Ten SVD students from five countries resumed their academic studies in Theology this month at Yarra Theological Union, the University of Divinity in Melbourne.

Both the students and the academic staff said they were looking forward to returning to face-to-face or blended classes again following the shift to online lectures and tutorials during the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Divine Word Missionary students and newly arrived missionaries in the AUS Province have spent part of their summer taking part in an Acculturation Program to help them adjust to life and ministry in Australia.

Entitled ‘Living and Working in the Multicultural Society of Australia’, the program was held at St Leonards in Victoria and included young students from a diverse cultural background, including Vietnam, Ghana, Ecuador, Mexico, China and Thailand.

Indigenous spirituality was one of the key themes explored when the newer members of the SVD AUS Province gathered together recently for ongoing ministry formation in the Australian context.

The three-day gathering at Boronia in suburban Melbourne, was for confreres who are either newly arrived in the Province or are under five years in final vows.

Fr Joseph Reddy SVD is heading to Panama next month with 24 young people from the Wollongong Diocese to take part in his first World Youth Day experience.

Fr Joseph, who is assistant priest at Mary Mother of the Church Parish in Macquarie Fields, will be a chaplain to the group, which is mostly made up of teachers, aged in their 20s, from Diocese of Wollongong schools.

The senior confreres of the SVD AUS Province might have stepped away from missionary duties in Papua New Guinea and other places, or full-time ministry in Australia, but you’ll still find most of them up and out of bed by 6am and continuing to pursue mission in different ways.

The seniors, who among them all have hundreds of years of missionary experience, live in the Province’s Marsfield community, pursuing their personal interests, various small ministry activities, and shared prayer and meals.

SVD students from overseas who arrive in Australia for formation and theological studies are joining other priests, religious and students for specialised English language studies offered in a theological context.

The English Language School for Pastoral Ministry (ELSPM), located on the Yarra Theological Union campus in Melbourne, aims to develop skills in English in Christian and theological environment and to improve communication to a level which will enable them to participate effectively in a pastoral ministry of the contemporary Church.

The SVD AUS Province is buzzing this month with the arrival of Fr Bob Kisala SVD, the Vice-General of the Divine Word Missionaries, who is here on official Visitation from the Generalate in Rome.

The purpose of the Visitation is to reaffirm the Province in its Mission in the Church today and to affirm and empower our missionaries in what they are doing on the local level throughout the Province, in Thailand, Australia, and New Zealand.