The Missionary Society of St. John the Evangelist is composed of men and women, lay and clergy, united by the divine call to gospel mission, catholic unity, and life according to rule. This call is expressed by approaching ministry with the zeal characteristic of missionaries to foreign lands: living, working, worshiping and serving among the people they are reaching out to. While outside financial support is welcome, it is not necessary. The Missionaries of St. John in most cases, serve at their own expense. Following the example of St. Paul, we do not want to be a burden to the people, or allow the advance of the Kingdom of God to be restrained or thwarted by the power of Mammon. Ministry is a calling not a career, flowing out of who we are as Missionaries, rather than the need to earn a living. This enables us to reach individuals often overlooked or marginalized, because of economic or social contexts.
Missionaries of St. John draw much of their strength for such challenging service through the close knit brotherhood of the Society. The Society functions to support, encourage, affirm, nurture missionaries in their individual and corporate work. It provides a familial safety net of men and women who understand and share similar challenges, as well as an avenue for continued education and equipment for ministry. The unity of the Society is intentional, rooted in a bond of Christian love that transcends differences of political structures. We are Missionaries of
St. John, serving in Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or catholic minded protestant contexts. The Society is canonically resident in the Missionary Diocese of All Saints, ACNA, under the protection of the Rt. Rev. Alberto Morales OSB, 9 Bishop of Quincy, ACNA. Membership in the society is open to all catholic Christians who share this unique charism with the consent of their jurisdictional authority.
The MSJ began in 2006 as a way of sustaining our existing ministries with Episcopal oversight. Furthermore, the society provided a united framework under Bp. Fred Fick, whereby we could continue to seek our place within the greater church Catholic. In the years following our foundation, (not by intention) many others adrift found in MSJ a place of safety, strength, community with episcopal oversight. When we were graciously received into the Missionary Diocese of All Saints, one part of our purpose was fulfilled. We had found our place in Christ’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. As such we have been able to concentrate our work, supporting and encouraging our missionaries in their individual ministries, as well as providing a point of entry for those who are still on a journey similar to ours. Our primary purpose now is to support and sustain, the existing ministries/missions of individual members and communities, as well as provide structure and oversight to new missions and ministries as the Holy Spirit leads. We do this though regular regional chapter meetings, our Annual Assembly, and visitation from the Father General. These meetings afford opportunities for worship, prayer, fellowship, continuing education, nd strengthening of individual commitment to the Rule of Life, which in the Benedictine spirit exhorts us to a life of Prayer and work.
Ministries of the MSJ
The Missionary Society of St. John the Evangelist is a vowed religious society, which provides a context for seeks to facilitate many different types of ministries. There are currently 60 vowed and Companion members, both lay and clergy, serving in 5 Chapters of the MSJ: Wisconsin/Northern Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Texas, together with other members in Indiana, and South Carolina. We are further accompanied by numerous “Friends ” of the Society, who while unable to commit to the Rule of Life, are nevertheless supporters of the MSJ both materially and spiritually.
Examples of MSJ ministries include but are not limited to the following:
Parish Ministries: MSJs who fulfill their mission as active participants in established parishes, adding strength, and bringing their missionary consciousness to everyday parish and community life.
Community Ministries: MSJs serve in communities or houses for the purpose of serving the needs of compassion and evangelization in a specific locale.
Interior Ministries: MSJs whose mission is prayer for the Society, the Church and the World, or operate Retreat Houses for the MSJ, and others who need rest and “re-creation” for their work as missionaries.
Compassionate Ministries: MSJs who serve, as solitary individuals a particular need, such as hospice chaplains, prison chaplains, underground ministries in public contexts, nurses, teachers etc.
Educational/formational Ministries: MSJs who work in teaching, spiritual formation or direction, or as a support to other teaching or formational ministries.
Vocational Ministries: MSJs who bring the missionary charism to bear in their work place. Every workplace is its own mission field. Vocational missionaries, strive to be salt and light in their own “secular” vocation, and participate in the life of the local parish or community. Every lay person, and many clergy of the MSJ are called to be vocational missionaries.
email: frlemmon@gmail.com
website: THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST