From 5 June to 7 June 2024, the annual conference of Herrnhuter Missionshilfe took place in the congregation of Königsfeld in the Black Forest. The location was chosen deliberately, as Königsfeld is home to the Moravian Church's largest school organisation. And so it was only logical that the focus was on the topic of mission and school: how can the mission organisation strengthen the internationality of the school? Existing projects were presented and new ideas developed. In addition to the focus on education, a 20-strong choir from Mbeya, Tanzania, also took part in the annual conference. The singers reported on their country and gave a concert on Saturday evening. The audience was captivated by their commitment, singing and acting talent. The choir also characterised the ecumenical service on Sunday morning. A successful conference for everyone who took part! A short video of Hartmut Beck's meeting with the choir here and impressions of the choir concert here.

The Moravian Church is looking for a successor to Sister Heide-Rose Weber, who will be retiring soon. See the job advertisement here. The head of finance is the person in the church management responsible for finance, legal affairs and personnel. They work together as colleagues in the four-member church management team. Duties include responsibility for finance, accounting, church finances, property, personnel administration, IT, legal affairs and joint responsibility for the church. Another task is the responsibility for the management of the office in Bad Boll. The official language at the German offices in Bad Boll and Herrnhut is German; English is increasingly spoken within the management team. Anyone who would like to work in an international church in a self-determined and collegial manner is cordially invited to apply! For further information please contact Heide-Rose Weber (Tel. 07164/942140), Head of Finance or Niels Gärtner (Tel. 0521/65927), member of the Intersynodal Finance Committee.

Over the past few weeks, the vocational trainees at the rehabilitation centre of the worldwide Moravian Church on the Star Mountain SMRC near Ramallah (Palestine/West Bank) have had a new experience. For the first time, the young people with disabilities sat at traditional weaving frames. Firstly, they were shown the unique manual technique by their instructors. Afterwards, they all showed great enthusiasm and passion in learning this new technique. Six pictures here. The staff of the Star Mountain Rehabilitation Centre would like to thank the Waldensian Church in Italy. The members have decided that part of the Otto per Mille mandate tax to which they are entitled from the Italian state will be used to finance and expand the vocational training on Star Mountain. Waldensians from Germany and Italy have already supported the Star MountainRehabilitation Centre in the past.

The Moravian Church Rehabilitation Centre on Star Mountain SMRC (Palestine/West Bank) reports on two special events. As part of the project Promoting Inclusive Communities through Good Citizenship - funded by the German GIZ - senior staff from the centre went to Ramallah City Hall on 27 June 2024. There they conducted a workshop for employees of the city administration on the rights of people with disabilities. The SMRC is to help implement a corresponding inclusion guideline in practical policy. Many pictures here. At the same time, twelve young people from the SMRC were honoured at the Al-Khabrat leisure complex. They had taken part in a yoga training programme offered by experts from Ramallah to help calm their emotions. Many pictures here.

The rehabilitation centre of the worldwide Moravian Church on Star Mountain SMRC near Ramallah (Palestine/West Bank) wrote on Facebook on 21 June 2024: "We are pleased to announce that 15 graduates of our institution have been certified to form the Dabke dance group for the year 2024. The ceremonial presentation of the certificates, combined with a dance performance, took place on Thursday, 13 June 2024, at the Ramallah Cultural Palace. Believe us, it was a spectacular show in front of a large audience. We congratulate all the dancers on this great achievement and wish them continued success in their artistic careers! And always have fun dancing!" A video here. Some pictures here. Dabke is an oriental folk dance that is danced in the Middle East and around the eastern Mediterranean at family celebrations and other events such as farewells and welcomes.

"Hip hip hooray! Today we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of our polyclinic in Brownsweg," was the message on the Facebook pages of the Medical Mission in Suriname on 25 June 2024 (Medische Zending, Primary Health Care Suriname). See here. There was dancing and singing (in the local language Sranan) and finally a huge birthday cake was cut. Video here. Brownsweg is a settlement and holiday resort in the Surniamese district of Brokopondo, about 100 kilometres south of the capital Paramaribo with a population of just under 5,000. The village is surrounded by tropical rainforest and south of it is one of the largest reservoirs in the world in terms of surface area, the Brokopondo Reservoir. As recently as 23 June 2024, an online magazine described the construction of the reservoir system in the 1960s as a "colonial tragedy". See here. In the Brokopondo region, there is also a Moravian Church school cluster run by the EBGS school foundation, consisting of five schools.

On Saturday, 29 June 2024, employees of the missionary society of the Moravian Church in the Netherlands ZZg visited important partner organisations in Suriname, outside Paramaribo in the so-called landlocked country. They first visited Elfie Gajadhar, the director of Sukh Dhaam (House of Happiness), a children's home run by the Moravian Church. Only four years ago, out of gratitude, she took over the management of this home, where she herself lived as a child. Video with the beautiful view from the veranda of the children's home here. The visit then continued to the Leliëndaal children's home, where the guests were warmly welcomed by the home's director, Christina Diran. Finally, a visit was made to the pastor Urmie Mingoen, who lives right between the orphanages. Before her community service, Urmie Mingoen worked for years in the Moravian Church's school foundation and researched the history of Moravian Church educational work in Suriname. She will soon be coming to Europe for the mission festival in Zeist (NL).

In the anthology Transculturality. Gender- und bildungshistorische Perspektiven, ed. by Wolfgang Gippert et al. (transkript Verlag Bielefeld), the Pietism and Moravian Church researcher Pia Schmid, professor at the University of Halle/Saale, publishes an 18-page essay on Moravian Church mission in North America in the 18th/19th century. The essay is entitled: John Heckewelder's 'History of Indian Nations' (1819). A missionary as proto-ethnologist. The essay can be read online here (page 105ff). Pia Schmidt shows how the Moravian missionary John Heckewelder, a student of David Zeisberger, endeavoured to awaken understanding among his white readers for the differences in the customs and traditions of the indigenous peoples of North America. John Heckewelder does this, for example, in his comments on scalping, a custom that seems particularly cruel and senseless to Europeans, but which makes perfect sense in the culture and warfare of the Native Americans.

• Issue 12-2024 of the widely read magazine Publik-Forum contains an article by Johann Hinrich Claussen, Berlin, the EKD's cultural representative, on the Moravian Church's first picture. The article combines an appreciative look at this picture with critical comments on the circumstances that contributed significantly to its creation. Listen to the article here.
• Several webinars organised by Mission 21 in Basel, an organisation to which the Herrnhut Mission in Switzerland also belongs, are dedicated to the actions of Christian missionary societies in the context of slavery and colonialism. It examines historical points of contact between Christian missions and racism and discrimination. With the eleven webinars, Mission 21 makes it clear that the transparent and scientific reappraisal of missionary history is one of the organisation's most important concerns. To the eleven webinars here.

• The Mission Museum of the Moravian Church in Genadendal, South Africa, is supported by an organised circle of friends, which elected its new governing committee on 17 June 2024. Creswell Adonis will represent the circle of friends on the board of the Mission Museum. Pictures here.
• On 25 June 2024, a youth sports day took place in Genadendal, jointly organised by the Mission Museum, the Genadendal Public Library and a student tutoring organisation called WCED@HomeLearning. Pictures here. There was also a thematic unit on this day: "Actively utilising the socio-economic advantages of our democracy". The Mission Museum once again recalled the great economic traditions of Genadendal, beginning in the early 19th century, specifically Johann Heinrich Schmitt, the first wagon maker among the Moravian missionaries, who opened his workshop for covered ox-carts (cape carts) in 1807. A picture here.