within a year, Herrnhut missionaries Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann were on the ground in St. Thomas, seeking to be the light of Christ to the enslaved persons on that island.
In the next ten years, the Herrnhut community would send missionaries to Greenland, Lapland, Georgia (US), Guinea Coast (Africa), South Africa, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Dutch Guiana (now Surinam), Algiers (Africa), St. Croix (Virgin Islands), Pennsylvania and New York (US). Those actively serving on mission fields were supported by the prayers and encouragement of the community back home and by the financial support received from the industries set up to raise funds for this endeavor. This demonstrated the Christian compassion and determination Moravians showed to see that the oppressed would know of God’s love for them.
The Herrnhut Congregational Affirmation for Dedicated Mission and Service goes to a Moravian congregation in the Northern or Southern Province that is in some way following the example of the Moravian community in Herrnhut by actively giving of themselves in terms of time, talent and treasure to be the light of Christ to others. We are thrilled to name Trinity Moravian Church as the second recipient of this affirmation.
Here are just a few of the ways Trinity Moravian Church is involved in mission:
- Trinity was instrumental in the organization of Sunnyside Ministry and continues to be a key part of this dynamic ministry as it has long outgrown the little house across the parking lot from the church.
- Trinity has also been instrumental in the formation of the Anthony’s Plot ministry housed right next door in their parsonage. This ministry, by the way, was named after the Anthony who inspired that first Moravian Mission to St. Thomas.
- Trinity is actively involved in the City With Dwellings organization providing meals and safe shelter to Winston-Salem’s unhoused population.
- Trinity gives children a place to learn, grow, and experience Christian community each Wednesday evening with the Logos Program.
- Their most recent – and most visible – work is Trinity‘s leadership in the medical debt relief partnership with RIP Medical Debt that has enabled well over a thousand families to escape the prison of medical debt. Their work has inspired people like Casey McIntire and her husband Gregory to raise over $700,000 in Casey’s final months of fighting ovarian cancer. This effort forgave over $70 million dollars of debt in New York City. They heard about the good work of the Trinity congregation and wanted to follow that example. And they inspired Moravians from across North America to surpass the stated goal of raising $50,000 in 50 days to raising over $102,000. This provided the Moravian Clinic in Ahuas, Honduras with $25,000 that they would have never received for the ministry they provide. It also forgave over 10 million dollars of
Members of Trinity Moravian celebrate the retirement of medical debt.
medical debt in the states of Alaska, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin and the District of Columbia. The good work of Trinity Moravian Church inspired all of that and more.
As recorded in the latter half of Matthew’s 25th chapter, Jesus teaches that when you do this for the least of these, you do it also unto me. With deep appreciation for the ministry of the Trinity congregation, and with gratitude for all of the ways they are meeting the basic needs of the “least of these” in their community and beyond, the Board of World Mission is honored to present Trinity Moravian Church with the 2023 Herrnhut Congregational Affirmation.
Sylvie Hauser is director of communications and development for the Board of World Mission.
