Dear Friends,
Happy New Year to all! I am delighted to be here sharing my first Provincial’s Message for our ‘In the Word’ e-news publication since my appointment took effect on January 1.
Having spent the last several years as parish priest of St Mark’s Parish, Inala, in Brisbane, and before that, being assigned to formation ministry at Dorish Maru College in Melbourne, I am aware that my first task in these early days as Provincial, is to listen and learn as I make my way around the Province.
I am looking forward to working together as a team with the Provincial Council, the members of the Province, the communities that they serve, lay collaborators and friends.
The Australia Province is large and diverse, incorporating SVD ministries in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar. We have a strong commitment to ministry with Indigenous communities, along with large multicultural parishes, ethnic chaplaincies, missionary formation and much more. Our ministries in Thailand and Myanmar in many ways look different to our ministries in Australia and New Zealand. But last year’s 150th SVD Jubilee celebrations showed us that while our missionary Society is spread across the globe, we are bound together in Christ as ‘Witnesses to the Light: From Everywhere for Everyone’.
In one sense a New Year is a new slate, but I am also acutely aware that everything we do as missionaries builds on the faith-filled legacy of those who have come before us. So, as we begin this New Year, we place ourselves in God’s hands, praying for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all that we do.
I ask for your prayers as I begin this new journey as Provincial and please be assured that I am praying for you too.
Yours in the Word,
Fr Boni Buahendri SVD,
Provincial.