The Gossner Mission
Profile/Mission Statement
Close at hand: The Gossner Mission is committed to ensuring that people living in poverty and marginalization experience justice and can follow their path in dignity and self-determination. In this way, it follows in the tradition of its founder, the pastor Johannes Evangelista Goßner (1773 – 1858), who co-founded the social-diaconal work in Berlin and at the same time sent missionaries into the world: Peasants and craftsmen who preached the Christian message as well as brought practical help and fought for the rights of the poor. Thus, from its founding in 1836, the work was characterized by a holistic understanding of mission, which the founder gave to his work.
Today, the work is active in five countries: India, Nepal, Zambia, Uganda and Germany itself. Working in close cooperation with the Berlin Mission since 2011, the Gossner Mission continues to be an independent mission organization supported by numerous friends, supporter circles and congregations throughout Germany. In addition, there is the support of several regional churches. The supporting churches in Germany include: the Evangelical Church of Berlin, Brandenburg, and Silesian Upper Lusatia, the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Hanover, the Church of Lippe and the Evangelical Church of Westphalia.
Partnerships
The main focus of the partnership is the connection with the Gossner Evangelical Lutheran Church in India (GELC), which emerged from the work of the early Gossner missionaries. The church is one of the largest Lutheran churches in India, with about 400,000 members. More than 90 percent of its members are indigenous Indians (Adivasi) who are still marginalized and deprived of their rights in India. The Gossner Mission also maintains relations with the United Church of Zambia (UCZ) and with two dioceses of the Anglican Church of Uganda (Church of Uganda).
The Gossner Mission also works with numerous partner organizations, and in Nepal, for example, is a member of the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). Since the 1950s, this mission has helped to improve the situation of the people in this extremely poor country.
Selected areas of work
Based on its holistic understanding of mission, the Gossner Mission supports, among other things, the training of young women theologians in India, a rural development project in remote Karbi Anglong in Assam, a hospital in the Himalayas in Nepal, a progressive education kindergarten in Uganda and a school initiative for the equality of girls in Zambia.
In addition, the Gossner Mission works together with its partners in India against hunger and poverty; it supports health, education and village development projects. For many years young volunteers have also been sent to the partner churches, where they are intensively involved and return after a year with ecumenical experiences.
The Gossner Mission
Georgenkirchstr. 69/70
10249 Berlin
Tel.: +49 30 243 44-5750