SUBANG JAYA: The Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, Most Rev Murphy Pakiam has elevated what was known as Chapel Kurnia Kristus to the Parish of St. Thomas More.

With this elevation, St Thomas More covers the territory of Subang, Subang Jaya, USJ and Putra Heights. The parish of St Thomas More (STM), the newest parish in the Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur is in need of a permanent place of worship to house the approximately 4,500 Catholics who live within the boundary of Subang Jaya (MPSJ) district.

According to parish priest, Fr Simon Labrooy, the parishioners of St Thomas More have since embarked on a mission to realise the dream of a permanent place of worship. Hence, we have adopted the above slogan WILL YOU HELP PETER? in all our fund raising efforts. Peter is the rock on which Jesus built the Church and so we would like to assist Peter in building this permanent place of worship here in Subang Jaya. The estimated cost of buying (Land) and building a permanent place of worship is about RM10mil.

Since its humble beginning 15 years ago, the Catholic community has been growing and we have outgrown the rented shop lots and moved into a rented hall for all the liturgical celebrations. Sunday school and other parish activities too are affected due to the lack of sufficient space.

“We have started collecting funds for the ground work to build the permanent place of worship but we alone cannot raise the RM10mil. “Our fundraising committee is working tirelessly to organise and raise as much money as possible and one of the projects we feel that can see us achieve our target is donation via Short Messaging System (SMS),” he said.

Fr Labrooy said there are an estimated 800,000 Catholic Christians throughout the country and if 20 per cent of that total could donate at least RM5 (Five Ringgit only) every week via the SMS then the parish would be able to achieve their target of building
their permanent place of worship within a year.

He said the money donated via SMS would be deducted when they paid their phone bills and that would not be too much of a burden. He also said he understood that many churches in Malaysia have their own fundraising projects and did not want to over burden them.

“This donation via SMS could end up with us helping other churches as well. If there is a surplus in our collection we will definitely distribute the money to other church projects. “We believe we can succeed and it can only happen if all of us pass the word around to our Christian brothers and sisters. So help us to help you,” he said.

So, Will You Help Peter to achieve our reality of building a permanent place of worship?