Origins

The Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (in French, Société des missions évangéliques de Paris), also known as the SMEP or Mission de Paris, was a Protestant missionary society created in 1822. It was not at first a church entreprise but rather a non denominational society : it brought together individuals (protestants) from various (church) backgrounds who had come under the influence of the Revival Movement (Réveil) that swept all over Europe at the end of the 18th century.

The SMEP opened several mission fields, in Africa (in particular, in Lesotho in 1833) and Oceania.

A new paradigm for mission : In 1964, the daughter churches established by SMEP missionaries expressed a strong desire to change the nature of the relationship with the mother church. They wished for ’integration of the Missionary Church to the Mother Church’ (l’intégration de la Mission à l’Église).

This objective was achieved in 1971, when two new organisations replaced the SMEP :

Cévaa Communauté évangélique d’action apostolique (subsequently Communauté d’Églises en Mission), a federation of sister churches consisting of five lutheran and reformed churches from France, Italy, Switzerland and those churches with their origins in the missionary work of SMEP

Défap, Département évangélique français d’action apostolique (subsequently Service protestant de mission), a common missionary service for the five churches of the Cévaa, with its headquarters at Maison des Missions 102, boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, (former seat of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society). Défap continues to publish the monthly magazine Mission, the Journal des missions évangéliques, the SMEP « journal vert ».

Areas of work

Défap aims at promoting and facilitating fellowship/communion between French churches and churches abroad (abroad being here several countries in Africa, the Pacific, Latin America and Europe) through :

Sharing / exchange of personnel : that includes the sending of people to visit/work with sister churches abroad as well as the receiving of people from sister churches : students, pastors, theologians, youth groups, members of local churches...

support to theological training (and exchange between theological institutions)

support to projects related to church development and life

assistance to local (church) communities in France : nurturing their vision and knowledge of, as well as solidarity with churches abroad through various means : media, specific tools, visits, trainings...

Bibliography Jean-François Zorn, Le grand siècle d’une mission protestante : la Mission de Paris, 1822-1914, Paris, Karthala, 1993, 791 p. (out of print)

Missionnaire et /ou humanitaire : cahier post forum, Défap, 2008