Tansania

18

Neudegger O.S.B., John

Adventure for God

Experiences in Africa (1978–2001)

Adventure for God

Just arriving in East Africa in the year 1978, Father John is entrusted with founding a monastery in Kenya. With courage and unusual methods, the young community grows on the outskirts of Nairobi. A new area of responsibility opens up with the founding of another monastery in neighboring Uganda. In the war-torn country, “Major John” is able to survive numerous life-threatening situations resourcefully and with diplomatic skills. For more than 20 years, Father John Neudegger lived and served as a Missionary Benedictine in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Namibia. Due to his charismatic character and an unshakeable faith in God he managed to build up three Benedictine monasteries. The exciting and humorous memories bring an eventful piece of missionary and Benedictine history to life.

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16

Milliken OSB, Damian

African Pilgrimage

Reports and Reflections from Tanzania

African Pilgrimage

Father Damian Milliken has lived and served as a Missionary Benedictine for more than 60 years in Tanzania. In his reminiscences, he shares his impressions and experiences and how Africa transformed him over the years just as Tanzania itself has changed considerably in recent decades. In a very personal and often humorous way, Father Damian allows the reader to follow his manifold discoveries and encounters, and his growing involvement with top-grade education for African women.

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15

Sieber, Gottfried

In the Valley of a 1000 Hills

Experiences of a Benedictine Missionary in Africa

In the Valley  of a 1000 Hills

In 1968, Father Godfrey Sieber, a Benedictine monk from Bavaria, began his missionary engagement in Zululand, South Africa. It lasted over fifty years. In this volume he recalls his experiences with the people he met at the places he worked. It illustrates at the same time the political and social changes that happened in South Africa.

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15

Albert (ed.), Sigrid C.

Mission im Krieg

Abt Norbert Webers Reisetagebuch aus Ostafrika 1905

Mission im Krieg
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Norbert Weber hat in seiner Amtszeit als Erzabt von St. Ottilien (1902 bis 1931) die gerade erst entstandene Klostergemeinschaft auf ihrem Weg zu einer weltweiten Kongregation auf vier Kontinenten geführt. Seine Reisen nach Asien und Afrika verarbeitete er auch literarisch und filmisch, wobei vor allem seine Korea-Dokumentationen bekannt wurden. Bisher noch unveröffentlicht ist sein Reisetagebuch nach Deutsch-Ostafrika aus dem Jahr 1905: Es berichtet aus unmittelbarer Nähe vom Maji-Maji-Krieg gegen die deutsche Kolonialherrschaft und bildet eine lebendige Quelle für Missions- und Kolonialgeschichte.

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07

Doerr, Lambert

Abbot Bishop Gallus Steiger O.S.B. (1879-1966)

Abbot Bishop Gallus Steiger O.S.B. (1879-1966)

When Abbot Bishop Gallus Steiger died in 1966 this marked the end of an entire missionary epoch. The late Abbot Bishop had made an extraordinarily great contribution during the time of primary evangelisation, in particular in southern Tanzania. In this way he had effectively prepared the way for the establishment of local churches in the area first evangelised by him and his fellow Benedictine missionaries. His long life had on all accounts been a rich life and a good life in the service of God and of the Church.

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05

Hertlein, Siegfried

Ndanda Abbey, Part IV

The Abbey’s Life with the African Diocese 1973 – 2001

Ndanda Abbey, Part IV
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In 1963, the Territorial Abbey of Ndanda handed over their former mission territory to the newly erected Mtwara diocese. The agreement between the missionary Benedictines and leadership of the diocese stated that “the missionary priests of the Congregation of St. Ottilien are prepared to co-operate with the African clergy in the ordinary and extraordinary pastoration under the authority of the Bishop. The Missionary brothers will also continue their services for the Diocese.” This forth volume of Ndanda’s widespread history describes the transition period which started under the Abbot Bishop Victor Haelg and continued under Abbot Siegfried Hertlein.

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04

Hertlein, Siegfried

Ndanda Abbey, Part III

From Mission to Local Church 1950 – 1972

Ndanda Abbey, Part III

The need for change after the Second World War culminated in the Second Vatican Council. Old pagan traditions were now to be understood as African Traditional Religion, liturgy was given a new shape, catechetical teaching had to be rethought. The local Church should be given into the hands of the local hierarchy as soon as possible, thus bringing the traditional ways of mission to an end. Within the Congregation of St. Ottilien, a genuine rethinking of life within the monastic communities took place. The juridical status of the lay bothers had to be redefined as did the task of missionaries all over the world. It was certainly a heavy burden Abbot-Bishop Victor Haelg had to shoulder until the new diocese of Mtwara was born under the leadership of the first African bishop, Maurus Libaba.

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03

Hertlein, Siegfried

Ndanda Abbey, Part II

The Church Takes Root in Difficult Times 1932 – 1952

Ndanda Abbey, Part II

In 1932 the missionary territory of Ndanda became an independant Abbacy Nullius. The new Abbot-Bishop Joachim Ammann had to face numerous difficulties: Islam was fighting for predominance, pagan traditions challenged the mission work and developments in Germany had a negative impact on the situation in Tanganyika. The outbreak of WW II brought with it the threat of permanent expulsion of German missionaries from the Territory. Yet the Church grew: new mission stations were established, the Ndanda hospital expanded, catechetical material was published by the mission press, a congregation of African Benedictine Sisters was born, the Ndanda Art School flourished and the first African priests are ordained. The Church in southeast Tanzania has taken root.

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02

Hertlein, Siegfried

Ndanda Abbey, Part I

Beginning and Development up to 1932

Ndanda Abbey, Part I

The cornerstone of Catholicism in southern Tanzania was laid by the Benedictine monks of Ndanda Abbey. This first volumn of the abbey’s history explains how the Missionary Benedictines came to establish the faith in southern Tanzania. Although threatened by wars and hindered time and again by human weaknesses, the small mission stations grew into widereaching territorial abbeys and centers of a lively Church in southern Tanzania. Their early struggles to establish the first Christian communities has blossomed into three dioceses: Mtwara, Lindi, and Tunduru-Masasi.  A bbot em. Siegfried Hertlein began his missionary carrier in Tanzania in 1962. From 1976 to 2001 he was the third abbot of the Missionary Benedictine Monastery of Ndanda. Since then he has been involved in monastic formation and research into the abbey’s history.

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