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MISSIONARY SERVANTS A DRAFT DISCUSSION DOCUMENT I am at the very initial stages of the process of seeking to start what the

e Catholic Church calls an association of the faithful. At least for the moment, this proposed association will be referred to as Missionary Servants. This present document is an initial draft for consideration by, and discussion with, those who are interested in either supporting or in becoming members of Missionary Servants. It outlines the vision and mission for Missionary Servants which I believe God has given me as well as some important aspects of the nature of Missionary Servants. MISSIONARY SERVANTS Missionary Servants is an association of Catholics who desire to be Missionary Servants of Gods Love, most especially of his love for the poor. Missionary Servants seeks to contribute towards the evangelizing mission of the Church and the spreading of God's Kingdom. Its members pray daily for this task and seek to commit themselves ever more deeply both to living missionary lives themselves and to promoting Christian mission in the world. Missionary Servants seeks to play a prophetic role both within the Church and in the wider world by making God's special love for the poor better known and by proclaiming the imperative for God's people to have a preferential option for the poor and to build the Church of the Poor. Missionary Servants is part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and membership is open to members of any Catholic charismatic prayer group, community or movement. Whilst an explicitly Catholic organization, which seeks to be faithful to the teachings of the magisterium and to always submit itself to legitimate ecclesial authority, Missionary Servants is committed to ecumenism and believes that all Christians must work together in the task of evangelization and the spreading of Gods Kingdom. Some members of Missionary Servants will choose to relocate and actually live among the poor. These members are encouraged, if at all possible, to meet at least once or twice a month with other members of Missionary Servants for prayer, worship, fellowship, sharing and teaching. These members are also encouraged to study and reflect on material provided by the Missionary Servants for the formation of those who have taken the step of relocating and living among the poor. At the heart of Missionary Servants, and providing leadership to it, is the Society of Missionary Servants (SMS). This society is open to single men, seminarians and priests who wish to live a community life among the poor. In time the Society of Missionary Servants aims to become recognized by the Catholic Church first as a public association of the faithful and then as a Society of Apostolic Life. It is envisaged that, at some stage, a female counterpart to the Society of Missionary Servants may also be established. VISION The vision of Missionary Servants is for its members: To be missionary servants of Gods Love, most especially of his love for the poor

MISSION The mission of Missionary Servants is to encourage its members: To live lives of love To pray daily for the evangelising mission of the Church and the spreading of God's Kingdom To live missionary lives dedicated most especially to the particular purpose of: evangelization serving the poor fighting poverty leading, equipping and facilitating others to evangelize, to serve the poor and to fight poverty To live mainly among the poor or to support those who live among the poor

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS Membership of Missionary Servants is open to anybody who is willing to meet its membership requirements. Its members can be lay people or clerics (priests and deacons), religious or secular, married or single. Its members are free to be members of other church associations, movements or communities. The membership requirements of Missionary Servants are I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. to agree with and support the vision and mission of Missionary Servants to be actively involved, in some way, in evangelization, in serving the poor and in fighting poverty to encourage and help others to be actively involved, in some way, in evangelization, in serving the poor and in fighting poverty to have attended, or to attend as soon as possible, a Life in the Spirit Seminar, a Christian Life Program or a Christian Life Seminar to be part of, or to become part of, a Charismatic prayer group, community, or movement to attend an annual retreat, ideally one organized by Missionary Servants To promise to try to be faithful in Praying daily the Missionary Servants prayer praying daily for: the Popes mission intentions, for Missionary Servants and its members, especially for the Society of Missionary Servants and those Missionary Servants who have relocated in order to live among the poor, for the intentions listed in the monthly Missionary Servants newsletter, and for at least one particular missionary reading and studying the Missionary Servants Handbook on a regular basis (at least once a week) reading the complete monthly Missionary Servants newsletter studying carefully the teachings contained in the monthly Missionary Servants newsletter 2

THE MISSIONARY SERVANTS PRAYER T Lord, he Missionary Servants prayer


Fr. Paul Uwemedimo 15 August 2012

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