Page 2 - Moravian Messenger Oct 2020

Editorial
Many of us will feel indebted to Sr Roberta Hoey's lead article this month on background leading up to the ordination of women in the British Province. I had heard of Sr Emily Shaw but had never met her and I was delighted to learn more about her and her ministry. It struck a real chord with me as this year in July I passed my 30th anniversary of ordination in 1990 at the Bath Synod and Chris and my 40th wedding anniversary in Brockweir in 1980.
'Standing on the shoulders of giants' really is a phrase that so many of us would echo when we look back over our call to ministry and our time in ministry. I was so lucky growing up in Brockweir with a wonderful ecumenically minded and encouraging Baptist Union minister, Br Dennis Monger who was also the minister of Brockweir Moravian Church. The Provincial Board of the Moravian Church had been visionary in allowing the Church to be pastored by this godly man from another Christian tradition, and he kept the Church open, developed and nurtured faith in the congregation there and allowed people to flourish.
Brockweir had been pastored by a woman before I was ordained: Sr E Gubi had been called to the pastoral charge of Brockweir when her husband, Bishop Gubi was called to the West Indies in 1949. The Provincial Board, again in a visionary move asked her to look after the congregation in her husband's absence. Reading some of the diary entries, she made it is clear that it was no easy task in what was a very isolated and poor community, but she was faithful to her calling until she re-joined her husband in 1952.
Sr Dorothy Moreton was another trail blazer, although she too would never have sought to be named as such. She had been a missionary nurse in Tanzania for many years and on her return was ordained in 1975 to serve in a number of congregations in the British Province. A tall, biblically based woman, wearing a simple blue dress and a silver cross.
The circumstances that women have come into the ordained ministry are varied: some have been single or married with families whilst others following the death of their husbands, continued their husband's work by becoming ministers in their own right; and some were ordained whilst their husbands were serving ministers and they served separate congregations. They all have their own stories and sense of God's call.
It has been easier for women to be accepted in this province compared to other provinces because of our call system. The congregations do not choose their ministers and the ministers go where the Provincial Board deploy them. This means that the congregations do not have the luxury of
asking male ministers to serve them, which has happened in other provinces.
Women have also served as the Chair of our Provincial Board, Sr Jackie Moreton being the first and now Sr Roberta Hoey; and other women have served in other capacities on the Provincial Board, known as the Provincial Elders Conference (PEC).
So much of this has been due to the action of others, and many of these people are named in Sr Hoey's article, but I would like to mention a few other factors. One has been the generous acceptance of women's ministry by the Provincial Board in many circumstances over the years. Another has been the egalitarian nature of the Moravian Church: we see Christ as the head of the Church, and we are all brothers and sisters with a calling is to serve each other. As a result, this has avoided much of the conservative discussion over male headship.
Lastly, I would like to mention the wonderful work of the Moravian Women's Association over 70 years. The MWA was due to celebrate its 70th anniversary in April and this sadly had to be postponed because of COVID-19. This organisation has been a way of nurturing women's talents and enabling them to contribute to the Church nationally and internationally as well as at the local level. Many of us owe a huge amount to the influence and work of the MWA and it is right to honour them for this and I wish the MWA all God's blessings in the years to come.
So, I personally give thanks to all the giants who went before me and on whose shoulders I have stood, and I pray that we will all be encouraging to those who will come after us, men and women. Our Church faces many challenges at the moment, and it needs committed Christian men and women in all areas of its life. October is the season of Congregation Council meetings when reports are given, accounts reviewed, and the future planned. Think not so much of what others can or should do but on what you can offer to do for Christ and the Church.
The Church is not formed by those who are seen as the trail blazers. Rather it is composed of men and women in so many areas of Church life including
those regular members of our
congregations who are with us Sunday by Sunday. The Church does not depend on any one of us but on all of us and each of us are 'just another brick in the wall' or to put it more prosaically 'living stones in Christ united.'
Sr Sarah Groves
Editorial Team
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© Sr Sarah Groves