The SVD AUS Province is embracing the principles set out in Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ by taking a series of small, practical steps to help protect the environment.

Recently, the Provincial Council and the Treasurer’s Office approved the installation of a 25.2KW solar panel array at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne.

Here we are in Advent, the beginning of the new liturgical year, and oh boy, are we ready for a fresh start.

After a year which began with bushfires in Australia, then floods and of course the unexpected arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, people are weary and are looking to turn the page. Advent is the perfect season to slow down and re-set.

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 SVD is taking up a new missionary assignment in Townsville Diocese, with a particular focus on indigenous ministry, including on Palm Island.

Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, says the move comes at the request of Townsville Bishop Timothy Harris.

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.

The SVD Lay Partners group in Marsfield has resolved to continue deepening the formation of members in Divine Word Missionary spirituality as the group moves towards being formalised as part of the SVD community.

At a meeting held by Zoom earlier this month, Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD spoke of the importance of the SVD Lay Partners in the missionary activities of the Divine Word Missionaries.

The Divine Word Missionaries are extending their ministry in Central Australia, especially their outreach to Aboriginal communities, at the invitation of the Bishop of Darwin, Charles Gauci.

Bishop Gauci recently spent time staying with the SVD communities in Alice Springs and Santa Teresa, listening to their needs and meeting the people.

The SVD community in Myanmar has visited a refugee camp on the outskirts of Hmawbi Township, the town where they live, taking supplies to help the people survive in their precarious situation.

Fr Tuyen Nguyen,Fr Deva Savariyappan and Fr Mariusz Kubista  visited the Rakahine refugee camp in Taikkyee Gone village to assist the people who have fled from their conflict-torn home, leaving behind their houses and livelihoods.

It’s been a time of farewells and new beginnings for some of the SVD missionaries in the Thailand District of the AUS Province, with the Bishop of Udon Thani reassigning them to take on new challenges in a different area of the diocese.

The SVDs had been working in the area of Ban Dung in northern Thailand for some time, taking care of large parishes as well as small, deserted churches in different villages. Their new assignments will take three of the confreres to another province, BuengKan, which borders Laos.