Page 3 - Moravain Messenger December 2020

Provincial Board Reconstitution
The Provincial Board reconstituted on 22nd October 2020 following the resignation of Br Mark Kernohan. The following are elected to serve as Provincial Elders:
Sr Roberta Hoey (By Postal Ballot 2016 - 4 years full time)*; Br Paul Holdsworth (Synod 2018 – 2 years part time)*, Br David Howarth (Synod 2018 – 4 years part time) and Br Livingstone Thompson (Synod 2018 – 4 years part time).
The Provincial Board (PEC), in being elected, are thereby elected as Trustees of The Choir House, Fulneck School, Ockbrook School and the Moravian Union Incorporated which includes the Moravian Church, the Estates Property Portfolio and The British Mission Board in compliance with the Charity Commissioners.
In addition the Provincial Board act as Directors of the Moravian Union Incorporated as regulated by Companies
House and each hold one share in the Company whilst in office. Br Paul Holdsworth has been appointed as Company Secretary.
The P.E.C. met to decide upon the divisions of responsibility; but it remains a collegiate body, with all decisions being the responsibility of the Board as a whole.
THE PROVINCIAL BOARD
Chair␣ Sr R Hoey Provincial Treasurer ␣Br L Thompson Property matters ␣ Br D Howarth
Members of PEC will attend the following Provincial Committees as appropriate:-
Finance Committee Church Service Committee Faith & Order and Ecumenical Relations Committee Mission and Society Committee World Mission Committee Provincial Youth Committee
The Provincial Board have appointed Br P Cooper as our National Ecumenical Officer.
THE BRITISH MISSION BOARD
Chair␣␣ Treasurer ␣
Sr R Hoey Br L Thompson
The Unity Synod has entrusted oversight of the work of the Moravian Church in the South Asia Mission Province to The Mission Board and has a close relationship with the Western Province of Tanzania as agreed by the Unity Mission Agencies.
In addition the British Province, through the British Mission Board, continues to have close links with and give support to The Elim Home, Star Mountain and Sikonge Hospital. This support is directed through the Unity Mission Agencies who have been entrusted with that responsibility by the Unity Synod.
*Sr Hoey & Br Holdsworth will complete their term at the next Provincial Synod, due 2020 but currently postponed until 2021 due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Soldier and the Star
- The Guiding Star
An account of Christmas by Rev Bernie Michel first printed in the December 1984 issue of The North American Moravian, reprinted by permission of the Interprovincial Board of Communication of the Moravian Church in America.
It was Christmas, 1945. The first Christmas after the close of World War II. I was still in uniform in the army of occupation in the historic city of Bayreuth, Germany. I had wanted to spend Christmas with the Moravian community at Bad Boll, but duty called.
I did have a few hours on Christmas Day I could call my own. A few Moravian refugees were located in the nearby town of Munchberg. They had come there from Silesia to keep alive the weaving industry of the Abraham Dürninger firm and had temporarily set up shop in a Bavarian factory.
I prevailed upon the chaplain to loan me his jeep, but the trip seemed doomed to failure. A flat tyre delayed my arrival until dark. My contact person was not at his hotel, he had gone to spend the holiday with his family. The lady at the factory understood my ersatz German enough to say that other
Moravian families lived up the hill, but she did not know where.
In the dark coldness of the night I drove up and down the deserted streets, feeling frustrated and alone.
Then suddenly I saw the star. It was a Moravian Advent star hanging in a doorway. The wise men could not have rejoiced more. I eagerly knocked and the door opened to one of the best Christmases I have ever known. The Maasbergs, the Roths, and T/4 Michel gathered in that home that evening to share the love of God and the joys of Christmas. A box from home provided us with Christmas cake and cookies. A year before those of us in the room had been considered enemies. But peace and blessings were in that home in Munchberg that night.
It was the star that guided me to a Christmas of joy.
Bernie Michel
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