Mission ship
A mission ship is a ship used to fulfill a special order (a special mission ).
While warships were also referred to as mission ships in earlier times , today only ships in religious (mostly Christian ) use are referred to as such in the real world . The earlier, military use of the term is often still reflected in computer games.
Mission ships have been used by mission societies or organizations for several centuries . In earlier times, the ships were mainly used to supply their own mission stations with supplies or employees. The Swabian poet Karl von Gerok dedicated his poem "Das Missionsschiff" to this use.
Nowadays the ships are mainly used to either exclusively or partially inform about the contents of the faith and to advertise it. The size of the ships varies from a 15 m motor yacht to a 12,000 ton ship. The exclusive use of the ships for religious and missionary purposes is rare, and a connection with humanitarian , medical or social aid projects is often established. As a result, the boundaries between mission ship and support ship or hospital ship are fluid, and the ships can also visit countries that would otherwise not be possible for religious or ideological reasons.
In most cases, mission ships ensure a high level of acceptance and respectful contact and exchange between different ideologies, despite the clear ideological positioning of their operators. This is shown by the fact that z. B. Actions of the ships of Mercy Ships or Operation Mobilization (OM) are often opened by high social and political prominence in the countries visited.
On the other hand, are inflamed by the mission ships also latently existing conflicts . In August 1991 an attack was carried out on an event by the OM ship Doulos in the Philippines .
The mission ships are financed by private sponsoring groups and development associations, and the ship's crews mostly work on a voluntary basis . As a rule, there is no official support beyond indirect funding such as discounts for religious, charitable or charitable works.
Well-known historical and current mission ships
- Mission ship Harmony
- Mission ships St. Gabriel and Stella-Maris of Bishop Josef Lörks
- Missionary sailor unity
- Candace
- Anastasis
- Logos
- Logos II
- Logos Hope
- Doulos
- Mission cutter Elida
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Mission ship at Meyers Lexikon 1905
- ↑ Motor yacht “Maranatha” ( Memento of the original from August 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The mission ship "Harmony" ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Josef Loerks. ( Memento from December 6, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) In: ODS, Open German School Network, Education Server in the Kleve district
- ↑ Walter Zürcher: Basel mission ship disappears into blue depths. The downfall of the sailor Eintracht. In: SVS-Journal 4/2003, Basel
