KUCHING: The Parish of St Margaret’s Church, Stampin near here received a government grant of RM500,000 yesterday.
The good news was announced by Director of Non-Islamic Affairs Unit, Datu Dr Ngenang Janggu who represented Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Emabs who is also Patron of St Margaret Church, Stampin during a fund-raising dinner at a restaurant here on Saturday.
The grant was presented by Dr Ngenang to the priest in charge of St Margaret Church, Revd Fr Kamor Diah, witnessed by Bishop Datuk Bolly Lapok and more than 1,000 parishioners.
Fr Kamor said they are still short of the targetted amount of RM3.6 million to build the new St Margaret Church.
“We have RM500,000 in the bank and with this government grant of RM500,000 we will have RM1 million but was are still short of RM2.6 million.
“To date we have spent around RM297,800 for the foundation works of the church,” he said, adding that St Margaret Church is rebuilt following the increase in the number of parishioners from the surrounding areas.
“St Margaret was constructed in 1940s which could only accommodate about 250 parishioners at any one time and has no vehicle parking bays.
“Following the needs we proposed to build a new church building which is able to accommodate around 800 parishioners. At present the church has around 680 parishioners,” he said.
He added that the state government has approved a 1.8 acre piece of land to build the new church at Kpg Stampin.
During the dinner Bishop Datuk Bolly Lapok also announced that St Margaret Church has been upgraded from a chapel to a parish.
Datuk Bolly lauded the church members for their efforts in upgrading the chapel’s status.
“We have many discussions before we finally agreed to upgrade St Margaret from a chapel to a parish on 27 July.
“With that, I hope the Parish of St Margaret’s, Stampin can be built within a year after getting approval from Kuching South City Council (MBKS) on 9 March,” he said.
Among those present was chairman of the organising committee, Dennis Sungkok who is also Kampung Stampin village chief.
