First Bible Conference for laypeople

Oct 23, 2015

By Agnes Ng
The Kuala Lumpur Archdiocesan Bible Apostolate (KLABA) initiated its first Bible Conference on Saturday, Oct 3, 2015 at the Assumption Family House with the theme You shall be my witnesses… (Acts 1:8). It was a gathering of 120 witnesses from nine parishes, who had journeyed either in The Bible in 100 Weeks or The Bible in 40 weeks. Fr Joachim Tan, in his first address as the new Ecclesiastical Assistant, on seeing the packed hall remarked, “You have got your priorities right by placing The Word first, above all things, and being present here as witnesses for Christ. May you continue your journey to remain true to his Word and bring others to Christ.”

Two key talks for the day were delivered by our speakers from Verbum Dei Missionary Sisters from Singapore. Sr Sandra Seow, in her session on A Personal Encounter with the Living Word of God, shared that witnessing starts with a Personal Encounter with Christ, beginning with a prayer, as this provides a passage to enter into a conversation with God that leads to Encounter. Sr Leticia C. Lopez complemented the first talk by bringing us to focus that we are missionary disciples in a missionary community. “By virtue of our baptism, all of us as members of the people of God, have become missionary disciples. As missionary disciples, we should use our talents and resources to help the community to grow in worshipping God in the Eucharist, to witness to non-believers, to proclaim the Word through our actions and words and also, to give service to the poor with compassion, joy and love,” she said.

Fr Gerard Theraviam gave a short session on the 50th Anniversary of Dei Verbum (1965), taking an extract from the 12th Synod of Bishops 2008, The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church and Verbum Dei, How the Catholic Church should approach the Bible. In summary, “the Synod Fathers urged that the Bible be made the basis for all missionary proclamation, catechesis, preaching and styles of spirituality.”

Msgr James Gnana, the former KLABA chairman, in his topic on The Situation in KL post Vatican II began by declaring, “I am extremely delighted and proud to see all of you here today. I did not expect this many to register, as many of you have completed the journey of praying and studying the Bible many years ago and, for some of us, it was, may be 6-7 years ago. We have not come together since then. But yet you have made an effort to come here today! I was also very proud to see that many of you were able to confidently quote the scripture references. This is really amazing. So there has been growth, there has been change. You have been transformed by the Word! I personally feel that The Bible in 100 Weeks and The Bible in 40 Weeks is a Bible study journey that has been proven to shape and transform the lives of many who seriously commit to really take on this path. My advice is to constantly upgrade yourselves. As Sr Sandra mentioned, you need to process your head knowledge and download it into your data entry i.e. your personal lives.”

The Bible Conference ended with questions from the floor addressed to the panel comprising of our two key speakers, Msgr James and Fr Gerard. Many were hopeful that there will be more sessions of this nature as they see the need to constantly stay connected with ‘THE WORD’!