Parish Assembly at St Louis Church, Johor

Jan 08, 2015

By Percy D’Cruz
About 180 parishioners attended and deliberated at the Parish Assembly of St Louis Church which was described by parish priest Fr M. Devadason, as “an important event in the life of the parish”.

Fr Devadason also noted that for the past three years, the parish experienced blessings of love and peace. “With the power of the Lord's abundant blessings and grace, we can move on to greater heights and confidently go into the new year as the Holy Spirit will lead us on to make this parish an enhanced Christ-centred community”.

Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) chairman, Patrick Lopez, spearheading the 2014 assembly proceedings themed Called, Chosen and Sent, in his keynote address noted that the principal aim of the event was to discuss matters that had taken place over the last three years, with parishioners having the opportunity to provide suggestions and offer solutions to drawbacks and problems generally faced by the parish.

He also outlined the process of assembly proceedings, and highlighted the fact that feedback was obtained from zone BECs as well as from apostolates and ministries. The mode chosen for the evaluation — what are we doing, why are we doing it and how are we going about it — was picked to facilitate reflection and review of activities, vision for the future in line with strategies like renewing faith, re-evangelisation, social conscientisation and systematic review of thrusts chosen by the parish during the last assembly in 2009.

For discussions among the various language-based groups, the questions posed were: ‘What makes our parish unique?’ ‘What do I, as a parishioner, expect of my parish’? and ‘In line with the theme Called, Chosen and Sent, how am I involved in the parish?’

During the Q & A sessions animated by Frs Devadason, Matthew Bun and Deacons Louis Martin and Joseph Gratian, questions and comments relating to language difficulties, reaching out to lapsed Catholics and the like were brought up.

In his concluding remarks Fr Devadason expressed happiness and satisfaction on active parishioner participation at the assembly, which is the sign of a participatory Church. He concluded by remarking that “Christians are called out of the community in a special way by God to be a witnesses for Christ.”