HISTORY

This association is the fruit of the concern of several missiology professors residing in Rome who were teaching at the Pontifical Gregorian and Urbanian Universities.

In 1996, in order to have the input of a broader consultation, the deans of the Faculties of Missiology of the two Universities, Msgr. Paolo Giglioni of the Urbanian and Fr. Jesus López-Gay of the Gregorian, sent out a circular letter to their former students and other contacts all over the world. The result was very encouraging with about 150 favorable responses.

In 1997, a provisional “Core Group” of a dozen missiologists came into being. It had its first meeting in October 2007 in Rome. This group unanimously approved the proposal to found an “International Association of Catholic Missiologists” and elected Sr. Ortrud Stegmeier as provisional Executive Secretary.

In February 1998, a second meeting of the Core Group was held in Rome. A first version of the Association’s Statutes was drafted, a provisional President was chosen (Fr. Adam Wolanin of the Gregorian, replaced shortly after by Fr. Sebastian Karotemprel of the Urbanian) and plans were made for a Constitutive Assembly and other activities, especially the recruitment of new members.

In Februrary 1999, a consultation in Rome brought together representatives of some fifteen missiological institutes dedicated to missiological research, teaching and publication. The First IACM Plenary Assembly was scheduled for October 2000, as part of “The Great Jubilee”, at the end of an International Missiology Congress co-sponsored by the Urbanian University.

At that Constitutive Assembly (October 20th, 2000), the IACM Statutes were approved and the first Executive Board was elected. Click here to view the report.

This Executive Board met in Rome in June 2001 in order to establish some operative priorities for the coming years. An other meeting was held at Maryknoll, New York, in July 2003, in order to plan the next Plenary Assembly and a Missiological Conference.

This Missiological Conference and the Second IACM Plenary Assembly were held in Cochabamba, Bolivia (Septembrer 30th - October 3rd, 2004).  The theme of the Conference was: Sharing Diversity in Missiological Research and Education: Issues of Theological Language and Intercultural Communication – “Hear what the Spirit says to the Churches” (Rev 2:7). Click here to view the publication.

At the Second Plenary Assembly (October 3th, 2004), priorities and activities were discussed, and a new Executive Board was elected. Click here to view the report.