As I write this message Australia is preparing to celebrate National Reconciliation Week in the last week of May.

The theme chosen for this year’s National Reconciliation Week is ‘Let’s Walk the Talk’. What a challenge that is for us all.

I hope and believe that as Divine Word Missionaries we do our best to ‘Walk the Talk’ when it comes to reconciliation and building relationships with our indigenous brothers and sisters. Through our ministries in Central Australia and Darwin especially, we are committed to living with, walking with, listening to and learning from the first Australians. The more we keep listening and learning, the more we will be authentically Walking the Talk.

Reconciliation is all about relationship-building. It’s about seeing things from another’s perspective, walking in their shoes. Mission too, is all about relationships. In days gone by, mission was seen and sometimes experienced as well-meaning Christians coming to impose their beliefs on others. Today, it is understood much more as being about forming respectful and loving relationships. It is about being with people and listening deeply to them. It is about loving them, as Christ loves.

This type of relationship building has been the cornerstone of missionary activity in Papua New Guinea for the past 80 years and in this edition of In the Word, you will read a wonderful story of how the local people recently set out on a pilgrimage through the PNG Highlands to thank the missionaries for their loving service and sharing of the Gospel in those years.

You will also see stories on the establishment of a new group called Partners in Mission and a recent SVD Leadership Forum, both of which unveil some of the ways we are continually trying to work together on building relationships which help us to Walk the Talk in new and Spirit-led ways.

Yours in the Word,

Fr Henry Adler SVD,

Provincial