Christ Church’s next vicar, 42-year-old Rev Isuru Weliwatte, is very excited about the opportunities for the parish, and for his ministry, as he prepares for his induction by Bishop Genieve Blackwell on Thursday evening, May 1.

          The parish’s thrilling motto is of course “Enter the mystery,” and its informal second motto is “You’re only new here once”. Fr Isuru is, indeed, not new to us.

          Bishop Lindsay Urwin, when vicar of Christ Church, became his mentor as he shifted from the Roman Catholic Church – into which he had been ordained in 2015 – to being received into the Anglican Church, as a priest, two years ago. He lived for three months during 2023 in the flat above the Lamb & Flag Café, entering into the life of the parish as well as he could while also travelling regularly to Bendigo where he was working part-time as a mental health clinician.

          He says he is happy for others to choose the way in which they address him, “however they feel most comfortable,” as “Isuru”, say, or as “Father”. “It’s up to the person.” His surname is pronounced Well-i-what-uh.

          He will move into the parish house with his wife Shanalee Perera, and among his challenges will be helping to pursue the construction of the new vicarage nearby. They married on December 14 at a nuptial mass at All Saints East St Kilda, where he has been working as assistant priest for two years.

          He was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka, to parents who were both in the banking profession. His father was and remains a strong Roman Catholic, his mother is a Buddhist convert to Catholicism. Isuru and his younger sister Thilini were educated in Catholic schools and attended church regularly with their father from their earliest years.

          “I am a cradle Christian,” Isuru says. “But then from Grade 10 onwards, I became more deeply involved than my peers, pondering what I was going to do with my life and - since I already knew that God was real - what must that mean for how I was going to live it, giving myself full-time to serve Him. I remember discussing these thoughts with my parents as I prepared for confirmation, and talking with our parish priest about it, gaining good advice. He said that if my call was real, God would make that clearer and clearer to me.”

          Isuru’s parents were not, at that time, totally encouraging (they have since become fully supportive of his call to ministry). “I had been undergoing an expensive education, at St Peter’s College, I would not be able to have a family, they were then not so keen.” So he opted to undertake a commerce degree – at Deakin University’s Burwood campus in Melbourne, arriving here aged 21, living in a shared house, “learning to survive, including to cook, in a new country. It was challenging, but I’m always up for a challenge.” His sister came a couple of years later.

          He worshipped at St Benedict’s, Burwood, and was especially inspired by the homilies of one of the priests, a member of the Australian order of the Missionaries of God’s Love (MGL), who describe themselves as “contemplatives in action” with a strong missional intent, founded just 38 years ago in Canberra. “As I came towards graduation, in 2006, the thought strongly resurfaced that I should dedicate my life to serving Christ,” he said. “I did not feel any passion for finance, despite my degree studies.”

          He did put himself forward, joined the MGL in 2008, undertook studies, and graduated with a Bachelor of Theology at the University of Divinity in Melbourne in 2014, then a Master’s in 2016. During this period, he spent six months doing missionary work in Darwin. He was ordained in 2015 at St Dominic’s Camberwell by Archbishop Denis Hart.

          Isuru worked in the Burwood parish for a year, then in two parishes in Sydney, helping drive parish renewal including through running Alpha courses. “Our motto was: From maintenance to mission.”

          He began visiting pentecostalist churches, to see how they brought new people in to their congregations, and after personal spiritual encounters there, began to think that this might be a direction he should consider. He took time out to discern where he should be heading, and realised that “God had different plans.”

          He returned to Melbourne, where his parents had migrated in 2016, selling their home in Colombo. “I was in an undecided state,” Isuru said. “I started studying part-time for a Masters in Psychological Counselling, in part to understand myself better.” He ministered at Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Narre Warren, “continuing to discern and to pray.”

          He began to understand that God was calling him to continue ministering, but also to have a family. “I sense that I have a gift to reach out to those who don’t yet have faith,” he says – so it became a source of frustration, that the priority and press of work in the parish “made me feel a bit like a mass-machine.” And his perception that he lacked “the gift of celibacy” made that an obstacle to his ministry rather than a means of concentrating on it. “How then to use fully the gift I felt I did have, of ministering?”

          The Anglican Church seemed the right fit. He contacted Bishop Brad Billing, who was then responsible for clergy formation, training and wellbeing – the role since taken on by Bishop Lindsay Urwin’s sister Bishop Kate Prowd – and had a helpful and positive conversation, leading him to pursue that path steadily, and eventually to be connected to Bishop Lindsay. He was received formally into the Anglican Church in 2022. Bishop Kate conducted his retreat before the reception.

          The first time he came to mass at Christ Church Brunswick, “I was in tears. I felt truly at home… A kind of anointing came on me. This was a truly special time. I really enjoyed getting to know some of the parishioners, and worshipping there.”

          He had a placement in psychological counselling with the Brotherhood of St Laurence, and then began working part-time as a mental health clinician in Bendigo – which he continued for two years; “I was very busy travelling up and down,” he says – and was appointed as part-time Associate Priest at the parish of All Saints East St Kilda, enabling him to experience closely another parish, and to build relationships there. And his professional skill, and work experience in counselling will help him be a better priest, he believes, in areas ranging from general pastoral duties to trauma recovery. He believes that this training has made him a better listener.

          “But being a vicar is of course a very full-time role, to which I need to bring my full energy.”

          He built a friendship with his wife Shanalee during the time he was ministering in Narre Warren, and their relationship deepened after he shifted to the Anglican Church. She is a speech pathologist, having graduated first from Melbourne University, and then from La Trobe. The whole family had migrated, also from Sri Lanka, when she was finishing primary school.  They became engaged in 2023, and Shanalee began to worship at All Saints East St Kilda, although she remains Catholic, as is her family.

          Isuru says: “It seems right that we should settle into married life before I begin as vicar at Christ Church.” He invites parishioners to make her feel welcome, and to support her – “it’s a big thing for her,” to become the wife of a parish priest. “She will find her way, and become part of the aspects of Christ Church that she chooses to.”

          After two years as an Associate Priest, he was praying for further guidance about his future, when Bishop Genieve Blackwell phoned to tell him that his name had come up in the conversation about Christ Church after Bishop Lindsay. “I kept praying, and this seemed very right as the next step to which God was calling me in my ministry and my life.  I have had lots of changes in my life. I am friendly with change. And now I am grateful for such a wonderful opportunity.”

          Isuru has become accustomed to the daily rhythm of worship and prayer, since his days as a member of the Missionaries of God’s Love. “I am a big supporter of that rhythm.”

          He says: “I love the sense of peace within the parish complex at Christ Church, including in the gardens. It is an oasis of spiritual power in Brunswick. And I had found a big brother in Bishop Lindsay, who is such an effective missionary – an evangelist - with whom I connected really well.”

          Isuru says that while he is “not a big musician myself,” he very much enjoys listening especially to classical music, and “loved the music while I worshipped at Christ Church,” and would like to see the “rich variety” continue – “the traditional, as well as the new, to which I’m also open. Music is a gift from God, which can move people, as it does in the secular world too.”

          He is a keen supporter of both the Bible & Beer format of outreach, having participated in a few of those events as they got under way, and of the Thursday lunches for the marginalised – “I shall be part of that, as a priest I undertake the ministry of presence.” He will talk to homeless and other distressed people who find their way to the church site, including to the Parish House, providing them with pastoral assistance as well as vouchers for meals and other services provided by Saint Vincent’s, for example, or the Salvation Army.

          Prominent among his spiritual heroes is St Anthony of Padua, “for his passion for the Lord.” When his parents had found it hard to conceive, Christian friends urged praying about their troubles through St Anthony, for whom a popular shrine in Colombo was dedicated. Although his mother was then still a Buddhist, she visited the shrine and prayed to God, saying that if she were to have a son, “I will give him back to you.” She became pregnant soon after with Isuru. She said later: “I only meant that I wanted him to be baptised a Christian…!”

          Outside of work and ministry, Isuru enjoys bicycle riding, hiking, swimming, travelling, listening to classical music, watching cricket and – at least during his sojourn at All Saints East St Kilda – following as his AFL team, St Kilda, the Saints.

          But most of all, Isuru says, “I love being a priest.” He is passionate about bringing God’s love through the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all people in the power of the Holy Spirit. “Australia is now a mission field, with a very secular society, and I have a missionary heart.” That will involve, he is certain, as he prepares to move to Christ Church, maintaining the parish’s multi-cultural openness, “making all people welcome.”

          - Rowan Callick