About 150 mission scholars, practitioners and interested people gathered in Melbourne this month for the International Mission Symposium – an event aimed at celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s decree on Mission, Ad Gentes.

The Symposium explored the ways in which the understanding and practice of Mission has developed since Vatican II, but also looked to the future and considered some of the challenges of Mission in the world today.

At 28 years old, (Joseph) Hy Nguyen SVD says his life as a missionary is still in its infancy, but already, having left his home in Japan for mission experience in Papua New Guinea and now Australia, his eyes have been opened to the joy of being with people from different cultures.

Joseph grew up in Vietnam until the age of 12, when his family moved to Japan to be near his sister, who had emigrated some years earlier.

The SVD AUS Province is gearing up to celebrate World Mission Sunday on October 18, with activities planned across the Province to mark this special day in the Church’s calendar.

A significant event happening from October 2-3, in the lead-up to World Mission Sunday, is the International Mission Symposium in Melbourne. 

As a recently ordained missionary priest from India, Fr Kommareddy Rajasekhar Reddy (Fr Raja) says he is on a big learning curve – arriving in Australia and taking up his first appointment in a parish – but says the welcome of the people is helping him adjust to his new life.

Fr Raja has been appointed as Assistant Priest at St Agatha’s Parish, Pennant Hills in Broken Bay Diocese, and says the parishioners and parish staff, Parish Priest Fr Paul Durkin, and the Diocese, have been wonderful to him since he arrived.

Supporting lay people in mission is a key focus for the Divine Word Missionaries, and through a longstanding relationship with lay volunteer mission organisation, Palms Australia, the SVD is sharing its mission experience both in the field and when missionaries return home.

SVD AUS Provincial, Fr Henry Adler, says the Divine Word Missionaries and Palms Australia have had a warm collaboration for many years and are working together to create a strong future for lay volunteering in Mission.

Some years ago I found in a Dutch catholic newspaper an article on a spiritual renewal centre in Helvoirt in the Netherlands province of Brabant.
Reading it, I slowly realized they were talking about our former SVD Noviciate house, where I entered the SVD as a novice.

The author wrote: “Stepping into the building, one can feel an atmosphere of prayer.” In other words, you can feel it is a holy place”.

Fr Liam Horsfall SVD, who died in Brisbane this month, aged 87, has been remembered as a missionary who was as much at home taking the Divine Word to the poorest, most marginalised people in India and PNG as he was sitting and talking to the young men or the elderly nuns under his Chaplaincy care in Brisbane.

Born and raised in Brisbane, Fr Liam took his first vows as a Divine Word Missionary in 1949 and his first assignment was to India, where he would spend many years and have extraordinary experiences, including being chaplain for Mother Teresa’s new congregation in India.

Sleeping conditions fell to a chilling seven degrees when Christine and Andrew Lapalapa lay their heads down on their Catholic parish’s car park.

The Catholic married couple joined 40 young people to sleep outside St Maximilian Kolbe church, Marsden, with just a sheet of cardboard and a sleeping bag.

Dialogue is a conversation with a centre, not sides. It is a way of taking the energy of our differences and channelling it toward something that has never been created before.

Fr Nick de Groot SVD reflects that he hopes such dialogue will underpin the Synod on the Family this coming October 2015, which will highlight, no doubt, the sharp differences among Catholics over moral issues.

SVD Provincials from around the Asia-Pacific (ASPAC) region gathered in Sydney recently for a meeting in which they mapped out joint priorities and areas of focus for future new missions in the area.

AUS Provincial, Fr Henry Adler says the meeting considered future growth in missions in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Laos, Cambodia and other parts of South East Asia.