Keeping the house clean: St Thomas’ Cathedral verger Kenneth Lor making preparations for the Good Friday and Easter services this weekend. — ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star
KUCHING: Churches in Sarawak are celebrating Good Friday today and this coming Easter Sunday with special services.
At St Thomas’ Cathedral here, services will be held in English and Mandarin on Good Friday, followed by Stations of the Cross at noon, Veneration of the Cross and evening prayer with hymns and a sermon at 3pm.
The cathedral’s Dean, the Very Reverend Kho Thong Meng, welcomed everyone to join the services to contemplate the Passion of Christ and celebrate his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
“Easter is the celebration of Jesus’s victory over death. He sacrificed himself that we might live.
“May we all commemorate this time by coming together to worship him,” he said.
Good Friday is a public holiday in Sarawak and Sabah.
A spokesman from the parish office said 14 stations will be set up around the cathedral premises for the Stations of the Cross, with devotional prayers and hymns at each station.
“We will start inside the church, then the sanctuary party led by the priest will proceed outside to the stations as the congregations follow along.
“It’s a spiritual experience as we meditate at each station of prayer on what is happening, as we follow Christ’s journey to the cross,” she said.
On Easter Sunday, St Thomas’ Cathedral will hold Holy Communion services in English, Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia and Iban.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Archdiocese of Kuching will hold Good Friday, Easter vigil and Easter Sunday services in churches and chapels across Kuching, Bau, Serian, Tebedu, Lundu, Sri Aman, Skrang, Betong, and Saratok.
The services will be conducted in English, Bahasa Malaysia, Mandarin, Bidayuh and Iban.
Archbishop of Kuching Simon Poh will lead the English masses at St Joseph’s Cathedral here, which will also be livestreamed.
Poh said Good Friday and Easter are important to Christians all over the world as they commemorate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
