Dalius Lobinjang Helms the Sandakan Diocesan Social Communication Commission (2016-2018)

Article by Rogena RS
Photos by SOCCOM

Lahad Datu : Dalius Lobinjang, Chairman of the St Mary's Cathedral Parish Social Communication Ministry, Sandakan was appointed to helm the Sandakan Diocesan Social Communication Commission for a two year term, 2016 - 2018. 13 other nominated members representing the four parishes were officially appointed to sit in the commission for the said term. 

The 2-day inaugural meeting and formation session was held at St Dominic's Church on 23rd and 24th April 2016. The meeting was presided by Bishop Julius Dusin Gitom. In his welcoming speech, he expressed his appreciation to everyone present at the meeting. He thanked SOCCOM members who had worked hard. The many articles posted in the blog and later published in the Catholic Sabah and Herald is a clear sign of the members' labor. All this is only possible because we are called by God to communicate His Word through the mass media.
Such enormous work is only possible if we journey as a team inspired by God. Continue the 'communication work' set by God that we may fulfill His command as in Matthew 28 : 19-20,  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The full line up of the Diocesan Social Communication Commission for the term of 2016-2018 is as follow:

Designation	Name	Parish
Chairman	Dalius L. Lobinjang	St. Mary's Cathedral
Vice-Chairman	Gabriel Chung	Holy Trinity Church
Secretary	Rogena Roger Sining	Diocesan Pastoral Office
Ex-Officio	Francis Tan	Diocesan Pastoral Office
Committee Member	Leonard Sabinus	St. Mary's Cathedral
Committee Member	Helda J. Japanis	St. Mary's Cathedral
Committee Member	Farnandez Siprianus	St. Dominic’s Church
Committee Member	Mazdollyna Majalin Eborok	St. Dominic’s Church
Committee Member	Arnoldus Sanga Bayene	St. Dominic’s Church
Committee Member	John Wong	Holy Trinity Church
Committee Member	Joel Monasque	Holy Trinity Church
Committee Member	Bertram Lansing	St. Martin’s Church
Committee Member	Girald Palipus	St. Martin’s Church
Committee Member	Lawrence Matusin	St. Martin’s Church

Each Parish Social Communication Committee presented the development and progress of their ministry for the past two years involving related activities especially on news coverage of church events.

The first formation session, facilitated by Monica Lo, the out-going Chairperson of the Commission was the Pope's message on World Communication Day 2016, themed ‘Communication and Mercy: A Fruitful Encounter’. Members spent sometime to discern on the message and shared their opinions on the gist of the message.

The in-coming Commission Chairman, Dalius Lobinjang hoped that every parish will endeavour to draw up a program in conjunction with WCD to be celebrated on 8th May 2016. He proposed that every parish to show the  video clip on World Communication Day 2016 produced by the Regional Commission of Social Communication before the final blessing of the mass. The sample poster should be printed and displayed at the church entrance adjacent to the Holy Door of Mercy. He also challenged each parish to create a short video clip based on the theme of "Mercy" to be shown during the upcoming 9th Diocesan Anniversary in Sandakan.

Members were commissioned during the morning mass of the 5th Sunday of Easter on 24th April 2016 presided over by Rev. Fr. Simon Kontou at St Dominic's Church, Lahad Datu. In his homily, he shared that to be Christ's  disciples, we are called to serve and love one another. Love is compassion, giving support to one another. Love is precious and merciful. This is the love that will be a part of the community. BEC is that ideal community that promotes love that translates to authentic action binding members together.

The in-coming members of the Diocesan Social Communication Commission took their pledge before the presider, witnessed by the congregation. Before the commissioning rite, Fr. Simon called upon the SOCCOM members to always remember to write on events based on facts and truth, nothing but the truth.

After the Eucharistic celebration, Rogena and Airene of Sandakan shared on "Beyond the lens."  Four participants from the Diocese of Sandakan attended the 5-day workshop, jointly organised by Fondacio and Signis in Kuala Lumpur sometime in October last year. They presented 3 video clips of about 3 minutes each which they managed to produce during their field trip. The presentation was inspirational and hoped that an echo program could be held at the Diocesan level to train more young people to be involved in yet another means of effective communication.

The last session facilitated by Francis Tan touched on the importance and virtues of the Catholic printed press. He gave an analysis on the three main printed press viz; Today's Catholic in Sarawak, Catholic Sabah and Herald of West Malaysia regarding the frequency and the number of copies per issue. Apart from that, members had the opportunity to know the number of copies of the printed press ordered by each parish. Circulation at each parish is considered low. Members were challenged to ponder on the issue and find ways to tackle the problem, to increase circulation and readership. Members were also asked to discern on finding ways to attract more young people to be involved in writing news. At the current moment, the diocese has just a handful of committed writers.

At the end of the session, Dalius presented to each parish a 1 terabyte external hard disk as an appreciation for their commitment and continuous support.