Donations in the form of crossed cheques may be made payable to "St Ann's Church Building Fund" or "Majlis Paroki Kota Padawan". Receipts are issued upon request. Please furnish us with details of your full name, address, contact, etc. Thank you so much, from Fr Goh, Fr Gerard and Fr Moses, the parish team of St Ann.
For more info, contact us: + [6082] 611757 or 610306. Email us: stann10@streamyx.com Fax us: +6[082]616757

A Pressing Need

In this tiny corner of the universal Church, many needs have made themselves felt. Chief among them is the cry of the faithful for a more comfortable setting to gather and worship.
Most of us may take Sunday masses for granted, as Sunday worship may not demand more from us than a prayerful attendance and participation in the Liturgy.
At St Ann’s however, wiping and arranging hundreds of plastic chairs, lugging and setting up heavy equipment, as well as sweating it out in searching for a place to park in a small vicinity is a weekly event. Catechism classes are held with groups not more than 6 metres from each other within the same ‘baruk’, as classrooms are non-existent. Even the Children’s Liturgy room is a modified walkway.
The friars have realised that in the process of building the faith of the people, they also need to provide physical places.

What the Friars Do

The friars are actively engaged in different ministries in Kuching. At St Ann’s, the majority of the faithful whom the friars serve are Bidayûhs and Ibans, with some Chinese and Indian parishioners. The main languages used for the Celebration of the Eucharist, devotional prayers and the administration of the Sacraments range from English and Bahasa Malaysia to Bidayûh Biatah and Iban...no small feat! While two Masses are celebrated over every weekend (Sunset Mass in English and two Sunday Masses in Bahasa Malaysia), the friars also travel to the villages and schools to celebrate the Eucharist in the main languages of the people of the area: Biatah, Iban and Bahasa Malaysia.
Apart from the celebration of Masses and the Sacraments, the friars are also involved in many faith formation activities, as well as contributing to the Archdiocese of Kuching and the local congregation of Franciscan sisters.

A Special Moment

On the feast of the Epiphany, the 7th of January 2001, the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei were entrusted with the pastoral care of the parish of St Ann, a semi-rural parish situated 10 miles away from the city of Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia.
At a Sunday Celebration of the Eucharist, in the presence of the then Auxillary Bishop Rt Rev John Ha and the Minister Provincial of the Province of the Holy Spirit, Friar Stephen Bliss OFM, the rector of St Ann’s, Fr Simon Poh handed the care of the parish to Friar Arul Sagayaraj OFM, the first Franciscan rector of St Ann’s.
In his homily, the Auxillary Bishop mused that "the handing over of the parish to the friars will be an ongoing process of pastoral care of the friars for the parishioners of St Ann." It was an historical moment for the Custody, for it was the first time that the friars branched out from Singapore and accepted an offer by the Archdiocese of Kuching to care for some 16,000 parishioners

Welcome Everyone!

Welcome, brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus. We are a Catholic Christian community tucked away in a corner of the globe: 10 miles away from Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. This Blog is our way of reaching out to you...