By Audrey J Ansibin
KOTA KINABALU — The St Simon Catholic Church Likas here continued the virtual Rosary via Zoom into November, well beyond the Month of Rosary, to pray for Sabah and Malaysia during the pandemic.
Hosted by Zoom moderator Godfrey Moey, the session saw the highest number of participation with 130 devices on Nov 2.
“The parish decided to continue from October’s daily virtual Rosary via Zoom for the whole month of November,” Godfrey said, adding that the virtual Rosary begins at 8pm every night.
Despite the new norm, rector Fr Cosmas Lee cautioned that these virtual sessions will never be able to replace physical interaction
He said although there were 103 devices recorded on Nov 1, the total number of participants should be at least 160 people.
“Some devices had more than one person sharing and following the virtual Rosary. Some families had four to six members joining from the safety and comfort of their homes.”
In the first week of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in Sabah last October, Godfrey said they had an average of over 80 devices joining only.
“The first few days of Rosary via Zoom did not feel as sociable as now, because many parishioners were new to using the Zoom app as a form of communication.”
He, however, said after over a month, most parishioners including the senior citizens feel very comfortable to use Zoom to pray together as a community.
“This indeed is a new norm which we all need to get used to. I have an enjoyable experience as the Zoom moderator thus far. Many parishioners who I hardly know, I got to know their names as can be seen in Zoom.”
He added that due to the social distancing and CMCO, he felt that the brief “chit chat” session after the virtual Rosary made them feel “human again”.
“How wonderful to have interaction with friends from the parish whom we have not seen for weeks. To see smiles, hear laughter over Zoom, and some cheeky parishioners cracking jokes, I think that helps me keep my sanity in this challenging third wave of the pandemic in Malaysia.
“I believe these are simple pleasures we can all cherish after rosary each night,” he said.
