Last weekend, Pastor Grace Tan spoke on the importance of knowing God’s Word: reading, digesting, applying and living it. Bishop Rennis spoke on the importance of small groups or Connect Groups, as we will call them here. Even as the Season of Epiphany concluded, we have a good number of carefully prepared and prayed-through sermons where the "Word in season" is heard. As we are in different Services, I encourage you to dig around and listen to them online whenever you can. You will be blessed. These sermons are also in line with our focus on personal discipleship for this year.
I am away this weekend for the Installation Service of the Rt Revd J Melter Tais of the Diocese of Sabah, as the new Archbishop of the Province of South East Asia at All Saints Cathedral, Kota Kinabalu. He takes over from Archbishop Ng Moon Hing, who is also the Bishop of West Malaysia. The Province of South East Asia contains four dioceses: West Malaysia, Sarawak, Sabah and Singapore.
Bishop Melter became the 6th Bishop of Sabah in 2015 and was the first native of Sabah to be installed. A father of four children, Melter Jiki Tais was ordained into the Anglican priesthood in 1993 and had served in various capacities in many parts of Sabah, including Priest-in-Charge of St Margaret's Church in Keningau and St Peter's Church in Tenom, Rector of St. Mark's Church in Lahad Datu and St Luke's Mission District in Telupid. He is also a member of the Lambeth Design Group, planning the programme for Lambeth 2020.
Please pray for our new Archbishop as he leads the Province and her missionary work. There are difficult challenges in our Communion and as our Primate, he will also be making vital contributions in this area.
Revd Yessua, the Sub-Dean of All Saints Cathedral in Cairo (Egypt) will be spending two weeks at our Cathedral as an observer from the 1st to 14th of this month. Please welcome him warmly.
The Coronavirus Crisis has pretty much been the topic of many conversations throughout the Chinese New Year season. As a Cathedral, while we wait for updates and circulars from the Diocese, each of us can take some obvious responsibilities such as refraining from being at Services if we are ill and practising good hygiene. There are hand cleansers placed at strategic locations which we can make use of.
Meanwhile, we remember these words in Psalm 91:1, 5-6, which we can use to pray for ourselves and others:
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty...
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday."
