AUGUSTINIAN BULLETIN BOARD – May 2007

It is foolish to assume that times past were better than present.

As often as we suffer any distress or affliction, we must take it as being both a warning to us and a correction.

After all, even our own holy books don't make us any promises of peace, security, and quiet, while on the other hand the gospel does not keep silent about afflictions, distress, and scandals; but whoever perseveres to the end shall be saved.

What good, I mean to say, has this life ever contained from the very first man, from the moment he earned the penalty of death, from the moment he received the curse, the curse from which Christ the Lord has delivered us?

So we really mustn’t grumble, brothers and sisters, as some of them grumbled, so the apostle says, and perished from the serpents. What unusual horror; brothers and sisters is the human race enduring now, that our ancestors didn’t have to endure?

Or when do we have to endure such things as we know they endured? And you’ll find people grumbling about their times, and saying that the times of our parents were good. Suppose, though, they could be whisked back to the times of their parents, they would still grumble even then.

St Augustine: Sermon 346C, 1

Third National Augustinian Congress for the Laity, April 2007

The Third Augustinian Australian National Congress for the Laity was held in the parish centre of the Augustinian Parish of South Yarra, Melbourne, from Friday 20th April 2007 to Sunday 22nd April 2007 (see photo below).

The keynote speaker was Fr Art Purcaro O.S.A. (see photo in the following news item below). He is from the United States, is presently an Assistant General of the Order, and has for many years served in the Augustinian missions in Peru.

The title of the Congress was Augustine, Ancient & New Vision for the Future. Almost 100 people attended, including thirty who travelled from Sydney, and others from Brisbane and Mareeba in Queensland.

The Congress was conducted by Augustinian Friends (Australia). The newly-elected co-leaders of Augustinian Friends are Ruth McGowan and Maureen Atkins from northern Victoria.

For further information about Augustinian Friends, contact Fr Paul Maloney O.S.A. at the Centre for Augustinian Spirituality, 2 Hewitt Avenue, Greystanes, NSW2145 (phone 02 9631 0340) or by e-mail at paulmal@bigpond.com.au

Raffle by Augustinian Friends

To show appreciation to Fr Art Purcaro O.S.A. (photo right) for coming to Australia as the keynote speaker of the Third National Augustinian Congress for the Laity on 20th-22nd April 2007 (see news item above), the Augustinian Friends (Australia) conducted a raffle for the Augustinian missions in Peru, where Fr Purcaro has served for many years.

The raffle was the result of the donation of a large triptych (a set of three adjoining paintings) of Jesus as an infant, as a healer and at the Last Supper. It was painted by Simon Coates Dip FA, B.App.A., (MSA) of Sydney, Australia.

The raffle raised Aus$3,270, and was won by a long-time parishioner of the Augustinian Parish of North Harbour in Sydney.

Augustinian Parish of South Yarra.

The Parish of South Yarra in the Archdiocese of Melbourne lies within the City of Stonnington.The Order of Saint Augustine has staffed the parish since 1976. The parish priest is Fr John Barry O.S.A. (at right in photo below).

In December 2006 the main building of the former St. Joseph's Primary School in the grounds of the Augustinian parish of South Yarra, Melbourne, Australia, became a commodious Parish Centre.

Many parish and local community groups have already seen the benefit of this change. This was also experienced by one hundred participants from the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland who attended there the Third Augustinian Australian National Congress from Friday 20th April 2007 to Sunday 22nd April 2007, at which the keynote speaker was Fr Art Purcaro O.S.A. (at left in photo above).


Augustinian Parish of North Harbour, Sydney

The Parish of North Harbour in the Diocese of Broken Bay is the union of the two previous adjacent Augustinian-administered parishes centred on the Sydney suburbs of Manly Vale and Balgowlah. As well as the myriad activities and groups that are regularly active in the parish, a new entity is the parish’s World Youth Day Committee (see photo at left, below).

The committee of twelve persons is chaired by Mr Paul Skippen, who is the full-time employed Family and Youth Ministry Coordinator of the parish, and includes Fr Peter Wieneke O.S.A., the parish priest. Half of the committee members are young adults.

The committee is planning and coordinating the parish’s intended involvement in World Youth Day in July 2008. Not that the activity does not begin until next year, however, because the international World Youth Day Cross will be at St Kieran’s Church, Manly Vale on 10th July 2007. An appropriate ceremony for 10th July needs to be prepared.

Another facet of the parish’s WYD preparation is the formation of a WYD band, with electric guitars, drums, keyboard, and vocalists, etc (see photo at right, above). The band, which is still attracting additional participants, rehearses each Sunday afternoon.

Further details on WYD will appear here in coming months.

The parish web site is http://www.northharbour.catholicau.com

St Augustine’s College, Brookvale

During twenty days of the school vacation in April 2007, six staff members and twelve students from an Augustinian secondary school in Australia travelled to the Philippines to erect an infirmary (see photo below) in an orphanage for street children conducted by the Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation.

The travellers were from St Augustine’s College in Brookvale (Sydney, Australia), which the Order began in 1956. Sister Joan O.S.A., an Augustinian Sister of Our Lady of Consolation, is a member of the school’s chaplaincy team.

The “Augustine Orphanage Project” has involved the entire school community. Sufficient funds were raised to buy all the necessary building materials in Australia, so that many students could pre-fabricate the building in Brookvale before shipping it to the Philippines for assembly.

The orphanage is Tahanan Mapagkalinga ni Madre Rita (TMMR). It is located in Bulacan, about 56 kms from the central Manila.

TMMR houses and cares for up to eighteen children aged between four and fourteen years. The separate infirmary building is important because previously any sickness could easily spread to all children in the dormitories of the orphanage.

The infirmary, five metres wide and 12 metres in length, was completed on schedule. While in the Philippines, the staff and students from St Augustine’s College also attended the final profession of Sister Joan O.S.A. (see next news item below).

The volunteer team at Bulacan was able to keep in daily contact with the entire school community at Brookvale by means of a daily “blog” on the Internet. The text and photographs are still able to be seen at http://augustineorphanageproject.blogspot.com

The college’s web site is http://www.saintaug.nsw.edu.au

Fr Tony Banks O.S.A., Australian Provincial, visited the TMMR orphanage at Bulacan during the construction phase.

Augustinian Sisters, Brookvale.

The Augustinian Sisters of Our Lady of Consolation, centred in the Philippines, have ministered at Manly Vale and Brookvale (Sydney), Australia since October 2002. Their Convent, which was blessed and opened in September 2003, stands on the site of the previous small house that served as the original St Augustine's Priory in Brookvale.

At present two sisters reside in the convent, while a third sister is expected to arrive soon.

One of the sisters is a pastoral associate in the surrounding Augustinian Parish of North Harbour (which has churches at Manly Vale and Balgowlah), and the other, Sister Joan O.S.A., is a member of the chaplaincy team of St Augustine's College, Brookvale.

On Easter Saturday, Sister Joan made her final profession of vows at the sisters' motherhouse in Manila. While in the Philippines for the Augustine Orphanage Project (see previous news item), the eighteen staff members and students from St Augustine’s College also attended the final profession of Sister Joan (see photo above).

St James' Parish, Coorparoo.

All five Augustinian parishes in Australia can report well-attended Easter liturgies last month, and the Augustinian parish in Coorparoo, Brisbane is no exception.

Good Friday at Augustinian Church at Manly Vale.

The parish priest at Coorparoo, Fr David Austin O.S.A., spoke of not only the good attendance at the liturgies, but of the marvellous involvement of a large number of volunteers who organised and took part in them.

New to leadership of the Coorparoo parish since January 2007, Fr Austin complimented the parish community members at being very pastoral and also much at ease with the Augustinians and with one another.

Bishop Joseph Oudeman OFM Cap, an assistant bishop of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, recently made an official visitation of the parish. He preached at all weekend Masses, visited the parish school, met with the leaders of parish groups, and made home visits to the sick.

The St James' Parish web site is http://www.stjames-coorparoo.org.au

Papal visit to the tomb of Augustine

On 22nd April 2007 Pope Benedict XVI visited the tomb of St Augustine. This is the result of a request to do so that the Pope made to the Order of Saint Augustine soon after he was elected Pope.

The Pope travelled to the Augustinian Church of St Peter in Ciel d'Oro and prayed there in front of the tomb of St Augustine. The visit included the celebration of liturgical Vespers, and his lighting of a perpetual votive candle in front of the tomb in perennial memory of his visit.

Vespers involved the participation of various representatives of the Order of Saint Augustine and of other religious orders, plus clergy of the Diocese of Pavia.

The altar servers at the ceremony were Augustinian seminarians from Asia and the Pacific who are studying at St Monica's College, Rome. One of them was a member of the Australian Province, who is seen shaking hands with the Pope in the photo (above).

Pope Benedict also blessed the first stone of a new Cultural Centre to be named in his honour, which is being established in Pavia by the Order of Saint Augustine to increase the appreciation of the presence and cultural heritage of St Augustine in Pavia.

For further details of this papal visit and about the tomb of St Augustine, click here.

Villanova College, Coorparoo.

The Order of Saint Augustine at the suburb of Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia conducts Villanova College, a day school for 1,000 boys in upper primary and all of secondary education.

Peter Rowley (photo at right), who in 1961 became one of the first lay teachers at Villanova, died last month (March 2007). On the teaching staff for thirty-one years, Peter became one of the longest-serving Villanova staff members.

Back in 1961, when the College was just seven years old at its present Coorparoo campus, Peter began his teaching career at Villanova. As a teacher in Grades 4 and 5, he worked with the youngest students at the College until ill health forced his early retirement in 1992.

Villanova Staff in 1961. Peter Rowley at right end of back row.

A conservative estimate reveals that during his time at the College Peter introduced approximately 1,500 newly-arrived Villanova students to education in the Augustinian tradition.

To be in Mr Rowley’s class was the hope of many youngsters as they arrived at the College at the age of nine or ten years. It was also a hope supported by many of their parents as well. Peter’s reputation as an excellent and caring teacher was widely known across the south side of the city of Brisbane.

The celebrant of the Mass to celebrate Peter’s life at St James’ Church. Coorparoo on Friday, 23rd March 2007 was Fr John Mc Glone O.S.A. of Villanova Priory, who worked side by side with Peter as a fellow-teacher, pastor and friend for many of his thirty-one years of service to the College community.

May he rest in peace.

St Thomas of Villanova Parish, Mareeba.

The RCIA program culminated for three adult recipients on Easter Saturday night, 7th April 2007, when two of them received baptism and a third person joined them in being brought into full communion with the Catholic Church.

RCIA is the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, and is a process that goes back to the earliest days of the Christian Church, and owes a lot to the writings and the practices of Saint Augustine of Hippo.

The parish social justice group meets in St Thomas’s parish school at 5.30pm on the first Friday of every month. One of their group’s awareness-raising activities is an annual rice meal. This year it will take place after the 5.00pm Vigil Mass on Saturday, 5th May 2007.

The pastor of Mareeba (and also of the adjacent parish of Dimbulah) is Fr Rob Greenup O.S.A.

Augustinian Formation Association (AFA)

The AFA prays for and raises funds for the formation of future Augustinians. Based in Sydney, its office bearers for 2007 are Trudi McFadden (president, pictured), Eddie Robinson (treasurer), Lesley Sing (assistant treasurer) and Yvonne Clark (secretary).  

Along with two new members, they form the AFA Executive.

The AFA has agreed to an increase in fund-raising activity in 2007, accompanied by a membership drive.

For more details about the Augustinian Formation Association generally, contact Fr Laurence Mooney O.S.A. (AFA chaplain) or the staff of the Provincial Office on (w) 02 9905 3049.

Augustinian Friends in the eastern U.S.A. has a web site: http://www.augustinianfriends.org

Delegation of Korea

On Wednesday, 28th March 2007, Brother Barnabas Kim O.S.A (at right in photo), the Delegation Superior of the Augustinians in Korea signed a contract with the Bishop Joseph Han-Taek Lee S.J. of Uijeongbu Diocese, which lies to the north of Seoul and borders with North Korea.

A community of three Augustinians came to live and work in Bishop Lee’s diocese on March 17th 2005 and have established a small retreat house close to the border with North Korea. Following the present practice of dioceses in Korea the contract gives formal recognition to the establishment of the Augustinian community and its ministries.

The main ministry focus over the past two years has been retreat work at the small Mother of Good Counsel Retreat House which was blessed and opened by the bishop in June 27th 2005.

The retreat house has proved popular with individuals, families and small groups wishing to come on day, overnight, or longer retreats. Already this year, from January to the end of March, over 160 people have visited for prayer days and retreats. As well as leading the retreats, the three Augustinians in the community, Michael Sullivan O.S.A., Thomas Dae-Ho Kim O.S.A. and Johan Chang-Ho Kim O.S.A., prepare the meals and look after the other material needs of the retreatants during their stay. In summer they are able to use some of the produce from their own garden at the meals.

Many retreatants have commented that as well as the quiet and natural beauty of the hills surrounding the retreat house, they also especially appreciate the welcoming community atmosphere created by the Augustinians.

(Image at left): The glass wall of the chapel shows snow-covered hills outside.

Thomas Dae-Ho Kim O.S.A said that the ages and expectations of those coming on retreats varied a lot, “So each retreat is special and planned differently by the three of us as a team.”

In addition to the work of the retreat house, this year the community also intends to offer a short parish faith renewal program to interested parishes in the Uijeongbu diocese and also initiate a social welfare ministry in a nearby town.

On the day of the signing of the contract Bishop Lee commented, “I’m delighted with the progress the Augustinians have made in two years in Uijeongbu Diocese. I hope God will continue to bless the good work that you have begun.”

Sixty photos of the Order of Saint Augustine in Korea are available on the Internet by selecting the photo gallery named Korea after you click on http://www.augnet.org/default.asp?ipageid=6

Holy Spirit Parish, St Clair

Holy Spirit Parish, which is situated at Saint Clair on the western environs of Sydney, Australia, was founded twenty-five years ago. It has been staffed by the Order of Saint Augustine for the past eleven years.

1. An initiative of the Parish Pastoral Council has been the review of the Council’s Statutes.  The outcome includes the following changes to the election process:
(i.) In future, ‘half council’ elections will enhance the Council’s continuity in direction and planning.
(ii.) Nominations will require discernment by the nominee, approaching prospective councillor sharing her/his reflections about candidate and inviting her/him to accept nomination. Both will sign the nomination form and return it to the office.

2. Holy Spirit Parish is continuing the mentoring program of Diocese for its candidates to priesthood. At present, the parish is mentoring a New Zealander who is a late vocation preparing for ordination.

3. The Connect groups have added a segment to their meetings in which questions about faith & spiritual issues can be asked of one of the local Augustinians. The Moderator, Fr Brian Fitzpatrick O.S.A. (photo at above right) attends the senior group, and Fr Jun Belocura O.S.A. the young adults. This takes place twice per month.

4. As a result of a staff review, a parish bookkeeper has been employed, and is proving an effective member of the parish staff.

The Holy Spirit Parish web site is http://www.holyspiritstclair.com.au

From the Social Justice Desk

This report was prepared by Mr. Paul Wilson, who is employed by the Province for two days a week. Since this report was written, Paul has accompanied Brian Fitzpatrick O.S.A. (Social Justice Coordinator of the Province) on visits to additional Augustinian ministries, i.e., the Sydney parishes of North Harbour and Saint Clair.

Paul and Fr Brian will soon update the social justice section of the Province web site. Go to http://www.augustinians.org.au/social_justice.html

To date, four Augustinian ministries have been visited by the team of Fr Brian Fitzpatrick and Mr Paul Wilson (see photo): Mareeba Parish, Villanova College, St Augustine’s College and St James' Parish at Coorparoo. 

In both parishes, significant finances have already been attributed to social justice activity. A sense of isolation in social justice work has caused one parish group to develop its own networks for justice campaigns, while a group in the other parish sought diocesan assistance.

In the schools, it was well demonstrated that social justice is already a major unit within the Religious Education curriculum. While each school has its own approach to the incorporation of justice in procedural matters, there was no doubting it was already integral to the major procedures of the school.

For Villanova College this meant a form of behavioural consequences which stressed the Gospel dimension of restorative justice, and for St Augustine’s College an administrative system where social justice was to be given greater priority than has occurred in the past.

Both schools were open to social justice education sessions on staff inservice days.

A final area of discussion in each ministry was that of initiating an Augustinian Program for live-in Volunteers in some form in late 2007. There was enthusiasm for such a venture; ministries offered sites for immersion, financial and personnel support and encouragement to any young parishioner who wished to take part.

In conclusion, Fr Brian and Paul express thanks to their hosts in these parishes and schools, and note, “What can be concluded already is that the thirst for justice of the scriptures is in evidence in all our Augustinian ministries.”

.Augnet: what's new?!

Augnet, a comprehensive web site on Saint Augustine and the Order of Saint Augustine, was fully redesigned and renovated in May 2006.

It now carries over 1,270 pages of text, which also contain over 1,700 illustrations. The Augnet web site was officially "launched" at a ceremony in Sydney in August 2002, with the Augustinian Prior General from Rome as the guest of honour.

New technical features in the renovated Augnet include a search engine, which searches every page of Augnet for any word or phrase that is nominated by a user, and a site map, which quickly allows a visitor to see and understand the local arrangement of Augnet's sections and sub-sections.

About 2,150 large images in extensive photo galleries illustrate Augustinian events and places internationally. The photo galleries most recently added illustrate Augustinian ministry in India, London (England) and at the Escorial (Spain).

Since May 2006, over 33,670 separate (distinct) visitors have used Augnet at least once. There were 26,212 separate visits to the Augnet website during the calendar month of January 2007, which is an average of almost 840 visitors a day.

For the first time, on 12th October 2006 Augnet received 1,000 visitors within one twenty-four period. On 12th January 2007 there was a new daily record of 1,411 visitors.

Visit this web site at http://www.augnet.org

FOR SOME CURRENT NEWS ABOUT THE ORDER OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA Click here

The Augustinian international web site is: http://www.osanet.org/en/default.htm

AUGUSTINIAN CENTRE FOR SPIRITUALITY PROGRAM 2007
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Greystanes 2145
Enquiries 9896 6794
www.augustinians.org.au/communities/greystanes.html