KUCHING: The Archbishop of Canterbury’s personal representative to the Holy See, the Most Reverend Gerald James Ian Ernest on Tuesday (Dec 6) paid a courtesy call on Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah at his office here.
During the visit, Ernest extended an invitation to Uggah to visit the Anglican Centre in Rome to share his experiences on promoting, strengthening and enhancing inter-religious collaboration, unity and harmony in the state.
Uggah is also the Minister-in-charge of the Unit For All Other Religions (UNIFOR) in the Sarawak Premier’s Department which is tasked with assisting all non-Islamic faiths in Sarawak in the physical development of their respective houses of worship.
“Rome belongs to all the Christians in the world and the Anglican Church there also enjoys very close rapport with the Pope,” he said.
Ernest who is from Mauritius but now residing in Vatican City said he was in the state “to know what is being done for the Anglican faith and I am most impressed with what I have seen.”
He added during his visit to Miri over the weekend, he had the opportunity to attend the Miri City Christmas Parade which was officiated by Uggah.
“Again I was most impressed and touched by what I had seen to increase this very strong collaboration among the different churches.
“Despite the rain too, the people, in particular the Christians, had stayed on for the event.”
Meanwhile, Uggah said Sarawak still enjoyed very solid religious harmony despite its multi-religious and multi-racial population.
“The formation of UNIFOR is one step in enhancing and strengthening this,” he said.
He also reminded Christians to use face masks in all crowded situations especially with the approaching Christmas celebration and its associated events and activities.
He said the XBB variant of the Covid-19 virus was very infectious and people must therefore protect themselves from being infected.
