St Mark’s Parish, Inala, celebrated its 60th anniversary this month with a special Multicultural Mass, followed by a day of entertainment, food stalls, fun and fellowship.

The parish was established in 1956 as the Parish of the Divine Word, with Fr Aloysius Kasprus SVD as Parish Priest. Over the 60 years, the parish has been in the care of both the Divine Word Missionaries and the Archdiocese, taking the name St Mark’s in 1961.

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.

In my family, one of my brothers in recent years has been given the title of “Deacon” by my other siblings. My brother is not actually a deacon, nor does he have any theological degrees or anything along this line.

He’s been nicknamed deacon by my siblings because of his apparent deep faith and devotion. He spends a lot of his time attending Mass, religious functions, and reading spiritual books when he is not working his normal job as an engineer in a well-known company. He also enjoys talking about religious matters in family get-togethers.

“I’m a man of action,” says Br Hermann Hempen SVD. “I like keeping active and that’s why I love my job.”

Br Hermann’s job is to care for senior SVD confreres at the St Wendel home for the aged, in his home country of Germany. He is also well known and loved in the AUS Province for his years of hard work, care and dedication in Brisbane and Marsfield following his time as a missionary in Papua New Guinea.

The St Arnold Janssen Chapel community at Marsfield celebrated Bible Sunday this month with Mass followed by refreshments and fun activities, with the highlight being the ‘graduation’ of seven participants in the Bible Timeline study program.

Fr Dom Flores SVD says it was a wonderful occasion to celebrate the commitment of those who had undertaken the study program at Marsfield and also at the SVD parish of Macquarie Fields.

About 50 young people and 10 adults from St Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Kingston-Marsden and the surrounding community rugged up for a cold night sleeping in the parish carpark as part of the Vinnies Winter Sleepout 2016.

The Sleepout, which took the theme, ‘Compassion in Action, was an initiative of the parish youth group, called Kolbe Youth, and was part of a series of activities held throughout the year to promote faith formation based on the action-reflection model.

Internationally renowned theologian and missiologist, Fr Roger Schroeder SVD is currently in Australia delivering a range of presentations and workshops on different aspects of Mission, including the theology of indigenous peoples and interculturality.

Fr Roger is the Professor of Intercultural Studies and Ministry and the Louis J. Luzbetak SVD Professor of Mission and Culture at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Union (CTU).

This year the World Youth Day will be celebrated in the city of Krakow, Poland from the 25th to 31st July 2016. Young people from around the world will assemble in Poland. The World Youth Day of 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that I attended is always in my mind.

I will share a few thoughts about the effect WYD had on me as a person. I had a great experience of personal conversion being with the young people. Young people long to experience the love of God and the experience of being loved by others.

Iato Olivier Noclam was born in Tanna, Vanuatu and grew up in a traditional village where life was simple and neither Jesus, or Christianity, were ever mentioned. Today, Olivier is a Divine Word Missionary in Alice Springs, where he is immersing himself in the language and culture of the Arrernte people and reaching out to those in need, especially prisoners in jail.

“I grew up in a very simple and traditional village known as Lamnatu, where life depended very much on what land provided. We were all related and everybody knew each other. Life was simple, there was lack of finance, but everyone had a piece of land and grew what was necessary to live,” he says.

The Janssen Spirituality Centre (JSC) in Boronia, Victoria, is headed for a new lease of life which will embrace and develop the original vision for the Centre to be a place of welcome for interfaith and intercultural relations.

The JSC, named in honour of St Arnold Janssen SVD, was opened in January 2008, as a venue dedicated to the promotion of inter-religious and cross-cultural relations. The Centre was dedicated to mutual understanding and enrichment, respect and collaboration, among followers of various cultures and faith traditions.