SERIAN: The St. Theresa’s Parish Pastoral Council here celebrated Feast of St. Theresa, the Patron Saint of the Parish Pastoral last weekend, a press statement said yesterday.
Huge number of participants from far and near Serian attended the activities of the two-day feast to attend Holy Mass, the procession around Serian Bazaar, the sales and the entertainment items and other related events.
The actual Feast day is on 1st October every year.
During the function, 60 qualified candidates were confirmed in the Mass for Sacrament of Confirmation presided by His Grace Archbishop Simon Poh who reminded the candidates: “You are now confirmed to be with Jesus Christ. The cross anointed on your forehead means that you belong to Jesus Christ. You are baptized in church before, now confirmed in church, so you must marry in church and your children will likewise, be baptized in church.”
His Grace Archbishop Simon Poh, Rector Rev. Fr. Paul Herry, Parish priests and Sisters, Chairman of Parish Pastoral Council Dennis Sung, Chairman of Special Functions Committee Dennis Edwin, members of the various lay organisations, parishioners and friends from far and near participated the procession round the Serian Bazaar.
The parish Chinese Community, Kampung Riih Mawang, St. Theresa’s Kindergarten, Main church Sunday-School students and the Sunday-School students from the Santa Maria, Kampung Baru Mawang provided entertainment items and received encouraging applause.
Thirty-five students from the Parish Sunday Schools and the main church Kindergarten participated in the colouring competition. The first four winners (year 1 and year 2) were Chelsea Cgall (champion); Cornelius Samuel (second place); Stina Stifferly (third place) and fourth place was Darience Lee. The first four winners (year 3 and year 4) were repectively Marian Jesacynthia, Jesslyn, Veronica Lovelynn and Felician Fritz.
In his speech at the launching, His Grace Archbishop Simon Poh urged all parents to continue encouraging their children to participate in the church activities to have good tie with God with their individual talent. He was so pleased to see many children and the youths taking part in the celebration. He reminded everybody to serve the church with own ability and talent. God will unknowingly reward them in return, he pointed out.
In his speech, Rector Fr. Paul Herry thanked His Grace to attend the celebration even though with his very tight travelling schedule.
In his speech, Chairman of the Parish Pastoral Council Dennis Sung thanked everybody for actively participating and supporting the celebration in one way or another and donated generously to the Parish Council for its awaiting projects. He said, with the donation received from well wishers during the Feast celebration, the Parish Pastoral Council was able to complete the projects like the bell tower, HVLS fan, upgrade the main church audio and video systems, repaired the kitchen roofing and the land perimeter survey and others.
“The Council’s next proposed projects would be rectifying the sinking apron, replacement of the aging benches in the main church, to construct roofing for the existing grotto, to have a master plan for future developments and to improve the water supply system. All these proposed projects need fund badly.”
He also thanked the police and church wardens for their roles in directing the traffic to give way to the procession and also the co-operation of the road users of that part of the road for procession route.
The Thanksgiving Mass on Sunday, September 30th was celebrated by His Grace Archbishop Simon Poh. Besides introducing the holy contributions of St. Theresa, he also urged every Catholic should be firmly in the front to follow the instructions from the authorities concern to prevent and eradicate the outbreak of rabies and also to avoid using plastic materials in order to maintain and preserve environment fresh and clean. Do a little for the society and to be rewarded more unknowingly by God, he said.
