The SVD AUS Province is gearing up to celebrate World Mission Sunday on October 16 by sharing resources and planning activities across the Province to mark this special day in the Church’s calendar.

Mission Secretary, Fr Truc Quoc Phan SVD says that on World Mission Sunday, Catholics all over the world are called to reflect on and recommit to the Church’s missionary activity, through prayer, sacrifice and personal involvement.

For the people of Nhulunbuy in isolated East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, a regular Catholic priest has been hard to come by in recent times, but after providing priestly supply services there, and seeing the need of the people, Fr Jan Szweda SVD offered to move in as Parish Priest, and despite the challenges, he’s loving it.

Bishop Eugene Hurley appointed Fr Jan as Parish Priest of Nhulunbuy and Groote Eylandt earlier this year and since then, Fr Jan has been doing his best to build a parish community – not an easy task in a largely transient mining population.

A good master teaches his apprentice how a work is done so that if ever the master goes, he knows that at any time the apprentice could take over and continue the work.

Family holds such an important part in our lives. Ideally, although I acknowledge, not always, it is the place where we are brought into the world, nurtured, formed, taught to love and be loved.

It is the place where we feel safe, as well as sometimes frustrated and annoyed! Family is on my mind because I am about to head home to Germany and Poland for a period of leave, to catch up with family and friends.

The General Visitation from the SVD leadership in Rome has found the SVD AUS Province to be young and vibrant, with hope for the future, and focused on its role serving multi-ethnic parishes, indigenous communities, intercultural living, formation, and inter-faith dialogue, according to the SVD Vice Superior General, Fr Bob Kisala.

Fr Bob has spent a month visiting all the places in Australia, Thailand and New Zealand where the Divine Word Missionaries are in ministry.

The Mission Office of the SVD AUS Province has responded to a call for help from the Divine Word Missionaries in Ecuador to help fund emergency recovery work needed in the wake of a powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake in that country.

More than 650 people died in the earthquake, with about 16,000 injured and more than 30,000 people left homeless.

In situations where there are a variety of rich religious traditions, interreligious dialogue will be the main form of evangelisation and may be the only way to exercise mission, says the General Mission Secretary of the Divine Word Missionaries, Fr Lazar Stanislaus SVD.

Fr Lazar, who was in Australia recently for the International Mission Symposium, says the link between interreligious dialogue and mission can be found in the wisdom of the Second Vatican Council.

Ecological concerns are no stranger to Mission work, but too many people, including missionaries, are yet to be convinced of the central importance of ecology in the Mission of God, says visiting Austrian missionary, Fr Christian Tauchner SVD.

Fr Christian, who works in publications at St Augustine’s Mission Institute in Germany, and has previously been a missionary in Latin America, spoke on the topic of Ecology and Mission at the recent International Mission Symposium in Melbourne.

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.

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.