Fr Meno Basti Jayantha Devalagama Arachchige OMI

Fr Basti was born on the 02 March 1979 in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. He was the eldest of seven children.

Joining the Oblates in 1997, Fr Basti made his first profession of Religious Vows on 08 September 2001. At the completion of his Philosophical and Theological studies, he made his final profession of religious vows on the 17 December 2008 and was ordained a deacon on the following day, 18 December 2008. He was ordained a priest of God in his home diocese, Mannar, Sri Lanka on 06 June 2009 and was appointed as the secretary to the Provincial of the Oblate Province of Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

At the completion of Fr Basti's first appointment as secretary to his Oblate Provincial in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, he was sent to Germany in 2012 to work as a missionary together with the German Oblates. After four years of his service in Germany, he returned to his home province Jaffna and was appointed to the Preaching community, as a mission preacher. He always had a very strong desire to be a missionary.

As Fr Basti had always desired, he was sent to Australia in 2018 as a missionary to join the Oblates there. His first appointment in Australia was to the Oblate Parish at Tea Tree Gully in South Australia as the assistant Parish Priest where he served for 13 months. At the request of the Provincial, moved to the Oblate Parish at Eagle Vale in NSW on the 10 May 2019.

While serving at Mary Immaculate Parish, Eagle Vale in NSW as assistant Parish Priest, Fr Basti was appointed Parish Priest of Cannon Hill Catholic Parish in Queensland in April 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and closing of interstate borders, he could not take up his new appointment straight away, as was initially planned.

After a long wait, finally Fr Basti arrived in Queensland on the 21 November 2020 and took over from Fr Eric Alleaume OMI, assuming his duties as the new Parish Priest on the same day.