filled his commission to take the first company of Moravians to
Georgia, and settle them there, patiently had he labored for and with
them during their days of greatest toil and privation, controlling his
own desire to keep his promise and go to the Schwenkfelders, who were
complaining with some bitterness of his broken faith; but now his task
was ended, the Savannah Congregation was ready to be thrown on its
own resources, Gen. Oglethorpe had provided him with letters of
introduction, and the "lot" said, "Let him go, for the Lord is with
him."

Final questions were asked and answered, Spangenberg's Commission was
delivered to him, and then Bishop Nitschmann "laid his blessing upon"
him. In the Lutheran Church, to which he belonged before he joined the
Moravians, Spangenberg had been an accredited minister of the Gospel.
The Church of England refused to acknowledge the validity of Lutheran
ordination, because that Church had no Episcopate, but the Moravians,
influenced by Count Zinzendorf, himself a Lutheran by birth,
broad-minded, liberal, and devout, did not hesitate to fraternize with
the Lutherans, or even to accept the Sacraments at the hands of Pastor
Rothe, in charge of the Parish Church of Berthelsdorf. At the same time
they prized the Episcopate lately transferred to them from the ancient
Unitas Fratrum, and while continuing in free fellowship with Christians
of all denominational names, they now intended to so ordain their own
ministry that no church could question it. When the three grades were
established in 1745, a license to preach granted by the Lutheran Church
was considered equivalent to the rank of Deacon, ordination in the
Moravian Church making the minister a Presbyter.

Now fully equipped for his mission to the English Colony of
Pennsylvania, Spangenberg left Savannah on March 15th, going on Capt.
Dunbar's ship to Port Royal, where he lodged with a man who was born in
Europe, his wife in Africa, their child in Asia, and they were all
now living in America! From Port Royal he went by land almost to
Charlestown, the last short distance being in a chance boat, and
from Charlestown he sailed to New York. From there he proceeded
to Philadelphia, and to the Schwenkfelders, making his home with
Christopher Wiegner on his farm in the Skippack woods, where George
Boehnisch was also living. Spangenberg worked on the farm that he might
not be a burden to his host, and might meet the neighbors in a familiar
w