Mill Hill Missionary Chapter 2010 in Kuching,Malaysia

Our Mill Hill Chapter No 17 has started in Kuching. A Chapter in this religious parlance means a gathering of elected members of a religious community to decide on vision,policy, leadership, of the religious community for the next few years.For us it is currently a period of five years.
What is important is that there is a vision for our work. Our Mill Hill Missionary Society has now been on the road for 144 years and has undertaken missionary work in many parts of the world-though generally we have gone to territories where English was spoken as a result of the old British Empire.Our HQ used to be at Mill Hill London but now has shifted to Maidenhead in Berkshire(much to the dismay of many members),but the quick pulse of the society in the form of seminary training, continues to beat in the new formation centres for missionaries in Nairobi(Kenya),Jinja(Uganda),Bamenda(Cameroon),Hyderabad(India) and Iloilo(Philippines). We have well over one hundred students preparing for the universal mission in all these centres.It is unfortunate that Europeans are no longer showing an interest in joining our missionary society as a truly universal fellowship is a powerful witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ who came to unite all the nations. We actually were founded by an eminent Englishman:Herbert Vaughan who came from Courtfield,Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire.He was to become the third Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
Europeans(and Americans) do not seem to like life long commitments anymore,preferring two or three years and then moving on.
Mission in the future will obviously take on new forms as the world changes and the needs of the world Change.Basically we are people who are trying to proclaim the merciful Love of God to the Nations and bring people together as one family through Jesus Christ.We believe in the celebration of the Eucharist,preaching and witness as the main paths for this work.In many areas we have to work with ignorance, prejudice, and even fear of foreigners. It is amazing all the same how people do come to recognise the work of Christ in us despite our obvious personal failings.The motto of this Chapter is 'I will not fail you' and we have seen how God has been faithful to us when we have thrown in our lot with Him.We do this by taking a solemn missionary oath for life at the end of our ten years formation.Abandoning ourselves to the Providence of God is a sweet experience for indeed God never lets us down-even if we have to die for him we know we will live.
Over the years we have seen various members killed: Br. Brian Thorpe in Kenya in 2008, Fr. John Anthony Kaiser in Kenya in 2000,Fr. Declan O'Toole in Uganda in 2002,and many others.
Missionary life is very fulfilling.
Anthropologists often complain about the work of the missionaries that we are destroying cultures.It is never our intention in the Mill Hill Missionaries to destroy but to build. We have opened many schools in our mission territories and contributed mightily to nation building.There are however difficult situations that we have to face.What do you do in the face of child sacrifice,or Polygamy or Female Genital Mutilation? Anthropologists may be interested to learn that Fr. Herbert Doyle MHM from Manchester worked in Kisii Kenya for thirty years and used to give the people a bull to slaughter for the celebrations of circumcision of the youth.He died and was buried in Nyabururu in 1951 and the Kisii people hold him in great esteem.