“Our time is short, so we must spend it with the people, not structures."

This was one of the key insights from the outgoing Superior General of the SVD, Fr Heinz Kuluke, at the recent General Chapter in Rome, and I think he’s hit the nail on the head.

Mission must always be people-centred, because it is the heart of people that we are trying to reach with the love of Jesus Christ.

Structures are necessary in large operations to ensure that everything runs smoothly, but as Fr Heinz points out, structures can never be the end game.

As missionaries, we have to regularly return to a kind of Gospel simplicity in the work we do and this involves us being open to ongoing renewal.

The General Chapter, of which you will read more in this edition of In the Word, called us to engage in this kind of renewal.

“The love of Christ impels us to do His work,” Fr Heinz said in his report to the General Chapter.

“We are about renewal, which is really conversion – changing old habits, and even our missionary direction by letting go of the old. We need to think outside the box.

“Our static relations need to become dynamic – we need to be with the people.”

I think that our SVD ministries here in the AUS Province are people-focused, but I have returned home with a fresh impetus to make this question our measuring stick: Is this ministry or activity truly geared towards being with the people? If not, how can we make it so?

This will require ongoing renewal and conversion on our part, but it is where Christ calls us to be - with the people, especially the poor and marginalised, sharing the love of Christ. That’s mission.

When we strip it back to those bare essentials, we once again encounter the fire of Christ’s love in our hearts and we can’t help but want to share it. 

It’s a call not just for those in vowed religious missionary life, but for all Christians. 

Come join us in mission!

Yours in the Word,

Fr Henry Adler SVD,

Provincial