The Divine Word Missionary community at Marsfield in Sydney hosted a day of intercultural hospitality when a group of students from a SVD school in Japan paid a visit.

The students, from Nanzan Primary School, located in the heart of Japan, in and around the city of Nagoya, are in Australia on a cultural visit, staying with Australian families and practising the English language.

Rector of the SVD Marsfield community, Fr Viet Nguyen SVD says students from the school have visited the community for some years now.

“We had 21 students and three teachers visit with us on Sunday, July 26,” Fr Viet says.

“We celebrated Mass together, with our regular Arnold Janssen Chapel community and this was followed by a performance from the Nanzan Primary School students.

“After Mass and the performance, we all joined together for a cuppa and a shared lunch.”

Fr Viet says the visit from the Nanzan students is becoming a tradition which the members of the Marsfield community, including several senior retired missionaries, really enjoy.

“It is a good intercultural exchange and it is also good to strengthen ties with SVD schools and ministries in various parts of the world,” he says.

The Nanzan Primary School is one of a group of educational institutions in one complex, also including a university, a junior college for women, and three high schools.

Five of the institutions were founded by the Society of the Divine Word and one by the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Spirit.

The Nanzan motto, “For Human Dignity”, identifies the Nanzan School Corporation as an institution which says its point of departure is an interest in the human being and whose goal is a fuller awareness of each person’s God-given dignity.