Spring is a season of new growth, and this issue’s theme of ‘Renewal and Reflection’ echoes what has been a full few months for the Society. It is a fitting moment for us to pause, reflect on where we have been, and ask what we are being called to become.

Nurturing social cohesion

In early August, Rose Beynon (National Director, Policy and Research) and I attended the Brisbane launch of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference’s latest Social Justice Statement, where we had the chance to speak with Bishop Tim Harris and other Church leaders. The ACBC’s most recent statement, Living the Gospel in Times of Social Division, was released ahead of Social Justice Sunday on 30 August.

It deals with some difficult truths, including the Bondi Beach terror attack of December 2025, the rise in antisemitism, and the growth of Islamophobia and other forms of racism in our communities. What the bishops ask of us in response is not a program but an everyday way of being with people, which they call a culture of encounter. It means, in their words, “listening intently and not just hearing, not passing by, but stopping to engage with great compassion, not pity.”

I suspect that will sound familiar to most Vincentians, because it describes what we try to do on every home visitation and each encounter with every Companion.

Bishop Harris made the point that social cohesion cannot be taken for granted, and must be renewed through acts of solidarity, hospitality and mutual understanding. That word “renewed” matters; cohesion is something we have to keep choosing to build and must never take for granted. I commend the Bishops’ statement to every Vincentian.

Servant leadership and The Vincentian Way

National Council met in North Sydney on 1 and 2 August for our annual retreat, where we spent two days on servant leadership and a review of The Vincentian Way.

The conversation on servant leadership was honest, and we asked some hard questions of ourselves. Why is the Society struggling to fill leadership roles? How do we support Members who feel burnt out, and how do we stop burning them out in the first place? Are we gatekeepers or gate openers?

Two key ideas have stayed with me. The first is that leadership moves around. Sometimes we lead from in front, sometimes alongside, and sometimes from behind, letting people contribute from where they are. The second is a question I keep returning to: what about our own capacity to be served? Most of us are far better at giving help than accepting it, and I think that makes us weaker. In the words of Saint Vincent de Paul: “We must be full reservoirs in order to let our water spill out without becoming empty…”

We also agreed that servant leadership as the corporate world describes it omits our Vincentian motivation: the Gospel and the dignity of every person. And we came back, as we always do, to home visitation as the defining characteristic of the Society. The quality of our visits, and the spiritual life of our Conferences, is what everything else rests on.

Our review of The Vincentian Way was equally frank. It is a good guide that needs much wider promulgation, and several states and territories are already finding their own way into it, from formation modules in Western Australia to online sessions in Victoria. The clear message was that it should not simply be handed to Conferences as it is. It is a set of tools for spreading the message through our Members, volunteers and staff, and it needs good resources underpinning it. Some councils are building it into position descriptions and KPIs for CEOs and executive leaders, and I do not think we should be shy about that.

Vale, Tricia Wilden

We were shaken and saddened by the unexpected passing of Tricia Wilden, our Overseas Partnerships Program Director, on Friday 14 August. Tricia connected Australian Vincentians to our brothers and sisters across the region, and her work reached further than most of us will ever see. Please keep Tricia, her family and her colleagues in your prayers.

Members of a global community

In June, Paul Trezise (International Territorial Vice President Oceania), Claire Victory (past National President) and I travelled to Lisbon for the Society of St Vincent de Paul General Assembly, which is held every three years. Beforehand, Paul brought together the Oceania region presidents or their proxies from Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Tonga, Samoa, New Zealand and Australia, with Council General International (CGI) Board and CGI’s Commission for International Aid and Development (CIAD) members present. Each country presented on the work of its national council, and those presentations lifted the profile of our island nations. My thanks to everyone involved.

I spoke to the Assembly twice: as Chair of Concordat, inviting all 155 member countries to join and support the international Society, and to present the CGI Strategic Plan for 2026 to 2029. Claire presented on safeguarding and environmental protection, drawing on Laudato Si’. She wrote CGI’s first global safeguarding policy some years ago, and Australia’s contribution internationally is significant.

The Assembly finished the way it always does when Oceania is in the room, with Semesa Vilise and Julian Ketei leading the traditional farewell song, Isa Lei. Paul and I joined in. I’m told our contribution was hard to hear, which was probably for the best. 

As Christians, prayer and reflection sustain us and, at times, nudge us into action. The bishops are asking us to nurture social cohesion through everyday acts of compassion and hospitality. Our leaders’ retreat asked us to reflect on how we lead and support one another right across our organisation. These things only happen because Vincentians decide to do them, one Good Works at a time.

Thank you for all you do.