SVD - Celebrating 100 Years

4 Fr Asaeli Rass, SVD, Provincial Foreword Commemorating 100 Years I am truly thankful to God for the forerunners of the Australian mission. They were extraordinary gifts of God to the Church in PNG, Australia, and their motherland. Contrary to popular belief, missionaries are humans too. This booklet affirms that signing up for life does not make any of us immune to the pain and sadness of serving a broken world loved by God. God chooses ordinary peoples to serve his mission and the qualification is simple, availability and faith in His providence. I also acknowledge those caring former provincials, councils, regional leaders, all confreres and staff, who through their generous dedication have made their contribution. There have been many changes throughout these 100 years, but the mission of proclaiming and witnessing the Good News will forever and always remain the same. God’s mission is close to the heart of all Divine Word Missionaries, and the outstanding support we’ve received from you, have made a world of difference. I would like to thank all those who contributed in so many ways towards the compilation of this booklet by providing articles, ideas, suggestions, photos and valuable information. And a very special word of thanks to the artist, Frt Neftali Fabian Velasco, an SVD seminarian who willingly drew the beautiful wattle for this booklet. Thank you. D ear benefactors, friends and lay mission partners of the Divine Word Missionaries, This year we celebrate 100 years since the first German SVD missionaries began our SVD mission in Epping, NSW. It started as a Mission Procure and recuperation house for PNG missionaries when they bought a piece of land in Epping in 1920, with the help of the local diocesan parish priest, Fr Moore, on September 8th, the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady. These pioneer missionaries almost unknown in Australia up to this point in time, became a topic of conversation much later because of our heavy losses suffered in PNG of sisters, brothers and priests during the Second World War. The story of the surviving PNG missionaries and their ordeals was all over the Australian newspapers as they landed in Brisbane. In the light of God’s word, with long patience and trust in God’s providence, the tiny mission seed sown by these PNG missionaries began to flourish on the land of the Wallumedegal peoples, in the city of Ryde, beyond expectation from a “mission station” to become the Australian Province in 1979. More Aussies and expatriate missionaries joined over the years and this trend continues today. I would like to single out Fr Lawrence Mack SVD, who came to Australia in 1958 from the USA and led a team in Australia for 12 years, setting up the province on a sound financial footing to this day. From organising a large dairy farm run by our brothers at Kellyville, NSW, to organising a large promotion office, printing of SVD calendars, magazines, and religious cards, the province grew so that by 1965, Fr Lawrence was getting 10 novices a year.