Church lifts sanctions on Fr Joachim Kang

Image via Wikipedia

"FATHER JOACHIM KANG is a priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiosese of Singapore and has always been." This is what Archbishop Nicholas Chia said in a statement that officially restored Fr Kang fully to his duties as a priest.

Read more about His Grace's message here.

It is hearth-warming to know that the Archbishop welcome Fr Kang with so much warmth and love.

In a recent interview with the press, Fr Kang has also expressed his eagerness to return to his priestly ministry work.

Let pray for Fr Kang and welcome him back.

Religious groups agree tolerance is vital in multi-racial society

Image via Wikipedia

The church may not water down its stand on homosexuality but hopes for better understanding when engaging the issue with other groups, according to the Bishop of the Anglican Church in Singapore.

Why did he has to say this? Well, this was a continuation from one of his senior pastor who used the pulpit to garner support for some of his church members during the recent AWARE saga.

The Bishop of the Anglican Church, John Chew, said there needs to be some fine tweaking of the way it is handled.

He said: "We have to recalibrate our perceptions, our understanding of the common space and how should we engage and how should we address one another. But the most important thing is that in the sense we are uniquely Singapore."

You can read about it here.

Well he is certainly right as many Christians has been pushing their own agenda without regards to truth and faith they preached. And more importantly, with no regards to feelings of people from other faith.

After all, all Christ wants from us is love each other as He has love us. And hopefully, Christians will heed the call of the bishop.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Anglican Church and AWARE (searching4god.blogspot.com)

One in Christ

Image via Wikipedia

This is the Fifth Sunday of Easter and the readings are as follows:
1st Reading Ac 9:26-31, 2nd Reading 1Jn 3:18-24, Gospel Jn 15:1-8

In many ways we differ from one another. Thanks to God for the riches of this variety. How sad our world would be if we were all the same, for we would see only our own image. We differ in our faces, our characters, our personalities and occupations, our language and cluture, in so many things. Yet there is one thing that brings us here together. We belong to Christ, we are united in him. He wants this bond to be a close union: like branches on a tree, on a life-giving vine. We are one in Him with one another. We pray that this union may be close and effective.

Anglican Church and AWARE

Image via Wikipedia

On Thursday, Dr John Chew, president of the National Council of Churches of Singapore or NCCS (the umbrella Christian group), issued a statement to selected media calling for churches to "all step back and give AWARE space to settle its own matters".

The NCCS’s statement said among other things, that it did not condone the use of the pulpit to get involved in the controversy.

Senior pastor of the Church Of Our Saviour Derek Hong has issued a public apology for using the pulpit to give backing to the Association of Women for Action and Research's (AWARE) executive committee in their dispute with the group's previous leadership. Incidentally, Dr John Chew is also the archbishop of the Anglican church and pastor Hong’s Church Of Our Saviour is in Dr John’s diocese.

You can read about it at "Pastor apologises for misusing pulpit".

A little information and latest update on AWARE.

Ms Josie Lau and her exco have stepped down from Association of Women for Action and Research or AWARE in short. Ms Lau and some other exco came into power at AWRE in a hostile manner less than 2 months ago.

6 members of the exco are later revealed to be from an Anglican Church Of Our Saviour. This also spark concerns from some as AWARE is a secular NGO and religion should not be allowed to encroach it.

These are some of the concerns that people at the recent AGM said :

1. One Malay Muslim woman said she was not comfortable with an-all Christian and all-Chinese group representing a secular group like AWARE. And members of the Christian faith stood up and said the action of the new Exco set back constructive dialogue between Christians and secularists in Singapore.
2. "We are here because we were deeply troubled by how this executive committee came to power. We are here because we are deeply troubled by the usurpation of civic space, and the lack of respect for the values of pluralism, democracy that this new executive committee has demonstrated," said one member of the audience.
3. "AWARE is about inclusiveness, AWARE in helping women, helps everybody, male and female. And whatever their sexual orientation can be, it does not matter, because they are first and foremost a person. A human being and that's what AWARE is about," said another.

Although former AWARE president Lau said that : “Race, religion were never an issue. We welcome women of all races, culture, religion and come and serve on the subcommittee," clearly, the crowd was not won over.

Another sticking point that was revealed was the fact that under Ms Lau, AWARE spend $90,000 in the last month since they took power some two months ago while under the constitution, the exco is not allowed to spend more than S$20,000 and if they do, they must consult members.