Qui Sommes-Nous ?

The Incarnation Movement, better known as the ‘Word of God Groups’, is a movement within the Roman Catholic Church founded in 1996 in Bamenda (North-West Cameroon) by Henri Bayemi. Its founder regards it as an ecclesial movement as defined by His Holiness Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Movements within the Church: Pontificium consilium pro laicis) during the meeting of leaders of ecclesial movements and new communities at Pentecost in 1998.

On Tuesday, 13 February 1990, Mr Henri Bayemi, then a researcher at the Institute for Agricultural Research and Development (IRAD) in Bambui – Bamenda, married and the father of five children, was praying before the Blessed Sacrament when he realised that Jesus was asking him to help save his people (Lk 15:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:4; Matthew 18:14) through prayer, putting God’s Word into practice and evangelism.

He then decided to share this experience with his wife and others, who became the movement’s first members. Thus, he founded the ‘Word of God’ group on 29 September 1996 at St Joseph’s Cathedral in Big Mankon, Bamenda. Today, the movement is present on four continents, in 16 countries.

As of 2 June 2011, the date of the canonical recognition of the Movement of the Incarnation by His Excellency Bishop Sosthène Bayemi of Obala (Cameroon), there are 50 ‘Word of God’ groups established in 45 parishes.