CREATIVE CATECHESIS

The idea of organizing a workshop for the Parish's Catechists was first mentioned about three years ago. The Catechists are many of the unsung "heroes" of the Parish who took it out upon themselves to contribute to the spreading of the Faith. They are all volunteers and one way or another have serve the Parish tirelessly ranging from range of service of two to twenty nine years.

It was felt that the catechists should be given more exposure to assist them in spreading the Faith in today's environment. The present teaching methods are based on each individual animators' initiative as to how the Faith can be shared effectively. Not that there are any "fixed" method/s of doing it but the idea was to provide more choices for them to adopt from.

The two-day workshop on 21st and 22nd April, was well received with registered particpants of eighty eight persons and held at the Fr. Mulders Catechetical Centre since the Parish Hall was occupied. Particpants' age range from varies from fifteen to even seventy years old! Particpants were from the Our Lady of Fatima Church, Beluran, St. Paul's Church, Ulu Dusun, St. Mark's Church, Jln Cheng Ho, St. Peter's Church, Sungai Manilla, St. Dominic's Church, Lahad Datu and from the St. Mary's Cathedral, Sandakan. Most of these are Sunday School animators whilst the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults(RCIA) formators of the St. Mary's Cathedral also took part. Among the particpants was the Chairperson of Diocesan Catechetical Commission Sr. Veronica.

Rev. Fr. Anthony Mikat

The Workshop was a refreshing experience for the particpants and conducted in both Bahasa Malaysia and English with topics ranging from "Holistic Approach", "Convincing Technics" and "Realistic Concept". As part of the Convincing Technics, group dynamics was emphasized and shared. The Workshop began with the Bible Enthronement and Fr. Anthony Mikat, Assistant Rector, was available to address the particpants. In his address Fr. Anthony shared his "affinity" to the "works" of the participants and remarked that if given time, he would love to be involved in the Catechetical Activities.

Raymond Wong

Mr. Raymond Wong, the Parish Catechetical Committee and the organizing Chairman welcomed the many participants from the various Churches. He expressed pleasure in seing everyone coming together for the workshop. He especially thanked the facilitators from the Cahaya Suara of the Arch Diocese of Kuala Lumpur. The facilitators were husband and wife team Devid Gnanapragasam and Faustina Shanti Selathdra, Patrick Prakash anchored by Sr. Gertrude Tan IJS. Some of the comments from the participants as below sums up the  success of the Workshop and the teams' ability to impart their knowledge. These are only part of the comments selected.

"Seminar ini telah memberi banyak panduan kepada saya dalam pengurusan benda."

"I enjoyed the session very much. Trainers especially Sister Getrude is very good. I do admire all of you, your time and energy involved. May God bless you."

"Very good presentation from all teachers. Learnt a lot, full of knowledge how to teach the young ones."

"Should have a longer time to cover all the sessions other than that it is a very interesting and enjoyable course."

"Beneficial to me, create more awareness in my role as a catechist. At the same time, make me discover myself, who I am, what is my strength and how to overcome my weakness! Praise the Lord!"

"Sepanjang sesi amat menarik, begitu kreatif dan tidak membosankan."