NEWS UPDATE ~ Diocese of Sandakan: Diocese of Sandakan organizes Alpha Course for Clergy, Religious and Lay Leaders

Friday, October 22, 2010

Diocese of Sandakan organizes Alpha Course for Clergy, Religious and Lay Leaders

Bishop Julius (centre) with clergy, religious, lay participants and facilitators

Sandakan : 54 participants from the four parishes of the Diocese of Sandakan including five diocesan priests one deacon and five religious sisters attended the 3-day Alpha for clergy, religious and lay leaders training course which took off today, 22^nd October 2010 at the Sandakan Diocesan Conference Room.

The facilitators, in the persons of Damian Prakash, Karen Tan and Clara Pat Ro are from the Malaysia Alpha Resource Team. The other facilitator, Marie Therese Sibert will be joining the team tomorrow morning.

The Opening Mass presided over by Bishop Julius

The event began with a Eucharistic celebration at the Cathedral chapel, presided over by Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom and con celebrated by all Diocesan priests.

The prelate took the opportunity to bid the facilitators and participants a warm welcome and urged them to capitalize on the Alpha input sessions. Alpha is one of the many ways to bring people to Christ which is found to be effective.

He said that as faithful we need to deepen our relationship with Christ and that calls for knowing Him personally and not mere intellectually. Knowing Christ closer will make us a much more convicted bearer of the Cross and always putting Christ in the centre of our daily life in all circumstances.

The course proper

Course proper began at 9.45 am with eight input sessions, using express DVD presentations and life talks covering the following topics;

· *What is Alpha?

· *Alpha in the Cathoic context

· *Christianity – boring, untrue and irrelevant?

· *Who is Jesus?

· * Why did Jesus die?

· * Why and how do I pray?

· *Why and how I read the Bible?

· *How does God guide us?

Damian and Clara facilitating the session

In between talks, there were three small group sharings comprising eight to nine members per group. Such small groups provide a platform to make friends, prompt members to share, allow them to pray together, create an opportunity to share the Bible and also training others to lead.