My final address as PPC Chairperson on 5th November 2011. Wishing all the very best to my successor as well as the new Parish Priest, Father Albert Tan
Most Reverend Tan Sri Datuk Archbishop Murphy Pakiam
Reverend Fathers Simon Yong & Albert Tan
Dearest Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Welcome to the 31st SFX Parish Pastoral Assembly. We commemorate our 50th Golden Jubilee this year and I am sure that you had participated and enjoyed the many events both social and spiritual over the past 3 years. Those of us who manage to be at the pilgrimage in Malacca will attest to the beautiful experience we encountered at the Mass in St Francis Institution and at St Paul’s Hill... The liturgy team handled the pilgrim Mass well at St Paul’s Hill and our own Scholastica did an excellent chanting of the hymns.
Well we still have a few more beautiful events to commemorate the closing of our GJ Celebrations. We certainly hope that you will be able to join the SFX Family in our closing GJ dinner.
This is the seventh time I am addressing the assembly as PPC Chief and I am indeed grateful for all your continued support despite my inability to serve you better. I continue to appreciate your love, understanding and your keen response in carrying out the various programmes which had more than compensated for my poor leadership. You continue to excel in all the projects undertaken especially projects that are planned according to the pastoral priorities...
The 31st SFX Pastoral Assembly is significant as we will see a change in the leadership. Father Albert will be our new Parish Priest and Father Simon who had been with us for a decade will take his well earned sabbatical. I take this opportunity to thank Father Simon for having the confidence in me all these years that I had served as the PPC Chairperson. It was a priceless experience where I gained so many blessings from God, the most of which I treasure is the opportunity to get to know and work with you for the greater glory of God. Yes kudos to Father Simon and I pray and hope that you will continue to support and love this man who had served us selflessly in the past 10 years or more.
In 2011, Father Simon was able to visit all the BECs and we had a good reunion of sorts when we completed the BEC Home Masses in May and June 2011. The outcome of which can still be seen in my enlarged waist line. Thank you for all the wonderful fellowship and we pray that you continue the kind hospitality to our new leaders in 2012.
For 2012, we would like to remind the BECs to revitalise yourselves and if necessary work closely with the Parish Groups. We had intentionally reduced the amount of plan activities in 2012 so that more quality time can be spent on the 4 main projects that you will decide on later this afternoon. Most Reverend Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam continues to urge us to make BECs our priority and the APC had in fact given the BEC some pertinent questions for reflection. You have carried the exercise in your BECs and I do hope you will voice out your needs when you plan for your activities in 2012. Collaborate with the Parish Groups for social action or for learning more of the Bible are my suggestions to you.
We continue to thank you, SFX parishioners for being so generous in helping us in many ways to fund and almost complete church renovations. The splendidly beautiful Loyola Hall today is a result of your contribution and hopefully this is put to good use for the further glory of God.
As customary I would like to thank all the parish commission chiefs i.e. Janet Chin, Vince Gomez, Molly and Matthew and Raja Isaiah who had each contributed tremendously in their various spheres. Without them we would probably not have so many successful projects. The Worship Commission had successfully guided us in to the usage of the new translation of the Roman missal. They are also continuing to recruit, guide and lead the liturgical team to celebrate all the major liturgical events of SFX. For Vince, he had been working tirelessly in the early part of the year when he diligently executed the plan activities of the first quarter. Molly and Matthew had been most visible in the Family day and Senior Citizen’s night. In spite of her poorer health she and Matthew had carried out the projects, the fruits of which you had seen, tasted and enjoyed. They had not forgotten the young couples and had sessions to discuss family life after watching the show “Fireproof” Our heartfelt condolence to Matthew who had just lost his sister and he is still, mourning her death. Raja Isaiah continues to be steadfast in looking after the Sunday school and had brought in a few training sessions for the Sunday school facilitators. We continue to have over 500 students in Sunday school and again those who can, please volunteer to help in our children’s religious education. The Standard one' parents had just conducted a wonderful Annual Party when over 800 tickets were snap up and the kids and the parents too had a wonderful time with so many activities. Well done
Our website sfx.com.my continues to break one record after another with more hits especially for the homilies of Father Simon, Albert and Michael... Please continue to visit this website regularly and view the latest Information. Thank you Iggy
I would like also to thank Linda Archibald and Anne Yong for have done their pastoral duties so well in spite of the tough challenges. We may also wish Linda all the very best in her future endeavour.
I know many others had also worked hard in 2011 to achieve your plans and
Strategies. I thank you all for your efforts although I can’t name you individually.
Please continue the good work and I am certain you will be rewarded as you are
helping in the Lord’s garden.
Moving on to the strategies of 2012:
The emphasis on BECs and the ongoing pastoral priorities are of utmost importance. So I urged you all when you plan for 2012 to take into account the areas of unity, formation, integral human development, inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue, youth, family and social communications.
In this PA workshop, we will again be slotted by months under the 4 Commission Chiefs and the 12 facilitators. You will have a mixture of parish groups and BECs... As usual the four Chiefs will oversee and guide you along. More details will be given by Janet.
We congratulate and thank the Golden Jubilee Committee headed by Francis Lai who had successfully lead us in the many projects. We will end our celebration on 3rd December 2011 with a subscription dinner. Meanwhile please come forward to support the GJ coffee table book and please try to attend the Novena to St Francis Xavier followed by the closing of the GJ celebrations dinner at the Super Tanker Restaurant at the Club in Bandar Utama...
We pray that the close cooperation between BECs, Parish Group and the Parish Administration will continue as we welcome the new parish priest officially on December 3rd and installed as parish priest on January 8th. 2012
Please continue to pray for SFX and all our Priests and our dear shepherd Most Reverend Tan Sri Datuk Archbishop in continuing their pastoral care to the flock in SFX.
I end this address with a grateful heart for all those years of your support for the PPC and Father Simon. I apologise if I had inadvertently hurt anyone of you. Take care and God bless you all. Thank you all, brothers and sisters in Christ.
Lawrence Loh
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
2010 is gone What have I done
2010 was a great and fast moving year. It was a year of changes and I wish to record some of the highlighs that I remember.
i) I was in the 3rd month of work in January after retiring from CIMB. My job requires me to audit compliance of legal issues such as AMLA/CFT, Whistle blowing, Information security policy and OSHA compliance. Was involved in the audit of Kota Kinabalu branch and also Kuching branch later in the year. Also in 2010 we started the audit of the auto leasing company. My first exercise was to do a Key Controls assessment in an asset management company.
ii) In SFX we prepare for our celebration of the Golden Jubilee in December 2011. We had successful family days and also a relatively happy and succesful Parish Assembly. The PPC retreat however had more GJ members than the PPC itself. Nevertheless, Bro Gerard brought us through a wonderful spiritual journey balanced with a good fellowship. The SFX wbsite and the Church itself became transformed and hopefully more people will worship here.
iii) In Bible study we went through St Paul by Father Michael Chua, then St John by Mgr James. The class finally ended in December and we wil be due for a retreat in January 2011. My thoughts are that I need a more critical mind in reading the Bible and that more exercises are needed before I come to a better comprehension.
iv) In the family we are living quite happily although Gabriel went and joined the sister in Brisbane for his A levels. Aaron began working with the accounting firm and Ian will sit for his O levels in 2011. Visited Mum a few times and she continues to be in good health and with certain streak of luck too. Kar Im is generally ok except for her weakening knees which may require a procedure in 2011.
v) 2010 also saw us visiting Eastern Europe for a pilgrimage. The journey saw me putting on weight as I was given both spiritual and physical upliftment. Spiritual because the awe and wonder of the miracles that took place in the past and in the experience of the pilgrims. The Churches that we visit, the fervent believers in Medugourge, and the presence of our Lord in the daily Masses and prayers gave us the spiritual upliftment. The companions and friends that we made at the 1st pilgrimage made this pilgrimage a more enjoyable and friendlier environment. New friends were also made. The physical upliftment was caused by the pork knuckles and the beer of course.
vi) 2010 started with a loss of a few key leaders of SFX. On January 1st, Father Simon led us to Taiping to attend a funeral of A. Matthews who helped us to get tax exemption for our wine and stained glasses. Then in Chinese New year we lost KC Wong who helped us in the electrical appliances, the multimedia and the sound system, then Alan Hoh, our St Peter of Sunday School left us suddenly to join the Lord. Personally my mother's eldest brother also died and this however brought a reunion of sorts as Mum and her siblings were in KL to attend the week long wake. In December 17, we lost our aunt, Vincent Loh's mum after suffering from kidney failure and other related illness for a year. Gerard Pereira a former PPC memeber and founder Chief of the Sports Ministry also suddenly left us in early December.
vii) We had also several good progress such as my learning how to blog, joining Facebook and also enhancing our friendships within the BEC, Pilgrims, PPC, GJ team and PCC members.
viii)New Year's eve saw a surprised group of people coming to our house after the 10.30pm Mass for a nightcap. The last guests finally left by 3am. Good start for 2011
i) I was in the 3rd month of work in January after retiring from CIMB. My job requires me to audit compliance of legal issues such as AMLA/CFT, Whistle blowing, Information security policy and OSHA compliance. Was involved in the audit of Kota Kinabalu branch and also Kuching branch later in the year. Also in 2010 we started the audit of the auto leasing company. My first exercise was to do a Key Controls assessment in an asset management company.
ii) In SFX we prepare for our celebration of the Golden Jubilee in December 2011. We had successful family days and also a relatively happy and succesful Parish Assembly. The PPC retreat however had more GJ members than the PPC itself. Nevertheless, Bro Gerard brought us through a wonderful spiritual journey balanced with a good fellowship. The SFX wbsite and the Church itself became transformed and hopefully more people will worship here.
iii) In Bible study we went through St Paul by Father Michael Chua, then St John by Mgr James. The class finally ended in December and we wil be due for a retreat in January 2011. My thoughts are that I need a more critical mind in reading the Bible and that more exercises are needed before I come to a better comprehension.
iv) In the family we are living quite happily although Gabriel went and joined the sister in Brisbane for his A levels. Aaron began working with the accounting firm and Ian will sit for his O levels in 2011. Visited Mum a few times and she continues to be in good health and with certain streak of luck too. Kar Im is generally ok except for her weakening knees which may require a procedure in 2011.
v) 2010 also saw us visiting Eastern Europe for a pilgrimage. The journey saw me putting on weight as I was given both spiritual and physical upliftment. Spiritual because the awe and wonder of the miracles that took place in the past and in the experience of the pilgrims. The Churches that we visit, the fervent believers in Medugourge, and the presence of our Lord in the daily Masses and prayers gave us the spiritual upliftment. The companions and friends that we made at the 1st pilgrimage made this pilgrimage a more enjoyable and friendlier environment. New friends were also made. The physical upliftment was caused by the pork knuckles and the beer of course.
vi) 2010 started with a loss of a few key leaders of SFX. On January 1st, Father Simon led us to Taiping to attend a funeral of A. Matthews who helped us to get tax exemption for our wine and stained glasses. Then in Chinese New year we lost KC Wong who helped us in the electrical appliances, the multimedia and the sound system, then Alan Hoh, our St Peter of Sunday School left us suddenly to join the Lord. Personally my mother's eldest brother also died and this however brought a reunion of sorts as Mum and her siblings were in KL to attend the week long wake. In December 17, we lost our aunt, Vincent Loh's mum after suffering from kidney failure and other related illness for a year. Gerard Pereira a former PPC memeber and founder Chief of the Sports Ministry also suddenly left us in early December.
vii) We had also several good progress such as my learning how to blog, joining Facebook and also enhancing our friendships within the BEC, Pilgrims, PPC, GJ team and PCC members.
viii)New Year's eve saw a surprised group of people coming to our house after the 10.30pm Mass for a nightcap. The last guests finally left by 3am. Good start for 2011
Sunday, November 14, 2010
PA Address 2010 on 13/11/2010
Most Reverend Tan Sri Datuk Archbishop Murphy Pakiam
Reverend Fathers Simon Yong & Albert Tan
Dearest Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We are indeed blessed that we are here today once again to commemorate and participate in this auspicious 30th Parish Pastoral Assembly. Yes I think some of you have been here for the past 10 years or more and I would like to congratulate and thank you for being part of the history of SFX. To all of you on behalf of the Parish Pastoral Council I welcome you to the 30th Parish Pastoral Assembly. Indeed we are proud that you have sacrificed yourselves to make SFX what it is today. As usual we had a fruitful year in SFX. We continued our 1000 hour journey praying before the Blessed Sacrament for our priests and we successfully completed the prayers and we thank you all for praying so hard for our Shepherds in the Year of the Priest which ended in June 2010. We thanked Brother Eugene who headed the project before his transfer to Singapore. The Blessed Sacrament is still being adored and we hope that you encourage more to pray for our priests and other spiritual needs before our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the sixth time I am addressing the assembly as PPC Chief and I thank you for all your continued support despite my shortcomings in not being able to serve you well and being such an incompetent leader. I must say your love, understanding and your keen response in carrying out the various programmes had more than compensated for my poor leadership. You continue to excel in all the projects undertaken especially projects that are planned according to the pastoral priorities agreed by us during PMPC 3.
"2010 has been eventful as we continue celebrating our Golden Jubilee." The GJ Committee headed by Francis Lai planned several projects to renew our spiritual direction and celebrate this joyous occasion having existed 50 years as an active and vibrant church community serving our Lord; as we journey towards a “New Way of Being Church”
In 2010 we were not able to visit the BECs because of other more pressing schedules. However BECs are very important to the life of SFX. We had met almost monthly with the leaders and were together for a training called Collaborative Ministry conducted by Father Michael Chua. We know of your problems or challenges and we do wish that we can do more for you.
I would like to remind you that BECs are Christ centred communities. So whenever you come into unpleasant situations, do remember Christ our King is in our midst and ask him to help resolve our problems. We are also please with the encouragement of our Most Reverend Tan Sri Murphy Pakiam who urged us not be too worried about the numbers but continue to journey together to give Glory to God.
We thank you SFX parishioners for being so generous in helping us in many ways to fund and complete the church renovations. We hope that you will continue to pray and help see to the conclusion of our final phase of the renovation.
Under Worship Commission and liturgy chiefs Janet Chin & Rachel Santa Maria, we continue to improve our liturgical practices. New Extra-ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, Lectors and Commentators were given training and also other liturgical volunteers were briefed from time to time. We strive to achieve perfection and we continue to enrich ourselves so that we can serve the Lord better. I thank Janet who chaired this year’s family day event in July 2010 and we saw a lot of interaction between the BECs and Parish Groups.
We would like to draw your attention to our website sfx.com.my. Please visit this website regularly as you can now view our latest news, download our monthly reflection paper, and order our photos of the various SFX events through this website. Soon we can even book our rooms through the website. Don’t despair if you are not computer savvy, for it is in Iggy’s plan to visit the various BECs to provide on line tutorials.
IHD
Integral Human Development Commission saw a miracle worked for us to witness in the person of Vince Gomez, the IHD head. From January to March we saw him working tirelessly to implement the projects we had planned in the Parish Assembly of 2009. However Vince fell seriously ill in mid year and we really missed him as he was helping us in so many areas under IHD. Thankfully he came out of his illness and although we can see he is still weak, his enthusiasm in helping the deaf, wheelchair bound, migrants and other less fortunate persons really encourage us to plod on. Thanks Vince for showing us a fine example and thank you God, for giving us the gift of Vince.
The Filipino Community of Migrant Workers have been weaving palms l every Palm Sunday into crosses and selling it to the Parishioners. They donated the profit to the Church Renovation Fund.
FSC decorated the stage for Family Day and Senior Citizens Day. They also join a BEC in an outing.
REACH who comprises of the "Deaf" community celebrated the International Day for the Deaf in Sept. with the various BEC Social Concern Coordinators.
The highlight for WHEELS is their pilgrimage to Bukit Mertajam for St Anne's Feast. Five members were wheeling their way through the massive crowd in BM. It was indeed a great challenge.
IHD had ensured that at least once a year, SFX would have a Blood Donation Drive. They also help to organise Forums on the Constitution by the Bar Council." IHD had also encouraged the Parish Groups in the I H D Commission to work more closely with the BECs through the Social Concern Coordinators.
We continue to thank the parishioners for your continuous support for the projects of SVP including the SFX Rumah Pengajian Xavier. St Vincent De Paul also opened a service centre to help migrants in collaboration with the other PJ churches.
Sectoral
Molly and Matthew continued to work hard uniting the parish groups and the BECs under this Commission. They recently made 350 SFX Senior Citizens very happy when they brought them back to the 50s, 60s and 70s era with songs, dance performance, crowning of SFX Prom King and Queen and were waited on tirelessly by our youths who ensured that they were served their food and drinks promptly.
Family Life Ministry will present Together under One Roof (TUOR) on December 4th. This half day programme is catered for couples married 5 years and below.
BECs Chiefs are requested to persuade your family life coordinators to play a more active role in this commission. The Sectoral commission is an important group as the youth, family, sports and social communication falls under this commission.
Sports Ministry is now headed by Anthony Narayanan taking over from Gerard Pereira. The Ministry successfully conducted the Golf Tournament in August 2010 and is now planning for a Walkathon.
Our Youths including some confirmands further surprised me greatly as they came forward during the weekend masses of 16/17 October 2010 when they help us conduct the Parish Census. It was such an enriching experience to see the young take responsibility and take ownership of the Church. We thank Linda and Anne Yong for their tireless efforts in giving our young people the pastoral care.
Evangelisation
In Evangelisation and Catechetical Commission, RCIA registered over 70 catechumens, confirmands and reception candidates... This year the Catechumen
were put in an exposure immersion experience early so that they learn what the Parish is doing and hopefully will ease them into the BECs and Parish Groups when they are baptised next Easter. We remember 3 silent heroes i.e. KC Wong, Joseph Moses Arul and Paul Lee who left us in January, August and October 2010 respectively. The 3 of them had been active in RCIA and had contributed their fair share of work to SFX. May their souls rest in peace.
Sunday School is a place for 556 of our young ones to learn more about Christ and the Catholic faith. Sunday School will switch completely to the Malaysian Catechetical Series in 2011. Registration for 2011 had proceeded smoothly and they are now in need of Catechists. Please volunteer yourselves or requests your members to volunteer as Catechists so that our young ones will continue to receive a solid faith education.
The Sunday School Parents organised the SS party on 31st October. A wonderful performance together with good music and food was provided to over 500 parishioners. We remember here another unsung hero who left us early this year i.e. Allan Ho who for many years was the St Peter of SFX Sunday School. He opened the doors of the classrooms and even stayed back to clean the toilets. May Allan’s soul rest in peace.
FIRM Foundation Ministry had another active year of providing wholesome adult education. They played a supportive role in the Novena of Grace in March 2010. Various new programmes were introduced such as Easter Triduum, a closer look into Christ’s Church, and the Footprints of God’s series. Hans and his team worked hard to set up this year’s Corpus Christi exhibition held on June 5th and 6th. More people attended this exhibition and the RCIA, Lifeline, Confirmation Group, MRM and the BECs worked together in this project. It was so successful that we exported this exhibition to Fatima Church in October 2010 and this attracted thousands of interested people. Congrats to Hans and Padre Simon who encouraged this contribution of ours to Our Lady of Fatima Church in Brickfields. On Nov 29, a talk by Father Michael Chua on the 4 shades of Advent will be held.
Confirmation Ministry involved over 200 students, of which 68 were confirmed in June 2010. The Level 2 candidates were involved in the Exposure Immersion programme where they served in Rumah Pengajian Xavier, REACH members, Soup kitchen of St John and helped in the Christmas eve supper.
Some candidates underwent training and formation as Lectors and started serving in the various liturgical services in Holy Week. They participated in the Walk with me Programme. About 35 of the newly confirmed helped out in the family day activities. 3 Catechists attended the Archdiocese Catechetical Conference on the CCC on 5th to 7th November.
Moving on to the strategies of 2011:
We had a mid term review of PMPC 3 in August 2010.and we had examine ourselves in fulfilling the objectives in PMPC 3. Although we had achieved some of the objectives there are areas that need improvement. In 2011 we urge you as BEC and PG members to study our pastoral priorities carefully and make plans to serve these areas. Your projects need not be big, do what you can within the organisation or resources that you have. The emphasis on BECs and the ongoing pastoral priorities are of utmost importance. So I urged you all when you plan for 2011 to take into account the areas of unity, formation, integral human development, inter-religious and ecumenical dialogue, youth, family and social communications.
Last year, I outlined PMPC 3 strategies and what we did in 2008 to implement this strategy. 2011 will be the sixth year of the PMPC3 implementation. A SWOT analysis was conducted at the APA in August 2010. We will be sharing the results with you in 2011.
In this PA workshop, we will again be slotted by months under the 4 Commission Chiefs and the 12 facilitators. Your groups are urged to come up with only one solid implementable idea. Do not be overambitious, but plan for the targeted objective and carefully choose your leader to implement this project. As usual the four Chiefs will oversee and guide you along. More details will be given by Iggy.
We congratulate and thank the Golden Jubilee Committee headed by Francis Lai who had successfully lead us in the many projects. We will end our celebration on 3rd December 2011 with a subscription dinner. Meanwhile do pay attention to the news in the bulletin, the Pilgrim newsletter and websites on the planned activities for 2011.
You have been steadfast in supporting the Church and all its needs and projects. Thank you to each one of you. We hope and pray that the close cooperation between BECs, Parish Group and the Parish Administration will continue as we celebrate our Golden Jubilee.
Please pray for the Lord to give strength to all our Priests particularly Father Simon Yong and Father Albert Tan and our dear shepherd Most Reverend Tan Sri Datuk Archbishop in continuing their pastoral care to the flock in SFX.
I end this address with the prayer that all of us will continue to be enthusiastic in serving the Lord our God. We pray that we shall all grow in our faith hope and love as we commemorate our 50th year in SFX. I wish you a Happy and Blessed year ahead. Thank you and God bless you all
Lawrence Loh.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Gifts of the Holy Spirit
I am reminded at the Confirmation Mass June 12 2010, about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. " What the Spirit brings is very different : love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. trustfulness, gentleness and self control" St Paul's letter to the Galatians, Chap 5 vs 22.
Have we used the gifts for the benefit of our brothers ans sisters, and for the betterment of ourselves?. The gifts are priceless and will definitely help us to be better members of our society. So let us ponder carefully and make full use of these gifts.
Have we used the gifts for the benefit of our brothers ans sisters, and for the betterment of ourselves?. The gifts are priceless and will definitely help us to be better members of our society. So let us ponder carefully and make full use of these gifts.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Send Off 2010 Pentecost Sunday 23rd May 2010
Last nite was graduation night at the SFX Loyola Hall for the 2009/10 batch. Congrats to all our neophytes and once again thanks to all the RCIA facilitators who worked so hard gathering the lambs for Jesus. Well done and keep up the good job.
Dearest Neophytes or more appropriately Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On behalf of the Parish Pastoral Council we wish to congratulate and welcome you for being our latest batch of graduates from our SFX RCIA programme. We are indeed proud that you have chosen a religion founded by our Lord Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago. His message then and now is very simple “Love one another as I have loved you”
I know that the Roman Catholic Church had been branded as very unfriendly, snobbish, proud Catholics as compared to our brethren in our sister Christian Churches. That is a perception which I hope you manage to dispel after your 9 months journey with SFX. It is not easy but you actually are in control as you are now part of our Catholic Churches and how you treat others will now be the reflection of the Catholic Church. So be friendlier and have a smile for all you meet daily, be it in Church or elsewhere, and slowly but surely the message will be that Catholics are now a lot friendlier and more loving sincere Christians.
Service is the epitome of love. I remember Bishop Emeritus James Chan’s motto of “To Serve Is my Joy. “ Today I urged you to start to serve after having been served for the past 9 months or so. You need to know that your being baptized, confirmed and receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist is but the beginning of your journey back to join our Father in eternal life. While we are still on earth we need to join our brethren in your various neighborhood communities called the Basic Ecclesial Community where the members gather together as a community, breaking bread, serving the community by providing service to the loved one, marginalized such as the poor, migrants, and the differently-able and Proclaiming the Word of our Lord. Last Sunday you were privileged to listen to a realistic and powerful and person sharing by Beth and Angela on what it means to belong to a BEC.
Tonight we are fortunate as several of our BEC leaders are here to invite you and to speak to you more on how the BEC functions. All in we have 18 BEC in SFX and you are welcome to join them but ideally you are encouraged to join the BEC where your home is based. Give your contact details and we will assign you your BEC i.e. if you want to join SFX BECs
SFX comprises of several Parish Structures, of which the Parish Groups fall under. The Parish Assembly meets yearly to determine the general policies of the Parish. The parish priests, PPC, core team members of the BEC’s and Parish Groups are represented in the Assembly
Our Parish Pastoral Council comprises of parish priests and lay leaders from the BEC’s and Parish Commissions and is responsible for formulating overall pastoral policies of the parish. It meets monthly to plan, propose, evaluate and discern what needs to be done to enhance the pastoral well being of the parish. It facilitates consultation and proposals for action.
The Parish Co-coordinating Council comprises of parish priests and all chiefs of BECs and Parish Groups and acts as a decision making and implementing body of the parish. It discussed matters or issues that the PPC proposed for adoption or implementation. PCC also provides the forum for reporting and giving feedback to members on matters affecting the Parish.
Parish Finance Committee comprises parish priests and appointed members of the Parish and is responsible for making good use of the financial resources of the parish in fulfillment of its objectives.
Parish Groups in SFX are placed under 4 Commissions i.e. Worship, Integral Human Development, Sectoral and Evangelical & Catechetical.
Worship Parish groups are normally directly related to a priest in the celebration of the Eucharist such as liturgy team, Bass, altar ladies, hospitality ministers, and worship groups such as Charismatic, Marian Devotion
Integral Human Development focus on justice, work in solidarity with those who are committed in their struggle for greater freedom, peace the marginalized in our society. Examples are FSC, Reach, Wheels, and SVDP
Sectoral covers a wide range of activities aim in promoting spiritual and moral values and fellowship for children, youths, single adults, married and senior citizens. Parish Family Movement, Emmaus, PFM, LifeLine, Life Teen and Dawn come under Sectoral Commission.
Evangelisation and Catechetical Commission has its primary objective of carrying out the mission “to make disciple of all nations” Faith formation is provided here, this is where the RCIA, Firm Foundation and Sunday School, confirmation group belongs to.
For 2010 and 2011 you can also opt to join the Golden Jubilee Committee who has lined up several projects to commemorate our 50 years of SFX. Projects line up include dinners, pilgrimages to Malacca and even Spain together with St Ignatius Church Singapore who is also another Jesuit run parish celebrating their Golden Jubilee too.
I thank you for listening and now would like you to take some time to visit the various booths to get to know about your BEC’s and parish groups. Hopefully you can decide tonight which BEC or Parish Group you would like to join. May you go out and offer yourselves to the society so that you can begin your journey as Disciples of Christ. Good night and God bless you and your loved ones.
Loh Lawrence
23rd May 2010
Dearest Neophytes or more appropriately Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On behalf of the Parish Pastoral Council we wish to congratulate and welcome you for being our latest batch of graduates from our SFX RCIA programme. We are indeed proud that you have chosen a religion founded by our Lord Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago. His message then and now is very simple “Love one another as I have loved you”
I know that the Roman Catholic Church had been branded as very unfriendly, snobbish, proud Catholics as compared to our brethren in our sister Christian Churches. That is a perception which I hope you manage to dispel after your 9 months journey with SFX. It is not easy but you actually are in control as you are now part of our Catholic Churches and how you treat others will now be the reflection of the Catholic Church. So be friendlier and have a smile for all you meet daily, be it in Church or elsewhere, and slowly but surely the message will be that Catholics are now a lot friendlier and more loving sincere Christians.
Service is the epitome of love. I remember Bishop Emeritus James Chan’s motto of “To Serve Is my Joy. “ Today I urged you to start to serve after having been served for the past 9 months or so. You need to know that your being baptized, confirmed and receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist is but the beginning of your journey back to join our Father in eternal life. While we are still on earth we need to join our brethren in your various neighborhood communities called the Basic Ecclesial Community where the members gather together as a community, breaking bread, serving the community by providing service to the loved one, marginalized such as the poor, migrants, and the differently-able and Proclaiming the Word of our Lord. Last Sunday you were privileged to listen to a realistic and powerful and person sharing by Beth and Angela on what it means to belong to a BEC.
Tonight we are fortunate as several of our BEC leaders are here to invite you and to speak to you more on how the BEC functions. All in we have 18 BEC in SFX and you are welcome to join them but ideally you are encouraged to join the BEC where your home is based. Give your contact details and we will assign you your BEC i.e. if you want to join SFX BECs
SFX comprises of several Parish Structures, of which the Parish Groups fall under. The Parish Assembly meets yearly to determine the general policies of the Parish. The parish priests, PPC, core team members of the BEC’s and Parish Groups are represented in the Assembly
Our Parish Pastoral Council comprises of parish priests and lay leaders from the BEC’s and Parish Commissions and is responsible for formulating overall pastoral policies of the parish. It meets monthly to plan, propose, evaluate and discern what needs to be done to enhance the pastoral well being of the parish. It facilitates consultation and proposals for action.
The Parish Co-coordinating Council comprises of parish priests and all chiefs of BECs and Parish Groups and acts as a decision making and implementing body of the parish. It discussed matters or issues that the PPC proposed for adoption or implementation. PCC also provides the forum for reporting and giving feedback to members on matters affecting the Parish.
Parish Finance Committee comprises parish priests and appointed members of the Parish and is responsible for making good use of the financial resources of the parish in fulfillment of its objectives.
Parish Groups in SFX are placed under 4 Commissions i.e. Worship, Integral Human Development, Sectoral and Evangelical & Catechetical.
Worship Parish groups are normally directly related to a priest in the celebration of the Eucharist such as liturgy team, Bass, altar ladies, hospitality ministers, and worship groups such as Charismatic, Marian Devotion
Integral Human Development focus on justice, work in solidarity with those who are committed in their struggle for greater freedom, peace the marginalized in our society. Examples are FSC, Reach, Wheels, and SVDP
Sectoral covers a wide range of activities aim in promoting spiritual and moral values and fellowship for children, youths, single adults, married and senior citizens. Parish Family Movement, Emmaus, PFM, LifeLine, Life Teen and Dawn come under Sectoral Commission.
Evangelisation and Catechetical Commission has its primary objective of carrying out the mission “to make disciple of all nations” Faith formation is provided here, this is where the RCIA, Firm Foundation and Sunday School, confirmation group belongs to.
For 2010 and 2011 you can also opt to join the Golden Jubilee Committee who has lined up several projects to commemorate our 50 years of SFX. Projects line up include dinners, pilgrimages to Malacca and even Spain together with St Ignatius Church Singapore who is also another Jesuit run parish celebrating their Golden Jubilee too.
I thank you for listening and now would like you to take some time to visit the various booths to get to know about your BEC’s and parish groups. Hopefully you can decide tonight which BEC or Parish Group you would like to join. May you go out and offer yourselves to the society so that you can begin your journey as Disciples of Christ. Good night and God bless you and your loved ones.
Loh Lawrence
23rd May 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
In the beginning
I was first involved in the Catholic Basic Ecclessial communities back in the earlie eighties. I remember how the Redemptorist priests came over for their missionary work in the Church of the Immaculate Conception Johor Baru. I was quite attracted to them as the priest who came was a friendly person who was able to communicate well with us. I remember his name as Father Peter and he came over to our old home where he conducted the sacrament of reconciliation in one of the rooms. I find it strange now that he did not offer to say a Home Eucharistic celebration at that time. I wonder why.
I remember the time when a few were us were gathered to share on the book "Five Loaves and two bread" Without much guidance we navigated our own way but this did not last long as people were unfamiliar and gave up after one or a few sessions.
I remember the time when a few were us were gathered to share on the book "Five Loaves and two bread" Without much guidance we navigated our own way but this did not last long as people were unfamiliar and gave up after one or a few sessions.
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