A two-day ecumenical mission conference held in Melbourne this month brought together academics, missiologists and mission practitioners from Australia and beyond to engage in conversation about the history, development and current realities of being a missionary church.

‘Missio Dei: An Ecumenical Conversation’ was a joint project of the Australian Association for Mission Studies (AAMS) and the Society of the Divine Word and took place from October 2-3 at St Paschal’s, Box Hill.

Two Divine Word Missionaries priests from the Australia Province have been appointed to diocesan ecumenical or interfaith bodies, to help promote dialogue and understanding among faith communities.

Fr Michael Hardie SVD has been appointed to the Parramatta Diocese Interfaith Commission while Fr Mikhael Loke SVD has been appointed to the reference group for the Brisbane Archdiocese Council for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations.

The SVD recently led a Youth Retreat in the northern part of Fiji aimed at helping tackle the growing problem of cannabis use among young people, while also calling them to action on the issue of climate change.

The retreat was facilitated by SVD AUS Provincial, Fr Asaeli Rass, who was in Fiji on home-leave.

There’s nothing like adversity to bring people together, and the parishioners of Holy Spirit Parish in the Archdiocese of Wellington, New Zealand, know this only too well, having enjoyed the ecumenical hospitality of their Anglican neighbours since their church was damaged by earthquake.

Fr Dom Flores SVD, who spent the first three months of this year working in the parish, says this ecumenical spirit was one of the many highlights of his time in New Zealand.