Our Purpose

IHS Bethlehem Church is a religious nonprofit organization founded in the Catholic tradition of faith, worship, and service. Its purpose, as stated in its Articles of Incorporation, is to serve God and humanity through prayer, the sacraments, priestly ministry, and works of mercy, promoting the unity of faith and reason. The corporation conducts worship, pastoral care, education, charity, and healing, encourages art and media as expressions of faith, and operates worldwide through churches and missions to advance faith, peace, and service.

That is the whole of it. Everything else on this page, and everything else the corporation does, is an attempt to carry out that one sentence. We make KIBOJO and our other works of art and media because our Articles ask us to encourage art and media as expressions of faith, and because a story can carry faith, peace, and hope to places a sermon cannot reach. We publish our documents because a religious corporation that asks to be trusted should first make itself easy to check.

A fuller account of how we understand this purpose, area by area, is on the Our Mission page. This page is about who we are, what we do, and how to verify it.

What We Do

We create church works — first of all KIBOJO (希望王女, “Princess of Hope”) — and publish them without charge. No money arises from our work in any form. We accept no payment, fee, reward, or compensation of any kind, and the corporation does not hold, and will never hold, a corporate bank account. Our production team is made up entirely of volunteers and of individuals who take part of their own free will; the corporation is an organization of such voluntary work, and its main activity is creation and production. For us, art is the monastic life itself.

In practice, this work takes seven forms.

KIBOJO — our principal work

KIBOJO (希望王女, “Princess of Hope”) is an honest, nonprofit church work. Through it we create and publish works in the media that speak against war, stand for peace, and take hope as their theme. No money arises from it, and we accept no compensation of any kind for it. It is made by volunteers and individuals working of their own free will. For us, art is the monastic life itself.

Observation

As a small side activity, the corporation also keeps a modest observatory. We observe variable stars, star clusters, and nebulae with a remote telescope, record each observation according to a written policy, and share the records freely. It is not the centre of our work.

Sacred music and church art

The corporation makes sacred music and church art as expressions of faith. Our music is rooted in Gregorian chant; a chant choir is being formed, and its recordings will be released through recorded media and publications. Church art—icons, devotional images, and liturgical objects—is made in the same spirit and published in books and other media. Nothing is sold, and no money arises from this work.

The Sanctuary and the keeping of sacred objects

The corporation keeps a physical sanctuary in Saitama, Japan: a three-story detached house in which the third floor is set apart as a chapel for prayer and for the keeping of sacred objects. It is a private place of prayer and is not open to the public without appointment. Here we receive, protect, and preserve old sacred objects—crucifixes, statues, vestments, liturgical books, and other devotional articles—that have lost the churches, religious houses, or families that once kept them. We hold them in trust, record where they came from, and do not sell them.

Star of Mary — works of art and media

Star of Mary is the name of the genre under which the Church creates its works: web comics, illustrated stories, and digital media that speak of faith. The name is taken from a title of the Blessed Virgin. Every work under this name is made by the Church and belongs to the Church. None of them is a commercial product; none carries a price, a licence for profit, or an advertisement.

The first work in this genre is Star of Mary ChristmasFantasy, a nonprofit international media work created and published by IHS Bethlehem Church and released to the world without charge. We make it to restore ancient holiness and the sacred nature of things, and we describe it, without embarrassment, as a work that lives by the love of God. It is a story inspired by Scripture and the Christian year; it is a work of imagination, and we say so plainly. Where the night sky appears in it, the sky is drawn from our own observation records. You can read more on the Star of Mary page.

Publications and sacred articles

Our first religious publications and sacred articles are in preparation. When they are ready they will be announced in our activity reports. We will not list them here before they exist. A page that promises products is a gifts; this is a church.

Education

We publish plain-language writing on why a church keeps an observatory, on the passages of Scripture that look up to the heavens, on how the Church calendar is tied to the sky, and on the history of faith and science, told with its shadows as well as its light. All of it is free to read. We do not operate a school and we do not confer degrees.

Official Information

Here you will find our registration details, our stated purpose, the full text of our Articles of Incorporation, our Bylaws (93 sections in all), and PDF copies of our official documents. We publish them because we would rather be verified than believed. Anyone may compare what we say on this site with what we filed with the State of California, and we ask to be held to the filed version.

• Corporate Profile — registration details, purpose, and governance
• Articles of Incorporation — the full text as filed, with PDF
• Articles & Bylaws — the 93 sections of our Bylaws
• Statement of Information — filed with the California Secretary of State on November 19, 2025

The Corporation

Governance

The corporation is governed by a board of directors under the Bylaws, which fix the duties of the officers, the conduct of meetings, the handling of property, and the procedure for amendment. The Bylaws run to 93 sections, and they are long on purpose. A small religious corporation is exactly the kind of organization that can drift into being one person’s project with a corporate name attached. The Bylaws exist to prevent that: they bind the directors to the purposes in the Articles, forbid private benefit, and require the records of the corporation to be kept and made available.

Names of directors and officers are given in the Corporate Profile. On the public pages of this site we speak as the corporation, not as individuals, because the work belongs to the corporation and should outlast the people who began it.

Standing

IHS Bethlehem Church is an independent religious corporation founded in the Catholic tradition. It is not affiliated with, and does not act under the authority of, any diocese or the Holy See. When we explain the sacraments, the liturgical calendar, or Catholic practice, we explain; we do not claim authority. When we make works of art, we make art; we do not claim revelation. We state this plainly so that no one mistakes our explanations for official teaching, and no one mistakes our stories for doctrine.

Nonprofit status

This corporation is not organized for the private gain of any person. Its property is irrevocably dedicated to its religious purposes, and no part of its net income or assets benefits any director, officer, member, or private person. Should the corporation be dissolved, its remaining assets are to be distributed to another organization with similar religious purposes, as California law requires. No money arises from our work in any form. We accept no payment, fee, reward, or compensation of any kind, and the corporation does not hold, and will never hold, a corporate bank account.

The corporation is organized for purposes described in Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3). An application for recognition of federal tax-exempt status has not yet been submitted; the corporation is not currently recognized as tax-exempt by the IRS or by the California Franchise Tax Board. The corporation does not accept donations.

Our Name

Stella di Betlemme is Italian for “Star of Bethlehem.” The name comes from the star that guided the Magi from the East to the place where the child was. We did not choose it for its beauty, although it is beautiful. We chose it because it describes what we hope to be.

The Star of Bethlehem did not speak. It did not teach. It did not claim to be the thing it pointed to. It simply stood in the sky where it could be seen, and those who were watching the sky followed it. That is the whole ambition of this corporation: to be something in the sky that points, honestly and without ornament, toward Bethlehem.

It is also why a church with this name keeps an observatory. The Magi were, by every account, people who watched the sky carefully and recorded what they saw. We think they would recognize what we do. The three letters in our corporate name, IHS, are the ancient monogram of the name of Jesus. Betlemme is our ministry name; it is the name you will see on our works, our records, and our correspondence. Star of Mary is the name of the genre under which our works of art and media are made. Three names, one purpose.

What We Believe About the Present

There is one conviction we state on every page where it fits, because it explains the tone of everything we do. IHS Bethlehem Church holds that righteousness does not yet live in this world. We do not say this in despair, and not as an accusation. We say it as the reason we keep records that do not lie, make works that carry what the world does not yet hold, and serve while we wait. The heavens declare the glory of God; the earth has not yet caught up. We live in that distance, and we work there. The page Righteousness Not Yet says this at greater length.

About This Site

This site is the corporation’s home base. It hosts our original observation data and our observatory system (COSMOS), while the records for each celestial object are published at xmasfantasy.org. Everything official about the corporation—its purpose, its documents, its activity reports, its works—starts here.

The site is published in English. Our corporate information — the Corporate Profile, the Articles of Incorporation, and the Bylaws — is also available in Latin, Italian, French, and Japanese. These are translations for reference; the English text is authoritative.

A few things about how the site is run, so that no one has to guess:

• Our observation data are released under an open license for data, and the software that serves them under an open license for software. Credit the corporation if you use them; that is all we ask.
• Our works of Star of Mary are free to read. They are not free to resell, rebrand, or use in advertising. They belong to the Church.
• Activity reports are published as things happen, not as things are planned. If a report is missing, it is because the thing has not happened yet.
• Nothing on this site is for sale, and nothing on this site tracks you for advertising. There are no advertisements.
• The moon phase and liturgical dates shown on the home page are approximations and follow the Western Church; reckoning differs among churches, and we say so where they appear.

Where We Are Now

The organization is in its start-up stage, and we will keep saying so until it is no longer true. Our observation records are under way and are published as they are made. Star of Mary ChristmasFantasy is in production. Our first publications and sacred articles are in preparation. Other areas of our mission will be added as the corporation grows, and not before we can do them properly.

We would rather be a small corporation with an honest record than a large one with a beautiful page. If you want to know what we have actually done, read the activity reports. If you want to know what we are, read the Articles. If you want to know why, look up.

Our Commitments

Because we are small and new, we think it is fairer to state our commitments as rules we can be caught breaking than as values we can be admired for holding. These are the rules.

1. We do not invent the sky. Every star, cluster, or nebula shown in our records or our works is one we have actually observed. A measurement is recorded as a measurement; an impression is recorded as an impression; the two are never mixed.
2. We do not take money. Our works are free to read. Our data are free to use. Our pastoral care carries no price. We accept no compensation of any kind, and we hold no corporate bank account.
3. We do not claim what is not ours. We are an independent church. We do not speak for any diocese or for the Holy See. We explain the tradition we love; we do not pretend to govern it.
4. We do not hide the record. Our Articles, our Bylaws, our registration, and our activity reports are public. Where we have done nothing, the record says nothing, and we leave the blank where it is.
5. We do not pretend the world is already right. We hold that righteousness does not yet live here. We keep looking up, keep recording, and keep making works that point in the right direction, and we do not promise more than that.

If you find that we have broken one of these, write to us and say so. A corporation that publishes its rules should expect to be measured by them, and we would rather be corrected by a reader than excused by our own silence.

Contact

You may write to us through the contact page. We read everything. We answer in English or Italian. We do not sell anything, we do not offer paid services, and we do not ask for money in reply to a message. If you are a scientific body, a parish, a publisher, or a reader with a question about a work, you are equally welcome.