The St Arnold Janssen Chapel and the surrounding grounds of the SVD Marsfield Community took on a vibrant and colourful character earlier this month with the celebration of Multicultural Sunday.

More than 400 people gathered for the popular event, which returned after four years disruption due to the COVID pandemic.

Mission Secretary for the AUS Province, Fr Viet Nguyen SVD, said the day was about “celebrating our faith in God and God’s diverse family”.

“It is also about raising mission awareness among people, empowering them to fulfill God’s mission on earth by extending God’s mercy and love to our brothers and sisters in need globally.”

To achieve this aim, those participating in the day helped raise about $15,835 for the orphanage and poor children under the SVD’s care in Myanmar, thanks to donated prizes worth about $2,200.

“The Multicultural Sunday brings people together to share and experience the richness of different cultural activities, including music, dance, food and language, and by doing this, it helps educate ethnic groups, especially young people to recognise that ‘we are one, but we are many’.”

Events of the day were emceed by Fr Elmer Ibarra SVD, who has a long association with Marsfield’s Multicultural Sunday along with Frances Louis, a member of the Indonesian community and long-time friend of the SVD.

“The day started with Mass and then after Mass we had seven cultural presentations,” said Fr Elmer.

“There was a welcome to country and we all sang the National Anthem before the presentations began.

“The program culminated with everyone singing together the song, ‘We are Australian’ and then we proceeded to a shared multicultural lunch.”

The main celebrant at Mass was Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, while Fr Bill Burt SVD gave the homily.

The performance items included singing and dancing from the Ghanaian, Chinese, Slovak, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indonesian and Fijian communities as well as the Arnold Janssen Chapel Community. They were followed by a pinata game for the children.

Fr Elmer said multicultural celebrations are an important part of the character of the Divine Word Missionaries.

“It’s very important for us, because first of all, we ourselves are very multicultural, with confreres from a range of countries working in the Australia Province,” he said.

“And we want to encourage people to promote multiculturalism in the broader society so that we can all cooperate and live harmoniously together.”

Fr Elmer said that for him, a highlight of the day was the number of young people who participated.

“Three of the seven presentations were done by young people,” he said. “The Slovak community’s presentation was done by kids of various ages, from young ones to teens. The Fijian youth community took part and the Indonesian community for the first time had their children perform a dance.

“For me, that stood out, because it is a great opportunity to invite young people into our activities and to invite them to celebrate their own culture and faith and also that of others.”

While rain threatened throughout the day, it did little to dampen spirits and all the cultural presentations were able to go on outdoors.

“It was really a great day and it was wonderful to be able to celebrate it again after four years,” Fr Elmer said.

PHOTOS: The cultural presentations were a highlight of the Multicultural Sunday celebrations at Marsfield.