The group discussion in session during the Assembly
By Jason Joenoi and Henry Chua (SHC/CMI MPC 2026 Main Committee)
Oct 10 2023
KOTA KINABALU – The Parishes of Sacred Heart Cathedral (SHC) and Church of Mary Immaculate (CMI) had successfully held their joint Parish Pastoral Assembly (the Assembly) on Sep 28 2023 at the Sacred Heart Parish Centre, fulfilling the requirement of the Malaysia Pastoral Convention (MPC) 2026.
About 400 parishioners from both parishes attended the Assembly representing the various church groups and ministries from three language groups of English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese-speaking communities. Their input however would be on a personal level rather than as a member of a certain group or ministry.
In preparation for the Assembly, a joint Committee representing both parishes was formed in year 2021. Subsequently, four Sub-Committees were established for the four priorities namely Church, Social, Ecology and Family. The Sub-Committees were given the task of conducting study sessions for their respective members and opened it to interested parishioners, on the Encyclical documents of Pope Francis namely Evangelli Gaudium (Church), Fratelli Tutti (Social), Laudato Si (Ecology) and Amoris Laetitia (Family). For each document, questionnaires were then prepared based on the method of See, Judge and Act.
Fr Paul Lo giving his address to 400 attendees
Meanwhile, the MPC 2026 was launched at parish level on 25 Feb 2023 during the Sunset Mass at SHC by Archbishop John Wong, with the screening of the prelate’s address on the purpose and journey of the local church towards the MPC, scheduled to be held in MAJODI, Johor in Sep 2026.
In preparation for the Assembly, the same video message of the archbishop was re-screened during the Sunset and Sunday Masses on 23 and 24 Sep 2023, at both SHC and CMI to bring awareness to parishioners about the Assembly.
The Assembly began with registration of participants at 8.00am and ended with a Thanksgiving Mass at 3.30pm presided by Fr Paul Lo with Fathers Saimon William and Terans Thadeus concelebrating.
The proceedings of the Assembly Proper began at 8.45 am with the Enthronement of the Bible, followed by the Liturgy of the Word proclaimed in Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese. Fr Paul proclaimed the Gospel which was taken from the Gospel of Luke 4:14-20. In his homily, Fr Paul explained that this Assembly was to learn the experiences of the faithful in both parishes, their thoughts on ways forward for the respective parish, Archdiocese, and the church in Sabah.
Archbishop Wong who was present at the beginning of the Assembly was invited to give some words of encouragement to the participants, where he likened the Assembly to one who is investing in a business where one must work really hard to get triple earnings back; similarly, he believed that if everyone worked harder in this Assembly, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God’s reward will be a hundredfold.
Thereafter, a video on the history of the growth of the two parishes was shown to the participants followed with a briefing by the Main Committee Chairman, Jason Joenoi on MPC 2026 and a recap on the preparations leading to the Assembly.
The participants were then divided into the four priorities which had been pre-assigned to them i.e Church, Family, Social and Ecology. After briefing on the questions/issues for discussion, each were divided again into English, Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese language groups which then went into smaller discussion groups of five to 10 participants for each language.
Some of the participants
Each small group was given one or two topics/issues to discuss within an hour before breaking for lunch. Thereafter, each small group made its reports/findings which were recorded and subsequently compiled and summarized by the respective Sub-Committee team.
This was then reported as a conclusion to the Assembly before heading for the closing Mass. From all the presentations, it could be deduced that the participants had been diligent and focused in their discussions and sharing their true views, and the Sub-Committees had received their ‘hundredfold.”
Although this Assembly marked the end of the process on the parish level but the task of the Parish Main Committee is not over yet. Reports gathered from the Assembly would still need to be compiled for onward submission to the Archdiocese Main Committee, in preparation for the next assembly which is the Diocesan Pastoral Assembly; and to the Parish Priest, where there is a need for certain issues that were brought up to be addressed on a parish level.
Dr Jeffrey Soon is giving his sharing
