spacer image spacer image spacer image
Society of African Missions, 23 Bliss Avenue, Tenafly, NJ 07670 * (201)567-0450

 

How You Can Help:
Donating Opportunities
Perpetual Mass Association

Our Missions:
Ghana | Kenya | Liberia
Tanzania | USA

Becoming a Missionary:
SMA Missionary Priest
SMA Lay Missionary


Link to African Art Museum of SMA

Read our bi-monthly newsletter, The Frontline Report, online! (link image)
 
 
spacer image
spacer imagespacer imagespacer image
 
<< BACK
  SMA  >  about us  >  US Province
spacer imageSMA American Province
 (Officially Established - 1941)
  
spacer imageHeadquartersspacer image23 Bliss Avenue, Tenafly, New Jersey
 Provincial Superior  Rev. Michael Moran
 Vice-Superior  Rev. Brendan Darcy
 Councillor  Rev. Frank Wright
 Local Superior Rev. Brendan Darcy
 Office Manager  Ms. Martha Paladino
  
  A detail of the SMA American Province Headquarters complex in Tenafly, New Jersey.
  
 

SMA missionaries began working in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. The earliest missionaries saw a need to minister both spiritually and physically to the black population, who were underserved by the churches already established here. Reaching out to this neglected group continued the vision of SMA's Founder, Melchior de Marion Bresillac, a vision that stressed ministry to the "most abandoned" people. Right up to current times, SMA missionaries maintained strong involvement in civil rights and racial discrimination issues in this country.

The American Province was formally established in 1941 with Fr Ignatius Lissner as its first Provincial Superior. In addition to perseverance during times of racial strife, SMA-USA has also been in the forefront of the Society's lay missionary programs, having developed an essential theology of laity in mission during the 1980s.

   
  Concelebrated Mass in the public chapel at Provincial Headquarters
   
spacer image

Today, the American Province has 34 priests and more than a dozen lay missionaries who serve in the African countries of Liberia, Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania. In the United States, SMA missionaries have worked widely in the South, and in California, Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey.

decor image: Related SMA Links
History of the American Province
SMA-USA Locations
QUEEN OF ANGELS - SMA Parish

SMA-USA Missions in Africa:
Ghana  |  Kenya  |  Liberia  |  Tanzania

SMA-USA Vocations - Becoming an SMA Missionary Priest
SMA-USA Lay Missionary Program