KUANTAN: The parish feast of St Thomas Church was joyously celebrated from July 3 to 5 with multilingual Masses on each day of the Triduum. Prior to the event the parishioners held a "gotong royong" to clean and decorate the church. The main altar and the statue of St. Thomas were adorned with many beautiful flowers specially sent from Cameron Highlands by Fr. Eugene Benedict, their former parish priest.

The celebrations began on July 3 with Novena Prayers to St Thomas followed by Mass which was presided by Fr Surain Raj from The Church of The Sacred Heart of Jesus , Peel Road, Kuala Lumpur. Concelebrating with him were the parish priest, Fr Danny Mathews and Fr Joseph Low from Bentong. At the end of the Mass the St Thomas Environment Friendly Bag was launched by Fr Danny to help eliminate/ minimize the use of plastic bags when shopping. It is available in two sizes and in different colours printed with the parish insignia.

Next evening after the Novena Prayers the singing of hymns in Tamil, Mandarin, English and Bahasa Malaysia were presented by the respective choir groups. The sunset Mass was celebrated by Fr Thomas Loh, C.D.D. from St Ignatius Church, together with Fr Lawrence Ng, CDD and Fr Danny. Also present was Deacon A.P. Thomas who preached in Tamil and English while the main sermon was delivered by Fr Thomas Loh in Mandarin.

Fr. Lawrence was invited before Mass concluded to give a short briefing on the history and ministry of The Congregation of the Disciples of the Lord, usually abbreviated to "CDD". Dinner was served at the Parish Community Centre where the feastday cake was cut by the Thomases present.

Sunday Mass on July 5 was concelebrated by Fr Ferdinand Magimay from Terengganu and Fr. Danny. While the main sermon was given by Fr Ferdinand in English, Bro. Peter Anthoney, a seminarian who was on the last day of his one-month pastoral training in Kuantan delivered a homily in fluent Bahasa Malaysia. The celebrations ended with breakfast at the Community Centre.

It is noteworthy that the congregation had the privilege to listen to the enchanting voice of Juliana Nicholas from the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes Kelang who was invited to sing the Thanksgiving hymn during each of the Triduum Masses. — By Francis Leong