The SVD AUS province has welcomed two young men into the Postulancy program in Thailand, with a view to them entering the Novitiate next year where they will begin their journey of training to be missionaries.

Chalerm Naruemankanthon and Cuong Quoc Dang have been walking with the SVDs in Thailand for some time and are now ready to deepen their commitment and discernment as Novices. Their Novitiate will take place in the Philippines, after which they will continue their formation in Australia.

Way back in 1969 I came to Ledalero, the major seminary of the Divine Word Missionaries, in Flores, Indonesia. I was a seminarian, coming to study theology and preparing for priesthood. I was ordained in early 1973, and then worked for about 3 years on a small island in the Flores Sea called Palue. 

In 1976, I returned to Australia, taking-on a number of jobs in the following years in Australia, New Zealand and Tonga. Then, when my second term as parish priest of Sacred Heart Parish, Preston, in Victoria, was coming to an end, I accepted an invitation to return to Ledalero. 

More than 20 young SVD missionaries and SSpS Sisters gathered in Sydney recently for a workshop which explored different aspects of interculturality, both in the community life of a missionary and in ministry.

All of the young missionaries who attended have been in vows for 10 years or less, or are recent arrivals in the Province.

Three Divine Word Missionaries, Anthony Li, Laurensius (Laurens) Woda and Michael Wu were ordained to the priesthood last week in a joyous celebration attended by their family, friends and SVD confreres.

In receiving the gift of priesthood, the three young men were also being made into gifts for the people they will serve, said ordaining prelate, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane.

The SVD AUS Province is buzzing this month with the arrival of Fr Bob Kisala SVD, the Vice-General of the Divine Word Missionaries, who is here on official Visitation from the Generalate in Rome.

The purpose of the Visitation is to reaffirm the Province in its Mission in the Church today and to affirm and empower our missionaries in what they are doing on the local level throughout the Province, in Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.