Member of Parliament's Love Match

Our dear friend, leader of the Christian Democratic Party and Member of Parliament, Rev Fred Nile, has
found his kindred spirit and new love in the vivacious Miss Silvana Nero, a teacher.

We are privileged to attend their engagement luncheon in Parliament House in a couple of weeks.

Part of the Newspaper write-up follows:

It was just four months after Elaine Nile's death that Rev Nile spotted Ms Nero at a CDP meeting. He had been praying that God would send him a wife and looked up to see a beautiful brunette, dressed in white, with what appeared to be a beam of light shining on her head.
He fell instantly in love, despite the 23-year age difference.
But romance was the last thing on Ms Nero's mind. A former Pentecostal church minister, she also had been praying - that Nile would notice she had a "calling" to join the CDP. She approached him and he said: "You are the answer to my prayer."
"I thought that must be what he says to all the candidates," she said.
Two months later he phoned to invite her to a Monarchist League Luncheon with the NSW Governor.
She was sitting on the balcony of her Housing Department flat in Dee Why, hair in rollers and wearing a dressing gown, when the call came. Afterwards: "I ran around the house saying, 'This is just wonderful.' I felt like Eliza Doolittle out of My Fair Lady". She spent four hours on the internet finding the perfect outfit - a demure Table Eight red lace dress.

"She looked ravishing," he said. "Wow! I had to get a new collection of words every time I picked her up."
So began a series of dates - to receptions, fundraisers, and the parliamentary Spring Ball last October - where they were spotted doing the "Christian cha cha" on the dance floor. Smitten, Rev Nile even arranged a trip to Canberra so he could get three hours alone in the car with her.
As far as she was concerned, the relationship was platonic. She told him: "Don't call me your girlfriend."
But they had much in common: "We love similar things - music, art, theatre. He's very enthusiastic, like I am. We laugh a lot. We have the same values. We both have an immense love for God and serving him."
Rev Nile added: "It's amazing. We're of one heart."
A week before Valentine's Day she had what she describes as "a healing".
"Fred prayed over me and I felt the hand, the holy spirit of God come upon me, and I changed. I actually felt I loved him completely differently. I said to Fred, 'I love you. I actually love you, from the purity of my heart'."
She described herself as "old fashioned, feminine and not a feminist" so she was pleased when Rev Nile insisted on asking her father for permission to marry her, even though his future father-in-law, Pasquale Nero, an Italian migrant from Calabria, is only two years older than he is. Mr Nero and his wife Maria were delighted. As she saw him to his car that night, Maria told Rev Nile her daughter "needed a man of God".

Ms Nero said she suffered bringing up three children, now aged 24, 19 and 17, alone, after her first marriage broke down 18 years ago. But her Christian faith sustained her and propelled her into politics. She ran as an independent for the Senate in 2007, and is now the CDP candidate for Mackellar.
The relationship remained secret until Thursday when a select group of NSW MPs received invitations to the engagement party (the wedding is set for December). That night Ms Nero dressed in her most va-va-voom red dress, a Flamenco style off-the-shoulder sheath, to accompany Rev Nile to an Israel independence celebration at the Sofitel Wentworth. To her surprise, Premier Barry O'Farrell announced the engagement to the room. Now the secret is out they are happy to declare their marriage is part of God's plan.

And we wish Fred and Silvana God's richest blessings in their new life together.