Divine Word Missionaries in leadership positions throughout the AUS Province came together recently for a workshop to explore the role of leadership in a mission context and to share their experiences.

The workshop was held at the SVD provincial offices in Marsfield, Sydney, and included confreres from right across the province – Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD said the workshop gathered together all the newly appointed leaders of the Province to meet with the new administration team and to get to know each other.

“It was partly an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other and then to provide an opportunity for ongoing formation,” he said.

“And we wanted to look at the question of what type of leadership are we seeking in our mission context and encouraging the confreres to think about and share what kind of leadership they have shown in their particular context.

“A big focus of the workshop was a deeper exploration of Interculturality and what this means for us as SVDs and for the parishes and communities in which we work.”

The workshop got underway with a welcome from Fr Rass and then presentations from some of the senior members of the SVD Marsfield community, Fr Anton Bulla, Fr Wim Valxcks and Fr Frank Gerry.

Other guest speakers throughout the four days included Fr Noel Connolly SSC who spoke on Mission in the Australian Context and Fr Samuel Agcaracar SVD from the Philippines, who presented on Interculturality.

The confreres also had presentations on the SVD Lay Partners, finances, professional standards and safeguarding, spirituality, studies and academics, and other relevant issues.

Fr Vanbang (Bang) Nguyen SVD, who has just been appointed … said he found the gathering encouraging and thought-provoking.

“First of all, it was a good time to gather together as SVD family,” he said.

“Secondly, it was a wonderful chance to hear the experiences from our confreres, in particular from our senior confreres, and learn from them how to be a successful missionary.

“All of these things help me to be a good SVD missionary of God in our modern society.”

Fr Bang said the highlight of the workshop for him was the emphasis on helping confreres to understand the role of the Church’s leader.

“The leader of the Church is not like a leader of society, but a leader of service and compassion,” he said.

“It was also great to hear about how we can work together with other leaders and the People of God.”

Fr Bang said that leadership in the modern Church context comes with many challenges, especially  in the wake of the sexual abuse crisis.

“So, as a leader of the Church, I am aware that I am invited to find hope in the challenges, to help me continue God’s mission and also encourage God’s People to recognise His love and presence in this world.”

One of the challenges for Fr Bang, who hails from Vietnam, is continuing to adjust to the Australian culture.

“Therefore, I will continue to improve my English and gain more understanding of the local culture and then I will offer my time to proclaim the Word of God to the people that are entrusted to me, because the Word of God is the foundation of life and our mission,” he said.

Br Damien Lunders SVD who has been District Leader of the Thai District for many years and has recently handed the baton to Fr Vinh Tran SVD, said the meeting was very rich and he was still absorbing much of what he’d heard.

“I found it reaffirming in the sense that over the past years of my leadership role, I have always tried to be aware of the needs of other confreres in so far as that we have been 10 confreres of many different nations and cultures,” he said.

“I have not experienced during these past years with them any major conflicts.”

He said two of the highlights of the workshop for him were Fr Noel’s presentation about Australian culture and missionary context and also Fr Sam’s presentation on Interculturality.

“It was very relevant to the situation most of us live in, especially mission community with mixed nationalities, living together in harmony,” he said.

“I remember while I was a missionary in Papua New Guinea, our Provincial attended meetings on one of the islands under the care of another missionary society and he was asked by them how the SVD could live and work together with so many different nationalities. For us, it just seems so natural.”

Br Damien said he hoped the workshop would help him continue working alongside and supporting his confreres as much as possible.