Page 7 - Moravian Messenger June 2019

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It's a joy to give a brief report about South Asia Moravian Church (SAMC) Development Conference and Pastors' Retreat which took place from 8th April to 12th April 2019 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
The conference was attended by Sr Roberta Hoey, the chair of British Mission Board (BMB), Br Jorgen Bøytler, the administrator of Unity Board, and Br Paul Holdsworth from the British Mission Board, all the active pastors, nine lay members and three theological students. The conference began with a warm welcome by local pastor of Nepal, Pastor Nagendra and his wife Sr Kamaleswori.
There were around four sessions on the first day and five on second day. We were glad to receive a presentation of the draft of the framework of SAMC by a Framework Drafting committee led by Rev Thsespal Kundan. The committee comprised of Br Thsespal Kundan, Br Samson Thangpa, Sr Vani Pradhan and Br Ebenezer Gangmei: they were appointed by the British Mission Board in and after February 2018 SAMC conference in Delhi. The Framework committee distributed a copy of SAMC's
constitution in the form of booklet to each person.
The conference lasted for two days after Br Bøytler's presentation on the Unitas Fratrum. The delegates including the Pastors and Lay members focused on understanding and conceptualising the Framework.
Most of the proposals made by the Drafting Committee were agreed, in fact all were satisfied with the constitution and have shown great appreciation towards its drafting and the contents. However, the terminologies and words were quite confusing and are not commonly used in regular church settings in South Asia. Therefore a memorandum of understanding was agreed to outline the way forward and time will be given for delegates to convey to their local congregations before they should go ahead with it.
Other than that there were short devotions in between the sessions, mostly led by Br Shanti Pradhan, and Bible studies led by Br Ebenezer Gangmei and Br Thsespal Kundan on topics of maintaining the spirit of Unity in micro to macro level and the future of SAMC in comparison to Paul's missionary work in first century. The development
conference ended on 10th of April with the Cup of Covenant conducted by Br Paul.
Our pastors' retreat which began on the evening of Wednesday 10th also included Theological students. Br Paul led the retreat which was exclusively for the pastors: active and retired. The retreat involved question and answer sessions and more discussions. Br Paul made sure that everyone participated in the retreat and as a result everybody did. I expect that everyone who took part has learned something and moreover it was indeed beneficial for pastors and students alike.
His primary theme for the retreat was that we ought to be contextual in our way of doing our ministry. Although the message and the way things look would be good, they may not necessarily mean good to the people in a particular place. He ended the session with the illustration of two images: The first one is of a flower from the Himalayas - the Rhododendron which looks very good in its place. The second image is the image of England's landscape where the same flowers continue to flourish but have taken over and destroyed the entire local flowers and its vegetation.
Br Dimchui Rongmei
Student Pastor, Moravian Church, Leh, Ladakh
© Sr Roberta Hoey
South Asia Moravian Church Development Conference