May.09.2010
In subsequent years missions were established in Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados, St. Kitts, Tobago and Trinidad: Ladakh on the borders of Tibet. Alaska: Russia: Guyana: Honduras: Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Some missions were started and handed over to national churches. e.g. the work among the Australian Aborigines was handed over to the Presbyterian Church of Australia.
The work in North America, is one of the stronger regions of the Moravian Church today, but its origin was partly a mission enterprise, hence its inclusion in this chapter.
In 1735 a group of Moravians, under the leadership of Augustus Spangenberg, sailed to Georgia with the intention of preaching to the Indians and setting up a settlement in the New World. They travelled on the same boat as John and Charles Wesley and Benjamin Ingham. A settlement was established in Georgia, however the promise made when the land was granted that the Brethren would not be compelled to bear arms, was not honoured.
In 1739 when the war between England and Spain broke out and the Moravians were threatened with military service, rather than renounce their pacifist belief they gave up the colony and moved to Pennsylvania. In December 1740 a further group arrived under the leadership of Bishop John Nitschmann and very soon the settlement of Bethlehem was built. The work among the Indians was not forgotten. The dedicated missionary David Zeisberger worked among his 'adopted brethren' for 63 years. Bethlehem is still an important Moravian centre. The Settlement has grown into a thriving town in which are numerous Moravian churches, and it is the headquarters of the Northern Province of our Church in the U.S.A ..
The passing of an Act in the British Parliament in 1749 recognising the Moravian Church, and granting certain rights and privileges in the colonies, led to invitations from various places to establish settlements. An offer from Lord Granville to sell 100,000 acres in North Carolina was accepted and in 1765 the settlement of Salem was built which is now part of Winston-Salem and the centre of the Southern Province U.S.A.
The Tanzanian Provinces (East Central Africa) where Moravian missions started in 1889 is now the fastest growing Moravian work. There are more than half of a million Tanzanian Moravians, and the Church is reaching out in mission to the neighbouring countries of Malawi, Zambia, Kigoma, Zanzibar, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and the Eastern Congo.
