Two Family Life conferences in Bahasa Malaysia with theme “Family modelled on the Trinity” were held two weeks apart in November.
St Stephen’s Parish in Bau Zone for which includes St Ann and Holy Spirit Parishes had the conference on 6-7 November while St Jude’s Parish in Serian Zone includes St Theresa and Our Lady Queen of Peace parishes was on 20-21 November.
BAU — A total number of 935 attended out of which 220 were youths. The families from Holy Spirit Parish stayed at Kpg Skiat for the night on 6 November. It was an act of kindness and generosity. It is hoped others would do likewise in future conference.
The opening Mass was presided by Fr Nicholas Ng, the Rector of St Stephen’s Parish. Three priests namely Fr Eric Jerome, Fr Lazarus Swinie and Fr Jerome Juleng delivered their talks on “Holy Trinity”, “Holy Family” and “Family, God’s First and immediate impression” respectively were invited to give one talk each. Fr Eric Jerome from St Peter’s College delivered his talk on “Holy Trinity”. Fr Lazarus Swinie delivered his talk on “Holy Family” and Fr Jerome Juleng delivered his talk on “Family, God’s First and immediate impression”.
Workshop according to individual parishes followed. Each group has no more than 15 participants to discuss and reflect on three questions and then feedback was handed over to Michael Junim for compilation.
Each parish presented few items during the evening on the 6 November.
On the second day, John Dawi, Henry Goyem and David Disam spoke on “Resolving Conflict in the family”, “Respect in the family” and “Building faith in the family” consecutively.
Then it was time for plenary session which was moderated by Michael Junim and assisted by the 3 Lay Speakers, John, Henry and David. During Question and Answer session the problem faced by the families after conversion to Islam was raised as some converts would like to come back to practise their Catholic faith again after their spouse has left them. They were told that once they are converted to Islam it is almost impossible for them to come back to practise their Christian faith.
Fr Nicholas Ng closed the conference by celebration of a closing Mass.
SERIAN — 257 participants from the three parishes attended the conference. The parishes of St Theresa’s Serian, Our Lady Queen of Peace Sri Aman were hosted by St Jude’s Parish, Bunan Gega. The conference commenced with a Holy Mass presided by Rev Fr Christopher Laden.
The participants from Sri Aman stayed at Leopold Memorial Centre (LMC). The conference was held at the St Jude’s Church while dinner and lunch was held at the LMC. On the first day three priests namely Fr Eric Jerome, Fr Lazarus Swinie and Fr Jerome Juleng were also invited to give the same talk which they presented at Bau.
A workshop session of the same in Bau followed except due to time factor only 4 groups had the opportunity to present their workshop report.
A workshop session of the same in Bau followed except due to time factor only 4 groups had the opportunity to present their workshop report.
It was St Jude parish’s presentation in the evening of 20 November which was well coordinated.
On the second day, 3 Lay speakers, in the person of Mdm Rose Nanju and husband Mathew Makew, Edwin Berundang and Alban Bong spoke on “Resolving conflict in the family”, “Respect in the family” and “Building faith in the Family” respectively.
Plenary session was moderated by Michael Junim in the afternoon of the second day. He was assisted by Fr Lazarus Swinie and 3 other lay speakers. The Family Conference ended with a closing Mass presided by His Grace Archbishop John Ha.
It is hoped that many couples will come forward to speak in the future Family Conferences. The Archdiocesan Pastoral Council encourages more local speakers to help because during follow up they can be easily reached for assistance and references.
Michael Junim
