MSC Formation, Blackburn, Conferring of Ministries.

On Friday morning, March 22^nd, there was a ceremony for the conferring of the Ministries of Lector and Acolyte, part of the steps towards ordination.

Acknowledging our four professed MSC men in formation in Australia: Trieu Nguyen and Daniel Magadia made their final vows last December. Vincent Phan made his first vows at the end of 2021. Hoa Tran, first professed in Vietnam, renewed his vows at the beginning of 2022 at Treand House.

Delegated to confer the ministries by the Provincial was Kimi Vunivesilevu MSC, First Councillor, community leader at St Mary’s Towers. With Formation Director, Mark Hanns MSC.

The ceremony took place at the Friday morning parish Mass at St Thomas’ church.

Those conferred with Acolyte were Trieu and Daniel.

The ministry of Lector for Hoa. 

Vincent spent some years in the Paramatta seminary and received the ministries there which meant that he was able to assist Kimi.

Last week, we posted the news of the beginning of the Novitiate, also at Blackburn, for Long and Nang.

Visitors to Melbourne are welcome at Cuskelly House to meet our students who study at the Yarra Theological Union and are involved in pastoral ministries in Melbourne (and sometimes beyond)

Vincent and Hoa at Wadeye

Part of MSC formation is mission experience in the NT. Vincent and Hoa are in Wadeye.

Hoa writes: The first week in Wadeye has been very rewarding. 

Although, I must admit, the plane ride to Wadeye was a bit turbulent due to a sudden storm, and  everyone surely breathed a sigh of relief as the plane safely touched down with Vincent kissing the ground thanking for the safe flight. Memories of Pope John Paul II arriving...

We started our time with a school tour, a smoking ceremony at deacon Boniface’s place,

and attended Mass in Wadeye and Palumpa. Getting to the local supermarket most days and getting to know the community as well.

Vincent and I have also started our work with Orange Sky.  Each of us drives a van equipped with washing machines and dryers to different houses. Our main focus is guiding people through the laundry process. most importantly, having conversations with them while they are waiting for the laundry. It's incredible how this organisation enables us to connect with people. Thanks to Leo for introducing us to this initiative.

Over the weekend, we had some good time with the people, who taught us to catch mud crabs and snails. The kids help Vincent and me to be  inducted to the community as well.

MSC Formation, Cuskelly House, Blackburn

Daniel and Trieu for MSC Vocations' promotion

Yesterday we featured formation in our Indonesian Province. Today, we present our local formation group,

During the mid-year break, Trieu and Daniel were involved in Final Vows preparation with sessions with Khoi, Philip Malone, Alo Lamere, Peter Carroll, focussing on vows and ministry. Kevin Hennessy CP directed them on retreat at Shoreham.

In the meantime, Vincent and Hoa went to Randwick, Vincent continuing his work at St Canice’s from earlier in the year.

Hoa worked at the Mission Office Conference. Pat Mara, PP of Randwick hosted them – and with Michael Nithin and Bang, they seem to have gone to an alternate religious venue.

This year, Vincent and Daniel have been participating in Clinical Pastoral Education programs and all are studying at the Yarra Theological Union, Box Hill where most of our MSC students have studied since 1972. If you go to our Ministries heading on this site and go to MSC books, you will find photos and memories from 1972 to the present. Click the image in that section and the book downloads. 

And here is the group with their director, Mark Hanns.

You may be interested that the University of Divinity, of which YTU is a member, won an award for 2022, # 1 for overall student experience. Heart of Life is also affiliated with YTU,

University of Divinity #1 in Australia for overall student experience

The University of Divinity has once again been voted by students as having the highest quality overall educational experience of any university in Australia.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter Sherlock, said

The University of Divinity’s results in the 2022 Student Experience Survey are absolutely outstanding and testify to our ability over many years to deliver the best student experience of any University in Australia.

These results are attributable to the quality of teaching provided by our dedicated staff, our commitment to small class sizes in which every student is known by name, and the effectiveness of our engagement with church and agency partners that enables us to  provide students with the educational outcomes they need to flourish in a variety of professions, vocations and ministries.”

The annual Student Experience Survey (SES) took place over August to October 2022. The SES is part of the Federal Government’s Quality Indicator of Learning and Teaching (QILT) program and provides a national architecture for collecting data on key aspects of the higher education student experience.

The University of Divinity has seen a significant increase in ratings from 2021 to 2022, returning to claim the ‘top spot’ in ratings of the overall quality of educational experience for universities, which it also achieved in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In 2022, University of Divinity students reported particularly high satisfaction in the key areas of Learning Resources (90.6, 92.0), Student Support (89.9, 89.0) and Teaching Quality (88.9, 88.3).

The University of Divinity’s response rate was 47.8% of students, well above the national average response rate of 37.0%.