Happy New Year! And welcome to the first edition of In the Word for 2023.

As you receive this Enews, I am in Fiji preparing to facilitate the meeting of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania. It is a crucial meeting for the bishops of our region and will cover many things, including the preparations for Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality. I ask for your prayers for the bishops’ discernment and also for me as I facilitate the meeting with the help of secretariat staff.

During the first three centuries of persecution, Christians didn’t celebrate the Christmas feast in the same way we celebrate it today, reflects Fr John Quang SVD.

They celebrated the feast of Emmanuel, God-is-with-us. That’s the essence, the crux of Christmas. It is not so much about a birthday, but rather about God the Creator becoming human like us in flesh and dwelling among us so that we may be saved. The word Jesus means ‘God saves’. As a result of God being among us and becoming one like us, we are saved.

The SVD Australia Province has three new Provincial Councillors to help provide collaborative leadership over the next three years.

The new Provincial Councillors were recently appointed by the SVD Superior-General, Fr Budi Kleden, following their nomination at the local level.

The Advent period has been a tuneful and generous one around the SVD Australia Province, with a number of SVD parishes holding Christmas Carol events for the first time since COVID, and others preparing food hampers for those in need this Christmas season.

In Santa Teresa, Central Australia, the community held their first ever Carols event and their famous Christmas lights display took place in the usual spectacular fashion, lighting up the desert sky. On top of that, the isolated Indigenous community was also blessed to receive a brand new giant nativity scene.

Fr Jim Knight SVD has been remembered as a much-loved family-member and a wise and dedicated missionary priest, committed to those on the margins, especially to the people with whom he ministered in Papua New Guinea and Central Australia.

Fr Jim’s Funeral Mass was held earlier this month at the St Arnold Janssen Chapel in Marsfield, following his death in Sydney on November 24.

As we prepare to celebrate the great feast of Christmas – the Nativity of our Lord, Jesus Christ - let us do so with gratitude in our heart for all that the Incarnation brings us.

When I celebrated the 20^th anniversary of my priestly ordination this month, I was struck by the Advent focus on the coming of Emmanuel, ‘God with us’.

A recent conference hosted by the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania, called ‘Our Ocean Home’ was an example of synodality in action, according to SVD Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass.

The online public event, hosted by Australian Catholic University (ACU) and supported by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, brought together the Bishops of Oceania with experts from the region for a synodal conference towards the General Assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania (FCBCO) in February 2023.

Working in a large, multicultural parish in the Wellington Archdiocese, New Zealand, has both challenges and joys, but for Fr John Quang SVD, it’s one of the best assignments he’s ever had.

“I love it in New Zealand. I’m really happy here,” he says.

Students from the SVD formation house, Dorish Maru College, have closed their text-books for another academic year and are heading off to local parishes to gain first-hand pastoral and intercultural experience.

Seven newly arrived students who have been undertaking their English-language courses or their first year of Theology studies at Yarra Theological Union will participate in the SVD Students Summer Acculturation Program.

The Divine Word Missionaries joyfully celebrated the Ordination to the Priesthood of Tin Minh Trinh SVD this month – and for the first time, the ordaining prelate was Bishop Tim Norton SVD, Auxiliary Bishop of Brisbane.

The Ordination took place at St Christopher’s Parish, Syndal in Melbourne, where Tin has been serving as Deacon and featured contributions from the local Vietnamese community, in tribute to Tin’s home country.