The Janssen Spirituality Centre (JSC) in Boronia, Victoria, is headed for a new lease of life which will embrace and develop the original vision for the Centre to be a place of welcome for interfaith and intercultural relations.
The JSC, named in honour of St Arnold Janssen SVD, was opened in January 2008, as a venue dedicated to the promotion of inter-religious and cross-cultural relations. The Centre was dedicated to mutual understanding and enrichment, respect and collaboration, among followers of various cultures and faith traditions.
Since then, the Centre’s focus has widened over the years, to include such activities as providing accommodation and care for house asylum seekers in 2012-13 who were awaiting the processing of their applications to stay in Australia.
The JSC is a collaboration between the Divine Word Missionaries and the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS), and SVD Provincial, Fr Henry Adler SVD, says a meeting, held recently at the Centre resolved to refocus on the original vision for the Centre as a place for inter-religious and cross cultural relations.
“The purpose of the meeting was to see where we are at with the JSC, what we are doing there, and where we are going with it,” Fr Henry says.
“One of the very firm things to come out of the meeting was that both Provincials, me and Sr Sarita Kurikattil SSpS, remain committed to the vision for the JSC.
“We would like to continue to collaborate on the project and embrace the original idea of offering a place for dialogue between faith traditions and cultures, but also to be open to some of the new horizons that Pope Francis is inviting us to embrace through is recent documents.
“We are keen to build on what’s already there and stand on the shoulders of all those who’ve been a part of the Centre over the years.”
The JSC Director, Fr Nick de Groot, says he was thrilled with the positive response from the people gathered at the meeting, which included all those involved with the centre now, as well as input from the original director, Fr Frank Gerry SVD, and those who had worked there since, who were able to help the group revisit the original vision for the Centre.
“We’re still finding our way forward, but there is a strong commitment there to develop an even closer cooperation between the SVD and SSpS and also to form a committee to support us in doing this,” Fr Nick says.
“The committee will be a great support because other people have various gifts and abilities and we need to call on those as we begin planning for a fuller program next year.”
Sr Elisabeth Hariyanti SSpS, who works with Fr Nick at the JSC, says it was heartening to reaffirm the vision for the Centre.
“Our hope is that this place will become a welcoming place to everybody, to every culture, every group, every faith tradition and we can continue the mission that was set here at the beginning and really bring it alive again,” she says.
“And in doing that, we are committed, the SSps and the SVD, to collaborating, communicating, and sharing this responsibility together. It’s a challenging, but exciting vision for the mission here.”