This month has been a time of celebration and thanksgiving for the Australia Province of the Divine Word Missionaries. We have marked the conclusion of our 100^th anniversary year of SVD presence in Marsfield, Sydney, and also the 20^th anniversary of our presence in Central Australia.

As we look back to our foundations in Australia, we give thanks for those dedicated and tenacious missionaries who left their homeland and came across the seas to share the love of Jesus Christ in this part of the world. And we give thanks for all the fruits that have grown over the ensuing decades.

The Divine Word Missionaries are celebrating 100 years since arriving in Epping, Sydney, a significant development in the mission to Australia and Papua New Guinea, which was overseen by St Arnold Janssen himself.

“The first chapter of the SVD in Australia is a story of hard years, 45 of them: just like the 40 years of Israel in the desert. They were years of going around in circles, wondering do we have a place of our own or a future in this country, or are we simply an adjunct to the German New Guinea Mission of the SVD,” writes Fr Frank Gerry in a history of the SVD AUS Province.

This month, we have been celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the arrival of the Divine Word Missionaries in Epping, Sydney, which marks the beginning of our mission in Australia.

SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden, has sent a message of congratulations for our confreres, sisters, friends and partners in mission, which I would like to share with you.

The Divine Word Missionaries have celebrated 100 years of missionary presence in Epping, New South Wales, with a special Mass in which they shared with friends and partners in mission the story of the SVD’s arrival in Australia.

The Mass was celebrated by Vice-Provincial, Fr Nick De Groot SVD in the St Arnold Janssen Chapel at Epping on Sunday, October 25.

The Divine Word Missionaries are celebrating 100 years since arriving in Epping, Sydney, a significant development in the mission to Australia and Papua New Guinea, which was overseen by St Arnold Janssen himself.

“The first chapter of the SVD in Australia is a story of hard years, 45 of them: just like the 40 years of Israel in the desert. They were years of going around in circles, wondering do we have a place of our own or a future in this country, or are we simply an adjunct to the German New Guinea Mission of the SVD,” writes Fr Frank Gerry in a history of the SVD AUS Province.