The 17th Death Anniversary of Servant of God Marian Zelazek, SVD, was celebrated with great enthusiasm and reverence at various places in Puri, Odisha, on Sunday, 30th April 2023. Father Marian, popularly called BAPA, left for his eternal reward on this day in 2006 at the Jeebaramji Leprosy Colony near Lokanath Temple in Puri. On the day he died, BAPA participated in the ASTA PRAHARI organized on AKHAYA TRITIYA at the leprosy colony. He was returning to his vehicle when his call came to leave his KARMA BHOOMI for his eternal reward.

The senior confreres of the SVD AUS Province might have stepped away from missionary duties in Papua New Guinea and other places, or full-time ministry in Australia, but you’ll still find most of them up and out of bed by 6am and continuing to pursue mission in different ways.

The practical implications of the view of mission that places God himself at the center were the subject of a workshop in Siegburg at the beginning of November, attended by about 25 Divine Word missionaries and missiologists. The three SVD Institutes at Sankt Augustin saw the occasion for this workshop in their founding anniversaries 90 years ago (Anthropos Institute), 60 years ago (SVD Missiological Institute) and 50 years ago (Monumenta Serica in Sankt Augustin). The understanding of mission as “missio Dei” (mission of God) started 70 years ago from a mission conference of Protestant churches.

From Oies to China through Steyl: a documentary film made by Steyl Medien (Germany)

Oisho Bani Society, a NGO with a vision: ‘Towards a holistic Society based on Human Values’ had a review meeting of all the beneficiaries in Ambassa. The revolving fund for self – reliance had started in a small way in 2019 helping the poor families to rear livestock with only Rupees 1,20,000 (one lakh twenty thousand).