Ashwin Acharya, Our Soon to be Deacon - An Introduction
My name is Ashwin Emmanuel Acharya. I was born in Canberra on 22nd October 1991, the youngest in a family of four: my father Raj, mother Angela, and brother Rajat (four years my senior). By 1996 the Acharyas had come to Yeppoon. There, I enjoyed a happy childhood full of fun and friendships.
Our family always had a wholesome rhythm of prayer and worship: each day commenced and concluded in prayer; mealtimes always began with grace; and worshipping at Sunday Mass was as certain as the rising of the sun. We belonged to the Sacred Heart Parish of Yeppoon, where Fr Bryan Hanifin was our parish priest.
I enjoyed serving at Mass as a child. I have happy memories and some lifelong friendships from my days at Sacred Heart Primary School. After Sacred Heart (and one year at St Anthony’s, Rockhampton), I joined my brother at St Brendan’s College, Yeppoon. My five years at SBC were precious and continue to be a consoling grace to draw on today.
After graduating in 2008, I had some prominent gifts which shaped the years which followed: I had become a proficient boxer, a budding singer-songwriter, and I decided to remain involved with the Sacred Heart Parish community and some of its outreach ministries, such as the St Vincent de Paul Sacred Heart Conference in Yeppoon. I also commenced a Bachelor of Learning Management for Primary Education at Central Queensland University, Rockhampton, having been inspired by my mother Angela. Eventually I was offered a job at St Ursula’s College, a part time contract in Campus Ministry and a part time contract to teach Mathematics. This was a special grace to have received. It was an enjoyable, but also challenging, time. As the next 18 months passed, it became clear that my energy was more naturally put into ministry rather than to teaching in the classroom.
As fate would have it, I experienced a call to the Priesthood while on the job, supervising children at an ACTS camp and overhearing the presenter speak about his job with Vocation Brisbane. Frs Noel Milner and Raj Kodavatikanti were there at the time. From here on, all my energies and intentions – whether musical, faith, career or otherwise – seemed to find a singular focus: boxing somehow lent itself to ministry with young people; music was used to advocate and to raise funds for Vinnies or for Drought Relief in the Far West of our Diocese; my involvement in the Parish and in the St Ursula’s community became a seamless work for God. My diligent discernment of the Priesthood happened quite quickly – within about six months, meeting Brisbane Vocations Director Fr Morgan Batt and becoming a part of the Canali House programme alongside a handful of other discerners. I was greatly supported from the outset by Bishop Michael, and by the whole Diocesan family who progressively became aware and involved in my journey to the Seminary.
Left to right is me, Francis Fernandes (Brisbane), Fr Frank Jones (Vice Rector),
Brian Redondo (Toowoomba), Jack Ho (Brisbane) William Leo Aupito-Iuliano (Brisbane)
The Seminary has been a tremendous space of learning who I am and who we are in light of our God’s unfathomable love for each of us – a learning which is in no way exhaustive but which will continue from here ever after. My experience at the Seminary has seemed to be a kind of microcosm of an entire life. As strange as it may sound, I feel as though after entering the Seminary at 22 years of age, I journeyed from a kind of infancy through a recalcitrant adolescence and a disenchanted mid-life to, finally, a kind of aged wisdom, and all in the space of six years! I recently celebrated my 29th birthday… feeling a little bit like an old man, at least in comparison to when I entered. Obviously, I will be the youngest in the Rockhampton Presbyterate for the time being. In any case, the formative years at Holy Spirit Seminary have been a wonderful gift, and I am thankful for everything, not least of all the immense generousity of our formators, and also for the deep friendships which developed between seminarians, especially my own classmates, Francis, Will, and Jack, and also Peter Doherty, currently in the Discipleship Phase of his Seminary journey. I thank God that he and I had this year to enjoy as brother seminarians, before the lifetime we look forward to as brother priests in Rockhampton.
My own family continues their journey in God’s grace, too. My parents continue their careers in Yeppoon, and my brother, now happily married with a wife and two little girls, diligently furthers his own career, vocation and mission in the field of Philosophy. I love my family very much, each member particularly for the ways in which they unknowingly glorify God, for who they are and for the love that they continue to shower on me. I am extremely proud and humbled to be an Acharya.
My hopes and aspirations for the future are simple: I want fruitfulness and peace in the lives of all God’s people, myself included. And I hope that I can support many in their journeys of faith, to experience this more and more. I have become sceptical of any “silver bullets” in the church which promise to solve all our problems. I don’t think there is any such thing. Rather, I feel that God has lavished us His beloved children with countless gifts of infinite merit, and we are called to put these to the service of the Gospel forever and always, and thus be made fruitful branches on the Vine that is Christ the Lord. I am excited by the thought of doing this for the rest of my life with you.
At some point, this has to hit you: the God who created, ordered and sustains the whole cosmos, the God “in whom we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28), loves us with all of the awesome and terrible power that is implied by being God. What can our response to this be, if not only to fall into that love? I can’t think of anything else.
Ashwin Acharya