KK cathedral parish holds mini-pax sequel

KOTA KINABALU – Sacred Heart Cathedral Parish here held a sequel to its mini-PAX on 25 June 2016, three months after the first gathering, at the parish centre.  Twenty-nine groups out of a total of over 70 responded to the call of its pastor for this sequel.

In the sequel, each of the groups/ministries – English, Chinese, BM – serving in the cathedral parish or the subparish of Church of Mary Immaculate – presented its discussions and sharings on five questions thrown to them at the first meeting.

It was clear that some groups/ministries have a clear sense of their own identity and objectives while others are not so clear.  So far none of the groups/ministries was able to present long term concrete plans on how to tackle the three pressing issues of Islamisation, secularisation and apathy.

Head of organising committee Dr Jeffrey Soon summarised the participation of the groups as one that seems to indicate that there is a “lack of the sense of belongingness” by the different groups/ministries.

In his closing remarks, parish priest Abp John Wong thanked the participants for their presence and service in the parish.  He recapitulated briefly the pastoral thrusts of the archdiocese that came out of the 2015 PAX Assembly.  He said their participation is a good sign of their journeying together as a parish family.  However, he pointed out that many of the groups/ministries lack the awareness of the looming sense of crisis indicated by the three critical issues.

The pastor also informed them that the next move is for the organising committee to compile their reports for analysis and review before sending them to the archdiocese.  The next gathering, he said, will be next year.