German Speaking Region
The Society has bases both in the Austrian and in the Italian Tyrol.
One Mill Hill missionshaus is located at Absam near Innsbruck, and another in the town of Brixen. Both houses serve as a home for missionaries who have retired from active service and for Mill Hillers involved in the pastoral activities of the local church.
The Region has an extensive network of supporters who are kept informed of activities and developments in the Society’s mission areas through the bi-monthly Missionsbote, a German-language publication. Annual gatherings of supporters are held on both sides of the border.
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Great Britain
The Mill Hill General Superior and his Councillors reside in England. During their term of office they implement the policies and decisions of the General Chapter. From headquarters they conduct visitations of the Society’s mission areas and home regions.
Britain, like the rest of Europe, has ceased to be a significant source of vocations to the Mill Hill missionary priesthood, brotherhood and lay association. In the country of its birth, nevertheless, the Society continues to make a contribution to the Church’s missionary outreach. In England & Wales a partnership has existed since 1937 between the Society and the Association for the Propagation of the Faith. APF-Mill Hill is a constituent part of Missio-England & Wales. Mill Hill Missionaries and their collaborators are responsible for preaching mission appeals and enrolling supporters who pray for the missions and donate funds, via the famous red collection boxes, for missionary projects around the world. Local secretaries and promoters visit homes to empty the red boxes and to distribute copies of Mission Today, the magazine that provides readers in England and Wales with missionary news. APF-Mill Hill supporters are invited to annual diocesan reunions to receive the Church’s thanks, and to learn of the good their generosity has accomplished. Mill Hill priests, Brothers and Associates are also involved in organising parish gatherings aimed at strengthening a missionary outlook in the local Church. Members who have returned from service overseas are also involved in the parish ministry, as well as in convent chaplaincies.
Since 1985 the Institute of St. Anselm, founded by a Mill Hill Missionary in the seaside town of Margate, has been providing training courses in community and pastoral leadership, in an international setting, for members of religious congregations and lay people. Mill Hill priests form part of the institute’s staff.
Members of the Society who hail from Britain, and who are elderly or infirm, live in community in a retirement home administered by the Society in collaboration with the Franciscan Missionaries of St. Joseph or ‘Mill Hill Sisters’. Retired members assist in parishes when requested, serve as chaplains to local convents and participate in local prayer groups.
At the Society’s Central Archive work goes on to preserve its documentary and photographic history, and to serve when possible the interests of academic researchers as well as the relations of former missionaries.
In Scotland, Mill Hill Missionaries are also involved in missionary preaching and fund-raising, on an equal footing with other missionary congregations. Additional support comes through events organised by the Friends of Mill Hill. The Glasgow Mill Hill community contribute to faith animation in the local church through retreats and recollection days, and by offering series of talks during the liturgical seasons. Awareness of the missionary vocation of all Christians, as well as prayer and active support for Mill Hill mission projects, is fostered through the distribution of St. Joseph’s Advocate, the Society’s Scottish publication, and by the hosting of an annual Mission Day. As in other regions of the Society, devotion to its ‘Father & Founder’ is fostered through an annual Novena to Saint Joseph.
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Ireland
The Society’s Irish Region includes the Republic and the northern counties and has its headquarters in Dublin. Mill Hillers who have returned from overseas can be found in rural parish ministry, in the pastoral care of various religious communities, devotional and religious movements. In the North, a team of Mill Hill priests serves the needs of a Catholic community in Belfast’s inner city.
As in Scotland, the Irish Region promotes missionary interest and support through its own version of St. Joseph’s Advocate. A Mill Hiller is appointed to serve as a liaison between the Society and the international development arm of the Irish government. The Society is a member of the Irish Missionary Union and raises funds through the preaching of parish mission appeals.
With the help of the ‘Mill Hill Sisters’ and a dedicated lay staff, the Society provides in Dublin a house of retirement for its Irish members.
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The Netherlands
As the Society’s richest source of vocations to the priesthood and brotherhood, from the beginning of the Society till modern times, the Dutch Region is naturally home to the largest retirement community of Mill Hillers. Retired and semi-retired members living at the missiehuis in the town of Oosterbeek remain active in their support for their former missions, and often in the production of missionary memoirs and cultural studies. Some who have returned from overseas lend their services to pastoral teams responsible for parish liturgy and administration, and to the Apostleship of the Sea. Other Members and Associates live and work within urban communities of Portuguese and Spanish speaking migrants. The Region maintains contact with its supporters through its quarterly Contaktblad, through annual get-togethers focused on a missionary theme or issue, and through fund-raising events.
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