The Search for Peace in Times of Chaos—Volume various elements into a real Christian fellowship He became their spiritual leader as well as their patron and protector against interference from without By his example and pastoral care, Zinzendorf quickened their Christian fellowship and united them for communal life under the statutes of Herrnhut, which were founded to follow the pattern of the old Unitas Fratrum Through earnest and continued prayer, they realized more and more the power of the cross of Christ in reconciling them one to another Count Zinzendorf encouraged them to keep the discipline of the Unitas Fratrum, and he gave them the vision to take the gospel to the far corners of the globe On August 13ǡ 1727, as a little band of Moravian exiles, after much earnest prayer and heart examination, met around the table of the Lord in the Holy Communion, they experienced such a wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit that they could no longer doubt that God’s goal was that their sorely persecuted Church, now all but extinct, should live again To them, the experience was as the voice of God saying, “Little flock, your sufferings and tears and prayers have come before me I have loved you and purposed for you, and today I seal you anew as a Church of Jesus Christ, through the gift of the Holy Spirit.” So remarkable were the experiences connected with the renewal of the church that through all the succeeding years—now 280—the Sunday nearest to the thirteenth of August has been set apart as a day of special commemoration, the spiritual birthday of the Church, the day on which the real life of the Church was renewed They speak of it as the and describe the experience as similar to that recorded in the Bible on the day of Pentecost Herrnhut grew rapidly following this transforming revival and became the center of a major movement for Christian renewal and mission during the eighteenth century Moravian historians identify the main achievements of this period as: Setting up a watch of continuous prayer which ran uninterrupted, 24 hours a day for 100 years The origination of the 15