Faith Formation sessions for adolescents

Apr 15, 2015

By Adriana David
St Stephen Tass, one of the outstation churches under the Holy Trinity Parish, is situated about 20 kilometres from Tawau township. The faithful of this parish are mainly Kadazan-Dusun and other ethnic groups.

On March 14, the parish youth, for the first time, organized a special recollection for the youth and adolescents. About 50 participants including 13 committee and team members of the parish youth were present as observers. The faith formation programme was intended to gather all the youth to foster closer relationships among them. It is also one of the initiatives of St Stephen Tass to give inspiration to the younger members to enable them to be become members of the church ministries in the future.

According to Renne, the organizing chairperson, the reality seen among the youth is ‘silence.’ This is the reason why there is such a lack of participation from the youth as leaders, counsellors, inspite of the fact that there is a great need for these positions to be filled. Some of the reasons behind this is the fact that people are busy with their work, the migration of the youth leaving Tawau, either to look for jobs or to continue their education elsewhere.

There were three main sessions in the Faith Formation programme given by two invited speakers on the following :

Session 1: To resurrect the faith of the youth
Session 2: Discipline and Communication among the Youth community

Both these sessions were conducted by Seminarian Walter Milter Mario who is undergoing exposure in pastoral ministry at the Holy Trinity Church Tawau. Session 3 : Involvement of the Youth in the Ministry today by Miss Roasalind Pilos, one of the leaders of the Church.

The programme began at 7.00am and ended at 5.00pm with tea and a photo session.