The Southern Cross | October 2023

Having spent nearly all her life in the northern hemisphere, Canadian liturgist Dr Simone Brosig is feeling a sense of familiarity as she makes her new home in Adelaide and takes on a leadership role with the Pastoral Services Team.

While it may not exactly be a homecoming, Simone Brosig says there has always been a bit of Australia inside her.

Born in Gosford, NSW, she was only three years old when her German-born parents decided that after 24 years in Australia they would emigrate to Calgary, Canada.

“With my parents having lived here for so long there were a lot of things about Australia that were a part of my upbringing,” the Archdiocese’s new pastoral leader for Community Life and Worship told The Southern Cross.

“I understand a lot of things people say here, like ‘sing out if you need something’. The only person who said that in Canada was my Dad!

“I see people here wearing jumpers that look like what my Mum used to knit and I didn’t see any of those in North America – and Mum would call it a jumper, not a sweater.

“As soon as I moved here I started going to the German Mass at St Bonifatius (Collinswood) and I hear people speaking Australian English with a German accent. They sound like my parents, which makes me feel at home.”

Simone said while she had always wanted to experience life in Australia as an adult, she never realised that meeting Dr Jenny O’Brien, from the Office of Worship, at a conference in 2019 would lead to a move to Adelaide.

At the time Jenny outlined that she would be retiring in a few years and suggested Simone might want to apply for the position. When the job advertisement lobbed in her inbox last year, she decided to put her ‘hat in the ring’ and see what happened.

“I quite like living in a new place, meeting new people, learning a new way of doing things and of course, I had this family history of Australia and I wanted to experience it for myself.

“So I decided to let things unfold.”

With her elderly mother sadly dying a few months ago, Simone said she was able to accept the position and start a new chapter in her life.

She comes to the Archdiocese having spent the previous 12 months working in Chicago as an editor for Liturgy Training Publications, an agency of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and prior to that was the Liturgy consultant for the Diocese of Calgary for more than a decade.

“Adelaide is about the same size as Calgary and the Archdiocese is also about the same size and has a lot of similar pastoral situations,” she said.

“This new role is about building capacity of pastoral leaders at the parish level with a focus on evangelisation and discipleship and I think that is really exciting.

“My strategy initially is that I want to get out and meet the people, meet with the parishes, the liturgy teams or parish councils if they have them, and just hear from them. Find out what they need from Community Life and Worship, what kind of resources, support, formation?”

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