Internationally renowned theologian and missiologist Fr Roger Schroeder SVD was in Australia recently, presenting a range of workshops on interculturality and spending time with a diverse range of people in SVD ministries in Sydney, Alice Springs, the Tiwi Islands and Brisbane.

During the first half of his time in Australia, he gave two talks and a day workshop around the theme of interculturality, which has been the central theme for the SVD and SSpS since their General Chapters of 2012 and 2018, respectively.

Whenever I hear the account of Pentecost day as told in the Acts of the Apostles, where the apostles, all filled with the Holy Spirit, are speaking in foreign languages, I think of our multicultural and intercultural SVD communities, where a great variety of languages are always present, but also a unity in the Spirit.

For most of the history of the SVD Australia Province, the Divine Word Missionaries have been blessed with a heterogeneous blend of confreres from different racial, socio-economic and cultural backgrounds.

The Divine Word Missionaries, together with members of other culturally diverse religious congregations, are sharing their experiences of interculturality as part of a Catholic Religious Australia initiative to support congregations in preparing for the future.

The Interculturality: Leadership, Community Life and Ministry initiative is part of CRA’s Emerging Futures program.

Internationally renowned theologian and missiologist, Fr Roger Schroeder SVD is currently in Australia delivering a range of presentations and workshops on different aspects of Mission, including the theology of indigenous peoples and interculturality.

Fr Roger is the Professor of Intercultural Studies and Ministry and the Louis J. Luzbetak SVD Professor of Mission and Culture at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union (CTU).