Dr. Betsy Miller, Ecumenical Officer for the Moravian Church’s Northern Province, delivered the second Rejoicing in Hope thematic talk on Saturday morning.
She provided delegates to the 2025 ELCIC National Convention with an overview of the Moravian church’s expansive history, structure, leadership, core beliefs and church life.
“We believe that God creates, God redeems, God blesses, sanctifies or makes whole, and we respond to God’s action with faith, love, and hope,” she said, sharing the guiding theology of Luke of Prague, and the core beliefs of the Moravian Church.
“We were so persecuted in the 18th and 17th centuries that we went underground… Yet God preserved what we call hidden seed, and we emerged in a new way, with a renewed call from God to spread the Gospel throughout the world,” she shared, reflecting upon the Moravian Church’s hope-led adaptability and resilience.
Miller spoke on the importance of fellowship in the Moravian Church, and how that translates to ecumenical and full communion partnerships. The Moravian Church are full communion partners with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Anglican Church in Canada.
“Unity is a gift given to us by God, a task for us to nurture and care for, a witness to a watching world on how to walk together in faith, love, and hope… In a world that focuses on division, ecumenical partnerships offer an alternative narrative that celebrates finding common ground. In this way, we can rejoice in hope and offer that hope to the world, one neighbour at a time.”
“Moravians find hope and joy simply in being together. We claim hope through our faith in Jesus Christ and the renewing presence and power of the Holy Spirit… Our faith propels us to live in hope,” she added.
To conclude her session, Miller invited the delegation to engage in table discussions reflecting on the gifts Lutherans and Moravians can offer one another in full communion, and how we can rejoice in hope together.
