Seminarian brewing greater community spirit

By Catherine Sheehan

A Tasmanian seminarian turned barista is brewing both coffee and community spirit at Hobart’s St Mary’s Cathedral. Vinco Muriyadan, originally from India, learnt very quickly that in Australia “coffee is everything”. He recently started making coffee for parishioners after the 10.30am Sunday Mass at the Cathedral, and discovered it worked wonders in building relationships. Instead of rushing straight out of the door after Mass, people were staying and talking to each other over a cappuccino or a flat white.

“It was helping me to get to know them more, and to share my own story too,” said Vinco, who is in his final year of seminary studies. He learnt his barista skills while at the Melbourne seminary, where he often made coffee for guests.

After returning to Hobart last year, Vinco began working with the Cathedral’s youth group, many of whom are overseas students. He noticed that some of the young people did not have the financial means to afford group outings and activities, and once Covid hit many struggled to find work. He also noticed they enjoyed drinking coffee together. He came up with the idea of selling cups of coffee after Mass to help fund the youth group’s activities.

“I have discovered that culture is the key to opening the hearts of the younger generation,” he said. “And here in Australia, coffee is everything.”

Vinco uses a domestic coffee machine in the Cathedral Centre to make cappuccinos and flat whites for $3 each, with all money raised going directly to the youth group. To date he has been making more than 20 coffees each week and, as a consequence, the youth group was recently able to afford to go bowling together.

An added bonus has been that the coffee is helping to foster relationships between parishioners. Initially, Vinco said, people were attracted by the novelty of a seminarian making coffee, but now they are eager to have their coffee and a chat with fellow parishioners. It has also given the youth an opportunity to talk to older parishioners.

“They start talking about their life and they feel they can approach each other.”

Vinco has met more of the Cathedral’s parishioners since he started making coffee and considers it “evangelisation through coffee”.

Parishioner and youth group member, Peter Chedid agreed saying, “The coffee shop has brought enthusiasm and joy to the parish community.”

“Because of the money raised we could go bowling and it was a good experience for us as a youth group,” added fellow youth group member, Raymond Fernando Yu, from the Philippines.

The coffee has been so popular that Vinco hopes to acquire a larger machine that would allow him to make more than one coffee at a time. Any donations to help him obtain a better machine would be gratefully received, he added.