A series of online academic presentations on the theme of ‘Mission and Dialogue Today’ which were hosted this year by the SVD Australia Province have been hailed a success with plans underway to do something similar in the future.

The Mission, Education and Research (MER) presentations ran from June to November and featured speakers from within the Province as well as overseas.

The international guest speakers were renowned theologians and missiologists Fr Roger Schroeder SVD and Fr Stephen Bevans SVD from the United States. Speakers from the AUS Province were Fr Albano Da Costa, Fr Anthony Le Duc, Fr Michael Nguyen, and Fr Thien Nguyen.

Fr Albano said the lecture series was conceived over a cup of coffee during a break at the Provincial Chapter meeting in Sydney in March.

“A few of us got together and thought that doing something like this, exploring different aspects of mission, would be a good idea,” Fr Albano said.

“And we thought that everyone is using the internet these days and holding the presentations online allowed us to open them up to a wider audience.”

Fr Anthony said the lecture series met the group’s initial expectations and there were also learnings for the future.

“We were able to present the theme of ‘Mission and Dialogue Today’ from multiple perspectives by both veteran SVD scholars and also new and upcoming scholars,” he said.

“The theme was so broad that it could admit a wide range of topics, and I think as the inaugural series, it was appropriate.”

Each lecture ranged from 30 to 70 participants, both from within the Australia Province and beyond.

Fr Anthony said the online format was a positive experience in a range of ways, including being cost-effective.

“It was certainly a plus for multiple reasons,” he said. “We managed to not only have speakers giving presentations from multiples countries – Australia, USA, Thailand, Papua New Guinea – but we also had participants from multiple countries. Many of the people in the audience would have very little opportunity to travel abroad to participate in a lecture or a conference with similar content.

“The fact that MER can use digital technology in this very efficient way to communicate to others on the subjects of interest to Mission, Education and Research was a highlight for me.”

Fr Albano said the success of the first MER lecture series has encouraged the team to pursue the idea in the future.

“We certainly want to continue this in some way, and we don’t know what that will exactly look like yet,” he said.

“I think we would be keen to broaden the scope of the theme for next time to bring in different topic areas for discussion. There were some creative ideas put forward at the last Provincial Council meeting.”

Fr Albano said that reaching out via the internet to discuss mission in our world today not only succeeded in providing a mission animation opportunity, which is an important aspect of the SVD charism, but had also created a range of new connections going forward.

“For example, after these talks I received a request to provide a presentation in the Rockhampton Diocese for their in-service day for teachers, so you never know where these connections will lead and they are a great opportunity to share in mission together.”

If you missed seeing any of the MER presentations, click here to watch them on our website.