In July, as part of my role as Regional Director Oceania, I visited the Columbans in Fiji. As per Fijian custom, a group of us sat around drinking kava, made from the powdered root of a pepper plant native to the Pacific, mixed with water and strained into a communal bowl.
It is used ritually on ceremonial occasions to welcome and acknowledge important guests. It is also used socially to bond groups and relax among friends. It is a wonderful way of building community.
As I looked around the six Columbans, I marvelled at our diversity. We were Australian, Banaban from Rabi Island, Chinese Fijian, Kachin from Myanmar, Korean, and Tongan. The two Columbans from St Pius X Parish in Raiwaqa would have added British and Indo-Fijian; the two Columbans currently on home holiday would have given us Irish; and the Mission Office staff would have added Indigenous Fijian and Rotuman. A small group of Columbans from eleven different ethnicities, all committed to the one mission of Jesus Christ. This unity in diversity is one of the fruits of Pentecost, when people of differing nationalities all heard about the marvellous works of God in their own language (c.f. Acts 2:1-11).
Columbans make this miracle of Pentecost come alive for people in many countries around the world. We learn to speak their languages, adapt to their cultures, observe their customs, wear their national dress - so they can hear the word of God in their own languages and see it embodied in their culture. The local churches form a wonderful international symphony of unity in diversity.
St Columban once said, “A life unlike your own can be your teacher.” When you think about it, it’s only those who are different from us who can teach us anything new. If we only listen to the same people, hear the same stories, see the same things, eat the same foods, drink from the same well, we will live in an echo chamber, hearing our own voices over and over, learning nothing new.
But if we listen to others, hear their stories, see different things, eat different foods, taste different drinks, our world will be expanded, our hearts and minds will be enlarged. We will learn new things and live in a richer, more diverse world - and be at home there.
I thank God that I went to Pakistan as a newly ordained priest and was transformed by the experience of living among and learning from the Pakistani people. Columbans have been doing this for decades in various countries. Increasingly, we are doing it with each other; in Fiji, missionaries from different countries, ethnicities and languages serve people together.
Now, as many Columbans increase in age and decrease in number, we are learning to work with lay people who share our vision of mission - old and young, men and women, lay and ordained, of many ethnicities, sharing our different talents, all working together for the sake of mission.
Now that international travel and waves of migration have brought people from around the world together in multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious societies, we no longer have to go “overseas” to find people who are different from us. They are living on our doorstep. They are living in our neighbourhoods.
As Christians, we are called to reach out to others, especially those who are suffering and in need, to migrants who are far from home and feeling lonely, and to refugees fleeing violence, war and famine. When we show concern for others, we fulfil the vision of Pope Francis: Let us dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travellers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all (Fratelli Tutti, 8).
Rev Dr Patrick McInerney
Regional Director of Oceania
directoroceania@columban.org.au
Listen to "From the Director - The miracle of pentecost today"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - August 2025
