Some 500 attend joint Christmas service at St Francis’ Church in Samarahan

KUCHING (Dec 19): About 500 Christians from all the denominations in Samarahan Division congregated on St Francis’ Church in Samarahan last Saturday for a joint Christmas service, organised by the Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) Samarahan branch.

This year’s joint service at the church was co-hosted by the Samarahan Division Borneo Evangelical Mission (BEM) and the Anglican Church.

ACS secretary-general Elder Ambrose Linang, who represented the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor), was the guest-of-honour for the programme.

The service opened with prayers led by Ps Tunggi Balan of the BEM churches in Samarahan, followed by readings from the Holy Bible and responsorial prayers said by representatives of the six member churches in multiple languages.

A homily was conducted by Reverent Father Felix Au, the Rector of Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church at Kota Sentosa. He preached about ‘Jesus: The Promised One’ taken from Matthew 1:1-18, delivered in Bahasa Malaysia.

Interspersed between all the readings, prayers and homily, the praise and worship teams from the BEM churches and Anglican Church led the congregation in singing contemporary Christian songs and Christmas carols.

The service ended with the benediction led by ACS Samarahan chairman Pastor Ambrose Liap.