Sandakan hosts 19th regional liturgy commission meeting

SANDAKAN – The 19th Episcopal Regional Liturgical Commission (ERLC) members of Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei met at the Diocesan Pastoral Centre here on 8-12 May 2017. All but one of the 11 arch/dioceses of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of this region were represented at this meeting. The representative from Miri diocese extended his apology, due to a concurrent event in his diocese which was celebrating the 40th anniversary and 80th birthday of Bishop Emeritus Anthony Lee.

Bishop Francis Sebastian, the President of the ERLC, thanked Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom of Sandakan and his diocesan staff and volunteers for hosting this year’s meeting.

One issue brought up at the meeting was the people’s edition of the Bahasa Melayu (BM) Roman Missal which is urgently needed.

Keningau Diocese has completed identifying the words in the Indonesian Roman Missal that need to be substituted with commonly used BM words. This list will be circulated to all members for review and comments. The final list is to be ready by 8 January 2018, in time for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (CBCMSB).

The Book of the Gospel in Tamil is being reviewed and updated due to some incomplete texts. It will be sent for printing in June. This is a project under the Tamil section of the KL Archdiocese Liturgy Commission. They are in the midst of compiling the three Sunday Missals (A, B & C) into one. This will be ready by November this year.

ERLC members also looked at some of the important liturgical dates in 2018 that fall on Sunday and Monday and suggested which Mass text to be used for those liturgical dates.

The printing of the revised Order of Celebrating Matrimony will start shortly. The bishops at the CBCMSB in July 2017 will issue the date when this will be officially implemented throughout the region. Some members have suggested the inclusion of optional ritual text for local customs which was agreed by all present.

ERLC members will be given the template for the revised Rite of Confirmation to ensure that everyone will have the same text and start using the revised text.

The status of the revised Sing Your Praise to God Hymnal (SYPG) was also presented. The new SYPG Hymnal will consist of 369 hymns that are liturgically validated for use in Mass. Copyrights for all the hymns will also be obtained. It is hoped that, through this hymnal and with proper formation, the congregation will have a better appreciation of the Catholic liturgy and liturgical hymns.

Roughly 80,000 hymnals will be printed for sale. The committee is also working to ensure that it will be possible to download soft copies of the music.

The arch/dioceses presented their diocesan reports and issues relating to liturgy. Both priests and lay members of the ERLC were given access to online storage of liturgical files and documents at BOX.COM

The ELRC members visited several places of interest at the end of the meeting.

The next ELRC meeting will be held in Kuala Lumper from 30 April to 4 May 2018. A study day on the RCIA process is proposed for the next meeting. – heraldonline