God’s mission today: Verbites mark 150th anniversary with Rome conference

By Joseph Tulloch

Theologians, missionaries, activists, and scholars have gathered in Rome this week for a conference marking the 150th anniversary of the Society of the Divine Word.

Founded in 1875 by Arnold Jansen, a young German priest, the Society is now home to more than 5,700 missionaries (often known as 'Verbites'), and is active in 79 different countries.

The conference, which is running from the 27th to the 29th March, is focused on the ‘Missio Dei’, or Mission of God, in today’s world.  

Fr Stephen Bevans at the conference in Rome

God's mission today

The goal of the conference, explained Fr Stephen Bevans, an American Divine Word Missionary and theologian who gave the keynote address, is to “understand what mission is about today, and how we might be able to go forward”.

To this end, the conference is studying four aspects in particular of the Missio Dei: ‘Healing wounds’, ‘Challenged by postmodernity’, ‘Learning from cultures’, and ‘Inspired by religions’.

Explaining the last of these elements, Fr Bevans stressed that “God is working outside the boundaries of the Church”.

While God is present in a special way in the Christian tradition, Bevans said, “other religions can help us understand our own faith better – in dialogue with them, we can come to a deeper understanding of Christianity". 

Fr Bevans addresses the conference

Healing a wounded world

As well as Verbite missionaries and Catholic theologians, speakers at the conference include figures from the worlds of politics and activism, including former Senator Leila de Lima from the Phillipines, and Joseph Kwame Blay, a Franciscan friar and community organiser from Ghana.

“As SVDs [Missionaries of the Divine Word], we’re active in many different areas of society”, explains Fr Kasmir Nema, the General Communications Coordinator for the Society. “We wanted the conference to reflect that”.

The communications director added that what brings together all these different facets of the Divine Word Missionaries’ ministry is that “we work with those on the peripheries, people in difficult situations”.

“We’re there to be healers in those contexts”, said Fr Nema, “because Jesus is a great healer, and, as followers of the Word of God, we want to continue that mission of healing”.