Leading international missiologist, Fr Stephen Bevans SVD, will visit Australia this month to deliver a keynote address at the “Mission: one heart, many voices” conference in Sydney.
Fr Stephen is the Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Professor Mission and Culture at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union and is a renowned teacher and author on Mission. As an SVD missionary he served for nine years (1972-1981) in the Philippines.
Fr Stephen will be joined at the Mission Conference by an outstanding list of speakers, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr Jose Ramos Horta, expert theologian on migration Dr Gemma Tulud Cruz, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, Sr Maureen McBride RNDM of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, and Mrs Kath Evans, whose healing from cancer was recognised as the second miracle required for the canonisation of St Mary MacKillop.
The conference, which is being organised by Catholic Religious Australia, will also feature input from a range of religious and laypeople who are engaged in mission work for the Church.
One of the organisers, Fr Noel Connolly SSC says the conference will offer a scriptural and theological vision of mission, enriched by the variety of voices exploring the complexity of mission.
“The conference is for those Catholics inspired to strive creatively for justice, truth, peace, freedom, reconciliation and the Reign of God in Australia and globally,” he wrote in the CRA journal, Pathways.
“It is meant for people from agencies like St Vincent de Paul, Catholic Education, Refugee Advocacy, Aboriginal Ministry, Welfare, Catholic Health Care, parish ministry, migrant chaplaincies, and all individuals dedicated to proclaiming the Good News and so forth.
“We have two major hopes for the conference. The first is to empower people with a vision of mission that is scriptural and deeply theological; one that affirms, enables, encourages and inspires. Our second hope for the conference is to hear many voices. Mission is a single but complex reality and it develops in a variety of ways (Redemptoris MIssio #42). It includes proclamation, witness, building community, prayer, dialogue, charity, work for justice, ecology, reconciliation, inculturation etc.
“We share in Jesus’ mission of building the Kingdom of God, one of ‘righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit’ (Rom 14:17). We all do it in the way we are especially called but we also need one another and can learn from one another.”
Mission Secretary for the SVD Australian Province, Fr Henry Adler, says he is delighted that Fr Stephen Bevans SVD will be a keynote speaker at the Conference.
“I think this Conference will be an important time for the promotion and encouragement of Mission in the Church in Australia,” he says. “We are delighted not only to support it and be enriched by it, but also to have one of our confreres from the United States speaking at it and sharing his knowledge, experience and insights on missiology.”
For more information on the “Mission: one heart, many voices” conference, visit: http://mohmv.com.au/index.html