The SVD Annual Mission Day 2022 will be held on Saturday, October 8, under the theme: For a Missionary Church in a Wounded World: Culturally Aware, Interreligious Solidarity & Faithfulness.

The Mission Day will be held at Yarra Theological Union Study Centre, 98 Albion Road, Box Hill, VIC, starting at 3pm AEDT.

On this foundation day of our Congregation, I invite you to reflect on contemplation as a source of inspiration, strength, and perseverance in our intercultural life and mission, said SVD Superior-General, Fr Paul Budi Kleden in his message for SVD Foundation Day this month.

To be consistent with the understanding that mission is principally the mission of God, we can only do justice to it if we cultivate the contemplative dimension of our life and mission.

The Divine Word Missionaries’ Australian mission publication, Society Matters, has taken out a Highly Commended award at the recent Australasian Catholic Press Association awards dinner in Melbourne.

Society Matters won the commendation in the category for ‘Best Content – Faith and Life’ for a feature article on the SVD mission in Myanmar.

An invitation by the SVD Generalate in Rome to be an official Visitator to the SVD mission in Indonesia’s biggest Province paved the way for a positive experience, says Fr Henry Adler SVD.

Fr Henry was one of three Visitators to spend a month in the Indonesia-Java Province recently, meeting SVD confreres there and spending time observing the various ministries in action.

I joined the Catholic Church when I was 15 years old. As a baby, I had been baptised in the Anglican Church, and my mother was a very devout Anglican all her life, as had been her parents.

Almost two years after his priestly ordination in Melbourne, Fr Clement Baffoe SVD was finally able to return to his home village in Ghana to celebrate his Thanksgiving Mass with family, friends and parish community members.

Fr Clement, who was assigned to the SVD Australia Province, and is currently serving in the Ministerial Region of the Good Shepherd in Townsville, Queensland, says the trip back home, after the long pandemic separation, was a graced opportunity to give thanks to God.

The Divine Word Missionaries Australia Province has extended its commitment to being present in New Zealand and is ready to respond to any requests by bishops to provide more confreres as needed.

Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, undertook a Provincial Visitation to New Zealand earlier this month, and said he was “very impressed” by the ministry of the four confreres who are currently assigned there.

The halls of Dorish Maru College, the SVD’s formation house in Melbourne, are once again ringing with life following the arrival of five new missionary students – the first big intake since international borders re-opened after the pandemic.

The students are from Vietnam and China. Also arriving recently are two SVD priests, who are studying English before beginning their ministry.