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Volume 25 No. 3 | Spring 2015
Provincial Chapter confirms
focus on mission priorities and
community life
The 2015 Provincial Chapter affirmed and confirmed the
Province’s commitment to its current mission priorities,
as well as a desire to strengthen and further enrich SVD
community life.
AUS Provincial, Fr Henry Adler SVD, says the Chapter also
highlighted a growing sensitivity and commitment towards
living interculturally, both within the Society and in its
outward mission.
“The Chapter recognised that we already live
interculturally, but that we want to get better at it,” Fr
Henry says.
“A desire also emerged for us to be more inclusive in our
ministries, even though external factors don’t always make
this easy.”
The Chapter confirmed the Province’s commitment to the
Biblical Apostolate, Mission Animation, and Justice and
Peace initiatives. It reaffirmed that priority be given to
indigenous Australians, the mission in Thailand, the urban
poor and multicultural communities in Australia and New
Zealand and faith seekers and people of other faiths and
cultures.
“As far as Thailand is concerned, we confirmed that as a
Province, we are looking beyond our present ministries
there, to grow in mission, according to need.”
Fr Henry says that while confirming the existing
‘Ad Extra’
priorities for mission outreach, the Chapter also expressed
a desire to focus more on the
‘Ad Intra’
aspects of
community and spiritual life.
“It was a recognition, I think, that we are all in this
together, and so we need to work together to build up our
communities and to engage with our SVD spirituality and
also with practical matters, such as finances,” he says.
“There was a very good spirit of collaboration at the
Chapter meeting, which, I believe, was a sign of the
presence of the Spirit in the Chapter.
“We worked hard, with the expert help of our wonderful
facilitator, Patricia Bergin, and at the end, I think there
was a real sense of excitement and reinvigoration for the
mission in the coming years.”