Mission: Collision or Dialogical Encounter? A Chronicle of St. Paul's Parish, Yobai, Papua New Guinea

The founder is also the author of the book which has an Introduction, three chapters: The Founding of Yobai 1962-69, Pastor and Lecturer 1969-76, Asked to Move On 1976-77, an Epilogue, then Appendixes, Maps, a Glossary and Indexes.

As the title implies, the book is more than just a chronicle. It is a case study of understanding the nature of the mission of the Church. It chronicles the slow process from adaptation towards inculturation via dialogue. That dialogue begins with the inner dialogue of the missionary who is torn between his Western traditions and the challenges of the culture and religion of the people he served.

The Introduction puts Yobai into the context of the Church in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. It presents the missiological principles that guided its founder. A key principle was to avoid doing things for the people, but rather to help them find ways to answer the needs they had articulated and discussed. This helped the community become economically self-supporting in a relatively short time.

The content of the book could be summarized as: Catechumenates and Manual Work. Manual Work was Catechesis in Action. The author was convinced that there was no future in education, health care or economic development unless these were expressions of one's commitment to Christ and His mission, an expression of one's commitment to God's Kingdom.

Buchangaben: Mission: Collision or Dialogical Encounter? A Chronicle of St. Paul's Parish, Yobai, Papua New Guinea. Ennio Mantovani SVD (Studia Instituti Missiologici # 95), Nettetal: Steyler Verlag 2011, 475 Seiten, ISBN 978-3-8050-0581-4, € 29,80