After six years leading one of Brisbane’s largest multicultural parishes, Divine Word Missionaries Father Boni Buahendri SVD will be leaving to take up a bigger role within his order, reports The Catholic Leader.

He has been appointed as the eighth provincial leader of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) for the Australia Province, which is made up of Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Myanmar.

*Fr Boni Buahendri SVD has been appointed as Provincial of the Divine Word Missionaries Australia Province. PHOTO: Catholic Leader.*

It was a “big responsibility”, and he didn’t think he would be chosen, but he hoped to steer it in a direction supported by the power of the Eucharist.

“I’m going to miss the people at St Mark’s, I love the people,” he said.

He said he was happy to have made the liturgy more inclusive of young parishioners, for example in the choir, and in the Lenten Passion play.

“The more we involve people from different ethnic groups, (it adds to the) beauty of the liturgy and celebration.”

Looking back at the 27 years since he was ordained, Fr Boni said becoming a priest was a simple decision.

He comes from Flores, which is “one of the biggest Catholic islands in Indonesia“.

“I was impressed by the example of the mission work of my parish priest, who was a Divine Word missionary as well. I was impressed with his lifestyle, his simplicity,” he said.

He has spent 25 years of his ministry in Australia.

He was drawn to the order’s mission of working for the poor and the marginalised.

“And working with the First Nations people, not just here in Australia but also in places like in Mexico, in America, in Canada, in New Zealand. This attracted me about being pioneer missionaries in remote and challenging areas of the mission.”

Mission possible

In Australia, the Divine Word Missionaries have three different focuses.

One, the mission with the First Nation peoples.

Two, being involved with the chaplaincy with Vietnamese, Indonesian, Slovak, German, Cantonese and Mandarin communities.

Three, working in the local church parish ministry within a multicultural setting.

They would feature strongly in his leadership over the next three years.

“We have enough missionaries from overseas who are working here. They are also still young and are willing to start their ministry with the First Nations people in Australia,” Fr Boni said.

“The challenge is how do we work together as a team, because our ministry and mission are so diverse.

“We have to know how to speak the language in terms of culture, food, weather.

“If you ask me, I am not a single player; I like to be a team player, I like us to work together.”

His plan would be to invest more in his people and young missionaries to understand how to carry forward the mission.

And it wouldn’t be without prayer.

“Prayer is a challenge to be honest, because our spirituality is mission. But it’s like two sides of a coin – prayer and contemplation,” Fr Boni said.

He drew inspiration from the Eucharist.

“I try my best to always have Mass every day. I get the resources of strength for my mission from the Eucharistic Prayer, which is Mass itself,” he said.

He also had his own prayer with the community he lived in.

Step back in time to move forward

On a pilgrimage to Uluru in 2003, he visited Santa Teresa and Alice Springs.

“It was the first time I was able to see our ministry with the First Nation people. I fell in love with it,” he said.

Since then, the ministry with the First Nations people has become a priority in the province.

“We expanded from Santa Teresa to Alice Springs, Emerald, Townsville, Palm Island and to Broome,” he said.

Closer to home, in our Archdiocese of Brisbane, Fr Boni said the Divine Word Missionaries had recently started looking after St Joseph’s Church in Murgon.

It all came down to the Church in Australia welcoming the Divine Word Missionaries, he said.

“Working together with the local church is crucial,” he said.

They now have good relationships with bishops in Darwin, Townsville and Broome.

He thanked the people of Brisbane archdiocese for welcoming him and asked for prayers to keep going.

“It’s not easy to work far away from home. Our dream is that wherever we are in Australia, it becomes a home away from home for us,” he said.

Christmas blessing

“As a Catholic, Christmas is a special time for us, the coming of Jesus,” he said.

“It’s not like waiting, like waiting for Santa Claus. Because He’s coming, we need to prepare ourselves.

Advent was a time to reflect, he said, and there were multiple ways to do it.

“We have the novena which is very popular at St Mark’s Inala,” he said.

The parish is also getting ready for some Christmas carols.

“May you have a very special Christmas with the family, and when you go down to the beach, don’t forget to swim between the flags,” he said.

This article by Kymberlee Gomes was published in The Catholic Leader.