Dear Friends,

He is Risen! Happy Easter to you!

As we make our way through the joy of the Easter season, I have been reflecting on the resurrection experience of my visit to the Tiwi Islands during Holy Week and Easter.

I travelled to St Monica’s Parish at Milikapiti on Melville Island at the invitation of Darwin Bishop Charles Gauci. The parish is the northern-most point of the Diocese of Darwin and the SVD has recently taken over its care from the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSCs).

I was deeply impressed by the level of commitment to the Catholic faith that I found there in the people, despite them having only irregular access to the sacraments in recent years.

It is a very faith-filled place and no doubt the MSCs have done a lot in building up the community over the years.

My visit confirmed in me the belief that Bishop Charles and the SVDs have taken the right course of action in sending our missionaries to be with the people of the Tiwi Islands and to accompany them on their faith journey.

We are committed to working closely with Bishop Charles and the Diocese of Darwin to make sure that these vulnerable people do not feel left out or forgotten, despite the many practical challenges that come with sustaining pastoral projects in far-flung places.

We want to work in partnership with the people to explore a model of Church where the community are empowered to take up the gifts of their baptismal call in leadership and in growing the faith which is so clearly evident among them.

This indigenous community is calling for a more missionary outlook, respecting the traditions of the people and the mission and vision of the local bishop and we SVDs are excited and privileged to be a part of that.

I really enjoyed my Easter in the Tiwi Islands. The people are so lovely, welcoming and hospitable. The Tiwi Islanders are great dancers, it is very much part of their traditional culture, and the liturgical dancing during the Easter liturgies was phenomenal, really bringing the beauty and the power of the resurrection to life in the local context.

These are the people of whom Pope Francis speaks when he urges the Church to go out to the peripheries and let the peripheries become the centre of the Church.

This Easter I found the resurrection of Jesus in the people of Milikapiti. The challenge for us is to be constantly with them and to celebrate this resurrection among them. It is about rising with them, in Jesus. In accompanying them, we are but pouring water on parched ground, allowing the deep seeds of faith to rise up as new green shoots of life.

All of us are called to constantly water the seeds of faith planted at our baptism, fanned into a flame at our Confirmation and nourished and sustained in the Eucharist.

May you too experience the glory of the resurrection this Easter season.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Asaeli Rass SVD, Provincial.