St Margaret Anglican church project gets RM500,000 govt funding
KUCHING: The proposed St Margaret Anglican church project got a boost when the state government injected RM500,000 to its building fund.
The sum was announced at the Patronal Day cum church fund raising dinner held at the Thian Court in Crown Square, Pending here on Saturday night.
State Non-Islamic Affairs Unit director Datu Dr Ngenang Janggu represented Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas to present the sum to event organising chairman Rev Kamor Diah in front of Right Reverend Bishop Datuk Bolly Lapok and 1,000 other diners.
When contacted yesterday Kamor said the building committee was still short of RM2.6 million to meet the total project cost estimated at RM3.6 million.
The 600 to 800 capacity church will be built nearby the community hall at Kampung Stampin here, he said.
The church committee will intensify its fund raising campaign in the months to come in its efforts to meet the cost of the new church project.
“We hope to organise parish sale in October then the Brickathon. We will also continue to source for government fund,” Kamor stressed.
The dinner on Saturday also functioned as the pre inauguration and farewell party for Bishop Bolly.
At the dinner Ngenang also informed that the Non-Islamic Affairs Unit was the brainchild of former Chief Minister, the late Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem.
Its set up was aimed at evaluating and formulating policies pertaining to religious affairs other than Islam, funding building projects and study confl icts and helping the government to address relevant issues.
The unit officially commenced in April this year with Ngenang as its fi rst director.
Ngenang disclosed that the government has allocated RM15 million to the unit to help nonIslamic religious community to finance the building of new houses of worship.
St Margaret church building committee is one of its early benefactors.