The Star Mountain Rehabilitation Center near Ramallah (Palestine/West Bank) has completed its first summer education camp. The camp, which ran from 19 to 24 July 2024, was part of the Positive Youth Engagement project. The camp was attended by 35 children from the center and also from outside. It was organised together with the Tamkeen Foundation and received support from the globally active Mercy Corps. The aim of the camp was to improve interaction between the participants. During the children's all-day get-togethers with their peers, innovative and transformative learning was to be practised and psychological support provided. Due to its good building infrastructure and green surroundings, the Star Mountain (Jabal Al-Najma), located at an altitude of around 800 metres, is ideally suited for events such as summer camps. Some pictures here.

As part of the long-term project Promoting Inclusive Communities through Good Citizenship - funded by the German GIZ - the Star MountainRehabilitation Center near Ramallah (Palestine/West Bank) organised several workshops in cooperation with other staff in the second half of July 2024. These were intended for parents of children with disabilities who intend to send their children to children's clubs in Beit Unia, Beit Liqya, Kharbatha Al-Misbah, Ni'lin, Qibya and Deir Abu Mash'al. At the workshops, the parents were informed about the aims of the clubs. They learnt about the educational and training opportunities available to their children in the clubs, what is generally expected of parents and how they can get involved in the implementation of educational activities at home. There was also an opportunity for questions and feedback. Some pictures here.

The Board of World Mission in the USA is currently coordinating an emergency relief effort for the victims of Hurricane Beryl, which caused severe devastation in Jamaica in early July. Rev Barrington Daley, President of the Moravian Provincial Board in Jamaica, has reported that while the damage from the storm can be seen throughout the country, the greatest damage is in the congregations of Manchester and St Elizabeth. Church buildings and the homes of Moravian Church members have sustained significant roof damage, and there is still no electricity or access to telephones in much of Jamaica. Together with the Board of World Mission, Herrnhuter Missionshilfe has also made funds available from its emergency relief fund. Donations can be made directly to the USA via this link. Alternatively, donations can also be transferred to Herrnhuter Missionshilfe using the reference Hurricane Beryl (DE25 5206 0410 0000 4151 03).

The Unity Women's Desk, headquartered in Winston-Salem, NC, reminds you in a Facebook post: "Eleven months from now, the 5. Unity Women’s Consultation will take place in North Carolina (1-8 June 2025)! We invite you to follow the members of the Moravian Church around the world and pray for the selection and preparation of the delegates, for the members of the local preparation circles and for all volunteers. They are all working together to make the Consultation a transformative experience for women from all provinces of the worldwide Moravian Church and for the Unity as a whole. Please follow this link to our website - here. Under this link you can download intercession information every month and in this way take part in the important prayer service for the consultation." The motto of the consultation is: With Hearts and Hands and Voices: Advocating for Girls and Women in and through the Moravian Church.

Until 22 September 2024, an exhibition entitled Christianity and Slavery from a Dutch Perspective can be seen in the Catharijneconvent Museum in Utrecht. Historical sources (hitherto little known) as well as ancient and modern art provide insights into the relationship between Christianity and the Dutch slavery past. Christianity had a decisive influence on the way slavery was thought about. Both pro and contra arguments came from the Bible. The Unity Archive in Herrnhut was involved in the realisation of the exhibition. Opening hours on the museum website: see here. The exhibition is accompanied by a 22-part supporting programme. On 25 July 2024 at 2 pm, Maurice San-A-Jong will speak about the Moravian Church slavery. On 25 August 2024 at 3 pm, there will be a gospel concert with Denise Jannah, who has Surinamese roots.

On Saturday, 21 September 2024, the Moravian Church in the Netherlands will celebrate this year's central mission festival in Zeist. The programme is similar to that of previous years: morning and afternoon services, delicious food and drinks, in-depth thematic sessions. The theme of this year's programme is: Go2School! -300 years of Herrnhut's educational work. Together we will reflect on the special features of Herrnhut education. What makes it so unique? When did the first Moravian missionaries start teaching? What educational work does the Moravian Church still do today in the Netherlands, Suriname and other countries? Our guest this time is the pastor Urmie Mingoen from Suriname. She worked for years as an educational counsellor at the Moravian Church's school foundation in Suriname. Now retired, she offers empowerment training to Surinamese teachers. More here.

The missionary couple Bettina and Morten Poulsen, sent out with their two children by Brødremenighedens Danske Mission. They recently published new video scenes. See here (200 seconds). The scenes are intended as a report on the work of the Moravian Church in Mwanza, Kipili and Sikonge, which has been going on for many years with support from Denmark. The scenes are intended for screening at the mission festival in Christiansfeld/DK and as a film full of thanks. The video scenes show very simple churches of the Moravian Church, which look more like a tin shed, but also beautiful new churches and schools that are under construction and almost finished. In any case, they show the commitment of the brothers and sisters there. In Mwanza and in the area around Lake Victoria, the Moravian Church is still a very young church.

The latest issue of the Moravian Magazine contains the 24-page annual report 2023 of the Board of World Mission (BWM) of the Moravian Church in North America. See in English here. On the organisation's Facebook pages, the report states: "Relationships built up over months, years and decades enable the BWM to work with trustworthy local partners. In this way, the BWM can help where it could not with its own staff. Although the great need in many parts of the world may discourage us, we realise that with faith, imagination and dedication, we at the BWM are always able to find resources and provide support where it is most urgently needed. Praise be to God, from whom all blessings flow!" Emergency Aid was provided, for example, in Ukraine, on the Star Mountain and in Honduras. Partnership aid went to Nicaragua, Peru and Cuba, for example.

The exact programme for the traditional Teachers' Days of the Moravian Church School Foundation in Suriname, annual training and encounter days that are always held in the summer, has now been finalised. This time, the Teachers' Days will take place on 18 and 19 September 2024 in the mornings at the FHR School of Business in Paramaribo. The exact programme here. Cost: 50 Surinamese dollars per programme unit (approx. EUR 1.60). Precise registration is required. The Ludwig Carl Schütz School of the Moravian Church in Paramarobo, which was founded in 1964, organised a general play and sports participation day on 19 July 2024. The invitation to the event stated: ‘Come along! Enjoy socialising and joining in! You can try out several sports and get moving on this day.’ See the invitation poster here. Lack of exercise is also a problem for urban children in Suriname.

To commemorate Keti-Koti on 1 July 2024, the day on which slavery was abolished in Suriname in the summer of 1863, the National Foundation for the Promotion of Early Childhood Reading (Stichting Kinderboekenfestival) presented a new children's book: Jacquelina, slave on the Driesveld plantation. The story was written by Aspha Bijnaar, Ineke Mok and Dineke Stam. The book was illustrated by Kae Solo. And the story was read aloud for an educational video by the young educator Naömi Moor from Paramaribo. She lived and worked in Germany for a few months in the first half of 2018 to mark the World Day of Prayer, which featured the country of Suriname in 2018. Watch the video here. Previously, the Foundation for the Promotion of Early Childhood Reading had already produced four other children's books exploring the history of Suriname and had them read by various people for educational videos. Seehere and here and here and here.

The company C. Kersten & Co. N.V. (naamloze vennootschap = similar public limited company) is the oldest company in Suriname still in existence today. The company emerged from a small trading house of the Moravian Church founded on 29 June 1768 to finance the Moravian Church mission and has experienced ups and downs. Today, the company is one of the largest and most diversified companies in Suriname with 13 operating companies divided into five divisions. The company is owned by the worldwide Moravian Church and is managed by the Moravian Church Foundation (MCF) through the sub-company MCF Business Enterprises B.V. MCF distributes any profits made in favour of Moravian Church projects in many countries. On 5 July 2024, shares in ‘C. Kersten & Co.’ were ceremoniously transferred to the Unity Province of Suriname, bringing to an end over 40 years of struggle by the province. The shares are to be kept in a separate foundation of the Moravian Church in Suriname. A speech by President Runaldo Gallant on this matter can be found here. On the evening of the transfer of the shares, a thanksgiving service was celebrated in the Great City Church of Paramaribo.

A new eight-page spotlight was published in July 2024 from the Clinica Evangelica Morava in Ahuas, Honduras. See here. Firstly, it is reported that there has been a generational change in the clinic's bookshop. The new bookkeeper is 22-year-old Belly Floridalma Goslen López, a single parent from the nearby town of Wawina. Several young and older volunteers are then introduced, who have proven themselves in various areas of the clinic, especially in building services. In April and May 2024, seven volunteers were present at the same time, who also worked in the clinic's outpatient paediatric nutrition programme. Briefly presented are a) the clinic's large vegetable garden and the new cocoa project, in which self-sufficiency is an important topic, b) three male scholarship recipients at the clinic and c) the impact of the clean drinking water project. Finally, an interesting statistic can be viewed that provides information on medical issues in the first quarter of 2024.

On 20 July 2024, another congregational meeting of the Moravian Church in Latvia took place in Dzērbene, south of Cesis. There has been a beautiful Lutheran church in Dzērbene since 1842, where the attendees first gathered. However, the Moravian Church's wooden prayer hall from 1830 disappeared sometime in the middle third of the 20th century, but its former location has now been identified (photo of the old entrance door here). A sign was placed on the site where the prayer hall used to be (photo here), a prayer service was held (photo here) and memorabilia was displayed. There was a special moment of remembrance at the grave of Herrnhuter Aumaņu Andžs in the old cemetery, whose blessed work was remembered in detail. The pastor of the neighbouring Lutheran congregation in Rauna, Edijs Kalniņš, a friend of the Moravian Church, was also present at the community day.

The Moravian Church in Latvia - together with large sections of the population - has been involved in helping Ukraine, which is under attack from the Putin regime in Russia, since March 2022. Now, under the leadership of one of its members, Raitis Zariņš, an aid transport (car with trailer) has been organised to Ukraine. Raitis Zariņš, a car mechanic and professional driver, is a volunteer leader of the Moravian Church in Cimza near Rauna, the home of the famous Latvian educator Jānis Cimze. The attic of his farmstead also houses the Moravian Church's meeting hall and a private museum. A longer report on the Ukraine aid transport by Ingrīda Briede, Riga (translated by Manfred Kruppa), can be found here. The report contains sober information and personal experiences, e.g: ‘My most important impression in Ukraine - the constant roar of the generators. My second impression: the Russian language has fallen into disuse in the country.’ The aid transport travelled a total of 1,000 kilometres to Bila Zerkva and Kiev and then back again.

Taking advantage of the public attention that the Moravian Church is currently receiving due to the designation of the Moravian Church Settlements as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Herrnhut, Bethlehem/PA, Gracehill/Northern Ireland, Christiansfeld/DK), the Moravian Church in Latvia began producing a film about the history and present of their church on 27/28 July 2024. The main protagonists were cameraman Janis Skulme and pastor and historian Gundars Ceipe. The film was initially shot in the Valmiera district and also a little in the Smiltene region. It was in this region and in the old Hanseatic city of Riga that the work of the Moravian Church in Russian-occupied Livonia and Estonia began in 1729 through the Moravian Church founder Christian David (1692-1752) and his Moravian compatriot Timotheus Fiedler (1700-1748), significantly supported by the Baltic German Magdalena Elisabeth von Hallart (1683-1750). Pictures here and here.

Dr Ipyana Mwamugobole is to become the new Theological Officer of the Evangelical Mission Worldwide based in Hamburg (EMW). The Tanzanian-born theologian will take up his position in the Theology and Ecumenism and Theological Education departments on 1 November 2024. He succeeds Dr Almut Nothnagle, who will retire on 30 November 2024. Dr Ipyana Mwamugobole is the first person from the African continent to take on such a position in the EMW. Following an extensive application process with a large number of qualified applicants, the EMW Board decided by a large majority in favour of the ordained pastor and university lecturer from Dar es Salaam. After completing his doctorate at the Augustana University of Applied Sciences in Neuendettelsau, Dr Ipyana Mwamugobole worked for over ten years in various positions in Germany and Tanzania. Press release here.

In the Moravian Messenger (July 2024), the magazine of the Moravian Church in Great Britain, three interesting and current reports are published: The two-page cover story by Jane Carter (London), Head of the British Mission Board, is entitled Spring visit to Nepal and Ladakh. Joachim Kreusel, Bishop of the Moravian Church (Ockbrook), also reports on two pages about his recent trip to Tanzania under the headline "Robert Pangani's Consecration as Bishop of the Moravian Unity on Sunday 2nd June 2024". And Pastor Lorraine Shorten (Bath) talks about how she experienced the recent synod in Herrnhut as a guest: "European Continental Province Synod June 2024: Connected". Finally, reference is also made to an upcoming conference: "Called to a process of reconciliation - Reconciliation in our lives, church and the world: 5th - 8th November 2024 in the Komenský Guest House, Herrnhut". Download all articles here.

During the Provincial Synod of the British Unity Province from 18 to 21 July 2024 at The Hayes Conference Centre in Swanwick, Derbyshire, all delegates and all synodical guests posed for a group photo. See here. On the morning of 21 July 2024, the new Provincial Elders Conference (PEC) was elected. The result of the elections was as follows: Roberta Hoey, Jane Carter and Michael Newman were each elected to the church leadership for a further four years. David Howarth, Edwin Quildan and Livingstone Thompson will remain in their leadership positions until Provincial Synod 2026. A photo with the members of the church leadership here. A video with animated images from the Synod days here and here. An important topic of the synod was Project 32 on the strategic direction of the province for the years 2022 to 2032. The daily devotions, Bible studies and church services as well as the communal meals and various information and sales stands on the fringes of the synod were also important.

• It is currently winter in South Africa's southern hemisphere. Snow-covered peaks of the Grootkop Mountains above the Mission Museum of the Moravian Church in Genadendal are nevertheless rare. See here.
• A conference of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML) took place on 29 June 2024 in the rooms of the Moravian Church Mission Museum. The guests marvelled at the rich musical heritage of the Genadendal Music Archive and made use of it. See here.
• Also on 29 June 2024, Genadendal celebrated the 200th anniversary of the founding of the local library, the second oldest library in South Arica, founded by Herrnhut missionary Peter Hallbeck. The Premier of the Western Cape, Alan Winde, and the regional Minister of Culture and Sport, Ricardo Mackenzie, were present at the celebration alongside many other prominent figures from state and church. Since 1992, the library has no longer been housed in a mission house, but in a purpose-built building. A short film here.

The prestigious Archaeology Magazine recently reported in a long article by Daniel Weiss on archaeological investigations in Alaska, especially in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, an area in which the Moravian Mission worked from 1885. The archaeologists also visited the Moravian Church of Quinhagak, where mainly indigenous Yup'ik people live. The article states: "The Moravians were particularly successful in suppressing mask dances and other traditional Yup'ik customs. As a result, the Yup'ik congregations believed that their own traditional religious practice was fundamentally wrong and that all forms of dancing were a sin. Many community members also died as a result of epidemics brought into the country by the missionaries. The excavation helped the Yup'ik people of Quinhagak to reconnect with their lost heritage. Several residents took part in the excavations." To the article here.

After recently reporting from the Moravian Church of Quinhagak in Alaska, Archaeology Magazine has now published an article by Marley Brown about the former Moravian Church mission station Hopedale - now a town of 600 inhabitants - in the middle of the 1,100 kilometre long Labrador coast. See here. The archaeological investigations taking place in Hopedale aim to find the remains of the historic Inuit settlement of Agvituk. When the Moravians arrived here in the 1780s, Agvituk still existed, but soon disappeared. The place name means ‘where the whales are found’. The article states that Agvituk was to the Inuit what Paris or London is to Europeans. Previous excavations in the historic core of Hopedale have uncovered a mixture of indigenous and European artefacts dating back to the 16th century. In order to publicise the finds, young volunteers from the Inuit community are making use of social media in particular.

• At the International Kindergarten & Shristi Academy of the Moravian Church in Kathmandu, Nepal, the newly elected Student Council was inaugurated on 19 June 2024. The school management wrote on Facebook: "We congratulate the President, Vice President and Secretary of the Student Council on their election. Under their leadership, we are confident that together with the Student Council we can make a difference and ensure a memorable new school year. Let's embark on this journey together!" Many pictures here.
• On 14 July 2024, the school community held a small ceremony to honour the important Nepalese poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya (1814-1868), to whose legacy the school is committed. The following was posted on Facebook: "We are grateful to the poet and journalist Shreesh Bhandari for honouring us with his presence at Shristi Academy." See here.

On the occasion of the recent birthday of the founder of the new South Africa, Nelson Mandela (born 18 July 1918), the Moravian Church in South Africa recalled its contacts with this outstanding statesman: "We remember Mandela's deep connection to Genadendal. The President was deeply moved by the history of the place and renamed his official residence in Cape Town Genadendal. In a memorandum, the curator of our Mission Museum wrote to him: ‘Dear Mr Mandela, the name Genadendal or New Genadendal symbolises the new government's commitment to restoring what has been damaged by past injustices. The name also signifies God's grace to you as we experienced that grace in the oldest mission station in Southern Africa. On 10 October 1995, Nelson Mandela paid an official visit to Genadendal, a moment that is forever etched in the memory of our church. The photo shows him walking along Moravia Avenue." See here.