It’s a place to experience, encounter God
SIBU: Sacred Heart Cathedral recaptures the beauty of God and the sense of transcendent truth through sacred art featured in her face-lift.
It will be a place for Christians to experience and encounter God, and serve as a place for evangelisation, according to Bishop of Sibu Right Reverend Joseph Hii.
He said all sacred arts and beauty are a means for people to encounter and experience God’s presence.
“Sacred arts can really uplift our hearts to that grateful atmosphere; her beauty can stir us to wonder,” he enthused.
The new features of the cathedral include an arch gate to the cathedral, with Archangels Gabriel and Raphael standing on each side of the gate.At the entrance of the gate is the baptismal pond – a reminder of Christian baptism in order to enter the church.
The pond has two features– Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman at the well and two trees on each side of the pond.
“The statue of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well represents the water of life and the trees represent the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which you can find in the book of Genesis,” he pointed out.
Next is the main wooden door with Saints Peter and Paul on either side.
Just above the main door are paintings of angels – a reminder to the parishioners that they are entering a heavenly place.
Inside the cathedral is a new set of pews which have the capacity for about 900 people.
“Now, the church can hold about 3,200 people at one time,” he said.
Hii decided to use wood for the f loor inside the cathedral that also has a new altar and the main door to represent the economics of Sibu.
“Sibu is a place which produced wood, and all these while, this town depended on wood to develop,” he said.
Behind the altar is the new adoration room – the holy of holies; a place to put the tabernacle.
“We put in the ‘ Holy of Holies’ where outside is the people, then we move in to the offering (altar) and behind that altar is the Holy of Holies, this is where we put the Blessed Sacrament and the tabernacle,” he said.
He said the new adoration room was built inside the church for security reason.
Inside the adoration room is a dove on stained glass which symbolises the Holy Spirit and statues of angels.
The church also used stained glass for the Stations of the Cross around the church.
According to Bishop Hii, the renovation started more than a year ago after the completion of the suspension of the church compound.
He said the suspension of the church compound started some two and a half years ago.
“Before the suspension, we had to raise up the church compound because of the sinking ground every four years and every upgrading project cost about RM500,000.
“So now, we want to solve the sinking problem once and for all,” he said, adding more parking bays had been created.
He said the whole project - the suspension of the church compound and the renovation works - cost about RM6 million.
“The suspension of the compound is about RM4 million, the adoration room is about RM700,000 and other renovations in the church needed almost RM1 million,” he said.
“We thank God that we do not have to go fundraising, we just made announcements in the church and so far the people are very generous – some contributed to the church fund and some donated items such as statues.
“Apart from church fund, there are two key persons who actually made large contributions. One parishioner contributed the cost of the building of the adoration room and one parishioner donated the whole wood materials in the church,” he enthused.
Sacred Heart Cathedral is celebrating its 30th anniversary on July 29 and re- dedication of the renovated cathedral will be on July 30.
Bishop Hii hoped the renovated cathedral with its beauty and art would serve to evangelise Christians and re- evangelise Catholics in particular.
“It is important especially when generations today tend to pay less respect to the sacredness of the church.
Sacred arts can really uplift our hearts to that grateful atmosphere; her beauty can stir us to wonder.
Right Reverend Joseph Hii, Bishop of Sibu
“Dedication means to set apart, we should set apart a certain place so that we can say God is present everywhere.
“We all believe that God is everywhere, but unless we can experience God’s presence in the church, it is unlikely for us to experience God in society,” he said.
He hoped that the church could instil into young people the values of sacredness and religious values so they can give their life to serve Sibu Diocese by becoming priests or religious brothers and sisters.
Today, Sibu diocese has 17 diocesan priests ( local priests) including Hii and Bishop Emeritus Dominic Su, eight Mill Hill Missionary priests, two Capuchin priests and one missionary priest from Australia.
Sacred Heart Cathedral has about 30,000 parishioners.