SINGAPORE — The Pontifical Mission Societies’ (PMS) Directors of all the Dioceses of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei met at the Retreat House, Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Singapore from 27-29 June for their annual meeting, together with Archbishop John Wong, the Episcopal President for New Evangelisation. They got together to renew their commitment in mission, to be in fellowship and to strengthen their brotherhood bond. Two new Diocesan Directors joined the PMS family. They are Fr Kevin Chundi from the Diocese of Miri replacing the former, Fr Sylvester Ding and Fr Terence Pereira from the Archdiocese of Singapore replacing the former, Fr Kenson Koh.
The meeting was headed by the PMS National Director, Fr VA Michael from the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur. He handed out the Statutes to the new directors as guidelines in playing their new role as PMS Diocesan Directors. He stressed on the three collections that are to be collected yearly by each Diocese, namely the Mission Sunday and Holy Childhood Collections and Singapore has been collecting the St Peter the Apostle Collection too.
Fr Michael explained the four different societies in PMS and their roles and objectives, i.e. Society of the Propagation of the Faith, Society of St Peter the Apostle, Society of Holy Childhood and Society of Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. He shared his experiences when he attended the PMS Annual General Assembly in Rome in early June and his personal meeting with Pope Francis for the fourth time.
The theme of their discussion was “Missionary Church, Witness of Mercy”. They reflected on Pope Francis’ message which was released for World Mission Sunday 2016 in the context of the Year of Mercy. In his message, the Holy Father has invited everyone to “go out” as missionary disciples, each generously offering their talents, creativity, wisdom and experience in order to bring the message of God’s tenderness and compassion to the entire human family. Each director shared their experiences on how women play major roles in the work of mission and other areas in serving the church.
Last year’s project of printing 10,000 Bibles for children in Bahasa Malaysia including the 10,000 prayer booklets that were distributed to the children in 2014 was a success. As there is a demand for more Bibles for the children, PMS have decided to distribute another 10,000 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia and English. These Bibles will be distributed at no cost.
A sharing was given by Daphne Leong from the Office for the New Evangelisation (ONE) on the New Evangelisation in Singapore. ONE is calling all Catholics to work in communion by renewing, living and sharing our faith. The four tenets of ONE are Word, Worship, Communion in Christ and Community and Witness.
The National Director conveyed his thanks to all those who had contributed for the Mission Sunday, Holy Childhood and St Peter the Apostle collections for the last ten years. He also thanked all the children for their effort to raise funds to help the poor children in the third world countries.
Before the meeting ended, the National Director thanked all his Diocesan Directors for collaborating with him for last ten years prior to the termination of his term at the end of February 2017.
Justina Sharon
Today’s Catholic Vol.28 No.5 August 2016
what is the result of the meeting?