Almost two years after his priestly ordination in Melbourne, Fr Clement Baffoe SVD was finally able to return to his home village in Ghana to celebrate his Thanksgiving Mass with family, friends and parish community members.

Fr Clement, who was assigned to the SVD Australia Province, and is currently serving in the Ministerial Region of the Good Shepherd in Townsville, Queensland, says the trip back home, after the long pandemic separation, was a graced opportunity to give thanks to God.

Celebrating Mission Day at Dorish Maru College this month helped me to reflect again on the importance of the concept of 'Mission in Reverse'. Mission for me is never a 'one way street' but rather it flows in both directions at once.

The community at Dorish Maru College in Box Hill, Melbourne, celebrated our annual Mission Day on Saturday, October 5.

A new SVD missionary has arrived in Australia from Ghana and is looking forward to doing God’s will among the people of the AUS Province.

Fr Gideon Awudi was ordained to the priesthood in August last year and this is his first assignment as a Divine Word Missionary.

Christmas is the time when Jesus enters our lives in a special way. However this can be overshadowed by all the other activities at this time, like partying, shopping sprees and the giving of gifts. Also, I have now discovered that Christmas does not have to be a “once off” event for the year, but rather has an essential all year round character.

About 20 years ago I was asked to leave my beloved mission in Ghana in West Africa and return to Australia for Formation ministry. My mission in Ghana had been Parish work, in a very traditional area, where the people were subsistence farmers. After a time of local language learning I became very committed to my missionary work. For the most part this comprised going around, by motorbike, to the different villages for the purpose of basic catechesis as also for initiating development projects concerning the digging of wells and boreholes and for managing a Primary Health care project.