Mission Society Bethlehem

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The Bethlehem Mission Society ( Latin Societas Missionum Exterarum de Bethlehem in Helvetia , religious symbol : SMB) is a Society of Apostolic Life of priests and brothers who have joined together for missionary service.

History of origin

The origins of the Mission Society Bethlehem go back to the French priest Pierre-Marie Barral . In 1895 he founded the “Ecole apostolique de Bethléem” in Meggen, Switzerland , which was relocated to Immensee in 1896 . The high school Bethlehem, Immensee emerged from it. In the same year the first issue of the multilingual monthly magazine "Bethlehem" appeared, which has been published since 1972 under the name "Wendekreis".

The institute's original aim was to train the sons of poor families for missionary service in parishes that had been abandoned in Europe. Over time, missionary activities in Asia, Africa and Latin America were built up. Groups of friends were formed in Austria, Italy, France, Great Britain, Portugal and the USA. Difficulties in the work, which was financed through the stamp trade, unfair fundraising and loans , led in 1907 to a reorganization as the Bethlehem Mission House by the later first Superior General Pietro Bondolfi.

On May 30, 1921, the papal decree setting up the “Swiss seminary for foreign missions” was issued in Rome . Pietro Bondolfi was the first superior general. From 1934 the association was called "Society for Foreign Missions of Bethlehem in Switzerland" (Societas Missionaria de Bethlehem in Helvetia). It is briefly known as the Bethlehem Mission Society (SMB).

The offspring for society came predominantly from the Bethlehem high school, which was run for this purpose in Immensee. These included the Progymnasien in Rebstein (1926–73) and Friborg (1938–72). In 1995 the grammar school was transferred to a private foundation under the name "Gymnasium Immensee". The training of candidates for priesthood began in 1922 in the seminary in Wolhusen , was relocated to Schöneck ( Emmetten ) in 1932 in the Brother Klausen seminar and has been at the Lucerne Theological Faculty since 1969.

In 1925, the first brother missionaries were accepted into the SMB to work in administration, schools, businesses and agriculture. The brothers, as well as the priesthood candidates and priests, commit themselves by a promise to live according to the principles of the SMB.

Mission and religious studies research became a focus in 1945 with the establishment of the “New Journal for Missions Studies” (NZM), which was replaced in 2005 by the “Forum Mission” yearbook.

From mission areas to missionary work

In 1924 the first three missionaries traveled to China, where they first got to know the Chinese language and culture from the Steyler missionaries in Yanzhou, South Shandong. In June 1925, the Apostolic Delegate Celso Costantini guaranteed them their own mission area, Qiqihar Prefecture , in the far north of China.

On March 19, 1926, Paul Hugentobler and Eugen Imhof arrived in Qiqihar, while Gustav Schnetzler took over the village of Changfatun. The SMB was dedicated to building up local Christian communities and, together with the Ingenbohl Sisters, to building up medical care and school education. In 1940 there were 42 SMB priests working there. Most of them were expelled in 1953, the last one left China in 1954.

In 1938, the SMB began its work in what was then South Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe . At times, well over 100 members worked there in the development of the local church, in the school and health system, in the media and in the training of craftsmen.

In 1948, the SMB sent the first missionaries to the Iwate-ken in northern Japan. In the same year, the SMB began with the first lay missions in what was then Fort Viktoria, today Masvingo in Southern Rhodesia. After the last missionaries were expelled from China, the SMB began its work in Taiwan and Colombia in 1953 .

Team work began in Peru in 1975, in Ecuador in 1977, in Kenya in 1978 and in the Philippines in 1985. At the General Chapter 1981, the "holistic liberation" was formulated with the following three options:

  • Option for and with the poor
  • Commitment to human rights
  • Building base communities.

In 1992 the SMB began its first missionary work in Bolivia . The 1993 General Chapter drew up a declaration of principle on missionary presence with the motto “What we are speaks more than what we say.” In 1994, the SMB appeared in public under the advertising title “Bethlehem Mission Immensee” (BMI).

The Mission Society Bethlehem (SMB) has its traditional headquarters in Immensee. With her leadership and administration she accompanies her missionary assignments in Asia (Taiwan, Japan), Africa (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania), Latin America (Colombia) and Europe (Switzerland, Germany). The main focuses of the 12th ordinary general chapter in 2013 were a. a mission statement, a document on the subject of age with the title "Some of us are getting older ...", the future of the SMB as a missionary society and construction projects that were considered because of empty buildings and usable land.

Association - Partner Association - Bethlehem Mission Association

As a result of the upgrading of the laity in missionary and ecclesiastical service by the Second Vatican Council and a new understanding of mission, more and more laypeople worked in the SMB projects. The first mixed assignments of lay people and priests (teams) emerged. The 1967 SMB General Chapter enshrined “work towards replacement” in their documents. It no longer took over assigned areas (territorial principle), but began with temporary project assignments. A first such operation began in Zambia in 1969 . The 1974 General Chapter confirmed the project assignments as a new form of missionary work. The following main motifs were decisive: the essential connection between mission and development cooperation ; partnership with local churches; the basic ecumenical orientation.

The 1988 General Chapter reaffirmed the 1981 options and reinforced them by emphasizing the equality of women. The SMB gives women and men close to them the opportunity to organize themselves in the "association" and to participate in the missionary task.

The 1998 General Chapter took account of the changes in the mission staff and drafted a model with a view to expanding the sponsorship. The basic options are:

  • The proclamation of the God of life
  • working with and for the disadvantaged
  • and intercultural and interreligious exchange.

On June 30, 2000, the association was transferred to the “Partner Association Bethlehem” (PaV). November 17th, 2000 is the founding date of the association “ Bethlehem Mission Immensee ” (BMI) according to Art. 60ff of the Civil Code. The SMB advertising title "Bethlehem Mission Immensee", which has been used since 1994, was adopted as the name for the association. The association was supported by the Missionshaus Bethlehem association, which represents the Missionsgesellschaft Bethlehem (SMB) under civil law, and the partner association Bethlehem (PaV). This enabled the missionary mandate of the SMB to be based on a broader sponsorship with the aim that lay people (PaV) and SMB members would decide on the planning and implementation of the missionary mandate on an equal basis and in partnership.

On June 24, 2007 the association “Bethlehem Mission Immensee” was awarded the prize of the “Herbert Haag Foundation for Freedom in the Church”. The foundation thus recognized the partnership approach of the BMI with the two sponsors SMB and PaV, who worked together as church organizations in the various countries.

On the 11th ordinary general chapter of the SMB 2008, the model of the two carriers of the Bethlehem Mission Immensee was confirmed as a positive way of joint and equal sponsorship.

On June 25, 2011, the partnership structure of the “Bethlehem Mission Immensee” (BMI) association, which was founded in 2000, came to an end through a resolution by its general assembly. In the process, the partner association disbanded as a co-sponsor of the “Bethlehem Mission Immensee” work and the Bethlehem Mission Society remained what it was before the year 2000.

Under the same name "Bethlehem Mission Immensee", an association was formed on the same day that is a legally, administratively and financially independent and independent non-governmental organization (NGO) from the Bethlehem Mission Society.

In the summer of 2013, the "Bethlehem Mission Immensee" relocated to the RomeroHaus in Lucerne, which it acquired from the SMB.

RomeroHaus Lucerne

Since 1986 the missionary education center "Romero-Haus" in Lucerne has been serving mission science research, training and further education for its own staff and keeping missionary concerns alive through courses and events. In 2013 the Bethlehem Mission Immensee (BMI) took over the Romero house.

Connection between SMB and BMI

The Missionsgesellschaft Bethlehem (SMB) founded the Bethlehem Mission Immensee (BMI) in 2000 as an association with two collective members (Association Missionshaus Bethlehem and Partner Association Bethlehem). In this way, the equality of laypeople and clergy in planning, decision-making and carrying out the missionary mandate was taken into account. This resulted in 2011 under the same name "Bethlehem Mission Immensee" (BMI) an association of individual and collective members. In the COMUNDO alliance, the BMI works closely with the development aid organizations E-CHANGER (French-speaking Switzerland) and Inter-Agire (Italian-speaking Switzerland). Today both organizations - the SMB and the BMI - exist side by side. Priests and brothers of the SMB, as well as volunteers of the BMI, live and work in the countries of the global south alongside people who are affected by poverty and discrimination.

Since summer 2012, the superior general of the SMB, the president of the Missionshaus Bethlehem association, the president of the BMI association and the manager of the BMI have been meeting for regular talks.

Documentary film

The documentary “The End of Mission”, broadcast on December 22nd, 2016 in the DOK program on SRF 1 , addressed the foreseeable end of the mission society. Film author Beat Bieri admired the Immensee missionaries in his childhood. In Zimbabwe he met the last missionaries who were active there, who had a rich past, but had no future plans for reasons of age. Many of the missionaries' works are in danger of falling apart. The film also portrayed Superior General Ernst Wildi and showed that in 2016 a “House of Youth” for unaccompanied refugee minors was set up in empty rooms at the SMB headquarters .

Superior General SMB

  • 1993-2003: Josef Meili
  • 2003–2008: Emil Näf
  • 2008–2013: Josef Meili
  • 2013–2018: Ernst Wildi
  • since 2018: Josef Meili

Known SMB members

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mediation between the Churches, 50 Years Mission Society Bethlehem Immensee, Festschrift, p. 39.
  2. ^ The special tragedy of Immenseer Entwicklungshilfe , srf.ch, December 20, 2016, accessed on January 1, 2017.
  3. ↑ The End of the Mission - A Piece of Swiss World History , srf.ch, December 22, 2016, accessed on January 1, 2017.
  4. ^ Story on the website of SMB Immensee, accessed on January 7, 2015