About FR. INA

Father Lenard Ina (also known as Abona Youhanna), is the Parish Priest of the Syriac Catholic Church in Sydney and Canberra.

He was born in Iraq in 1984, completed his studies as a laboratory associate and then travelled to Lebanon to study Theology. He was ordained as a priest in 2010 in Qaraqosh, North of Iraq.

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Fr Lenard arrived at Sydney in 2015, serving nearly 150 families. This number has increased to around 700 families in 2020, this increase was due to the huge number of refugees fleeing Iraq and Syria due to ISIS.

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Currently, Fr Lenard serves three Masses every Sunday located at Concord, Austral and Fairfield Heights and he serves a Mass at Canberra once a month. He is the leader of 35 deacons and 2 choirs. 

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Fr Lenard is the founder of the following:

• •    Church Planning Management

• •    Catechist Saturday school (5-11 years)

• •    Youth group (12-17 years)

• •    Youth group (18-35 years)

• •     Syriac Language Classes

• •    Weekly Bible studies

• •    Monthly Hour of Prostration before the Holy Eucharist

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Fr Lenard participates in the following devotional practices:

• •    Stations of the Cross, weekly during Lent

• •    Rosary of the Divine Mercy

• •    Month of Mother Mary (daily during May)

• •    Month of Scared Heart of Jesus (daily during June)

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Fr Lenard is planning forward to build a new church at Kemps Creek to serve the large Syriac Catholic Community in Sydney in addition to the church owned at Concord.

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Fr Lenard’s main focus of achieving his future dream is to unite the Syriac Catholic community in all Australian States and Territories to be one Syriac Catholic Diocese.