Quiet

House Of The Holy

How Australian Padres Founded New Missionary Order at Goulburn, N.S.W.

AT present undergoing training in tropi cal hygiene and mission educational methods in Sydney are two young men of a new religious Order —the House of the Holy Quiet, a branch of the Community of the Ascension at Goulburn, New South Wales.

Shortly they will leave for Wasita, a little known centre in New Guinea, to commence their Christian labours among 30,000 na tives. Financed by the Australian Board of Missions, they will erect a school, hos pital and church at Wasita and the Order plans to send at least one additional mis sionary to the territory every year.

The story of the establishment of this new missionary Order is interesting.

Crouched in a mud-filled trench on the Western Front in 1918, four Australian padres made a vow that, should they sur vive the war, they would test their souls and bodies as novitiates in the house of a religious community of their faith. Fate was kind and they saw the war through unharmed.

About the time when the Powers’ repre sentatives were drawing up their chairs in the cool chambers of that great white Ver sailles Palace, on the outskirts of Paris, to squabble over the spoils of war. the padres

joined the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield, England. For two years they lived a frugal, religious life, tilling the soil and seeking repose in the quiet rustic peace of Huddersfield.

Returning to Australia, they determined to found a community here. On a rising hillock near Goulburn, they discovered a ruined mansion and in the stable of the old colonial manor that had once been a bishop’s palace, they established the Com munity of the Ascension.

In delightful surroundings, the members of the Community live tranquilly, under the leadership of Father Benson, who be fore the war was an Anglican missionary in New Guinea. They have renounced the world and taken monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Twelve of the Community and six noviti ates comprise the missionary Order of the House of the Holy Quiet. Garbed in monk ish gowns, they fend for themselves, doing their own domestic services and farming the 40 acres which surround their house.

It is from the ranks of these novitiates that the Community of the Ascension will choose each year a missionary to journey to the Mandated Territory to spread the tidings of Christ among the primitive New Guinea people.

Dr. T. F. Kelly arrived in Melbourne in July from the Santa Cruz group, Solo mon Islands, by the Japanese steamer Belgium Maru. For over three years he has been medical officer to the Vanikoro Kauri Timber Co., Ltd., at Vanikoro Island, Santa Cruz, and will now spend extended furlough in Australia. Before returning to the Solomons, Dr. Kelly will undergo a special course of training at the School of Tropical Health and Medi cine at Sydney University.