Viewpoints: New church needed

WE HAVE BEEN living in Punggol for seven years. There are many young couples with young families in this area and it is expanding rapidly with many new HDB flats in construction.

Currently there are already two temples, one mosque and another piece of land allotted for a future mosque (Straits Times, May 22, 2010), one Christian church and one more renting a place at Punggol Marina. Yet there is no Catholic Church to serve the community in Punggol.

It is our great desire and I am sure many Catholics in Punggol will concur, to have a Catholic church built here to meet the needs of the Catholic community in this area such as weddings, infant baptisms, catechism classes, and even responding to emergency sick calls.

We need a new church at our vicinity to build up a Catholic community and also a priest to shepherd and help build this community.

Without a church, nothing can be done. Meanwhile we have to travel to St. Anne’s Church which is already overcrowded or other distant churches to attend our church services. We are everywhere and yet nowhere to call our own.

Teresa Soh

Comments

0 #1 Modern but too modern . not nice. — Rosy 2010-07-28 17:07

Hi Just incase the mgmt have decided to build a new church in Punggol. Pls for god's sake avoid all the fancy modern alter design such as St Mary Church of angel & Divine mercy. Well it just gave me the feeling that i am entering a museum when i attended mass for the last time @ this 2 parishes.

Well Pls give respect to tradition.

Rosy Tan

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0 #2 New Church Needed — Raymond Chia 2010-07-28 22:50

I agreed with Rosy Tan on the need to preserve the tradition architecture of the Catholic Church. With regards with the plans to renovate the existing Novena Church, I hope the management and the committee of the Redemptorist order will maintain the existing church both interior and exterior design. I believe many congregation will agree with it as they want the Novena church to remain the same as it is from the present setup.

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+1 #3 New church needed — serangoon catholic 2010-08-06 14:37

while i was reading this letter, several thoughts came to my mind. eg Is it necessary to build another one in punggol? what is the current catholic population is punggol? Is it really croweded at all the sunday masses at the parishes of st anne, nativity, St vincent de paul, divine mercy and holy Trinity? While the writer did not specify time of the sunday mass that is crowed, i believe she is referring to 11am mass at st anne. If that is so, what about other times eg 9am mass or evening 6pm? IF it is genuinely crowded, couldn't she come to the church slightly earlier say 20 mins before mass?

While it is easy for us to say (me included) to find a priest to lead a new church or parish.. have we stop to think that have we as catholics contributed ourselves (if we are not married and singles) or encouraged others to discern the calling of God to to serve Him and his people? All of us want to be served, but at the same time, we seem to be immune to the calling of God to serve Him esp as religious and priests. As Fr Paul Goh once said.. "give God a chance" . Wise words.. indeed but have we give him a chance to step forward to serve Him?

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0 #4 New Church Needed — Korene Goh 2010-08-10 12:31

The crowd at St Anne's for 9am and 11am masses are indeed over-crowded. The congregation of these crowd majority are filled with Philippine and Indonesian PRs (families who came with babies and very young children) and parents who sent their children for catechism classes for the Primary Levels. Thus, that contribute to the "noise" in the church.

Nevertheless, masses for Saturday sunset at 6pm, Sunday 7.30am and 6pm does not have the situation of "over-crowded" or "noise" as what was described.

Followed by the official opening of Church of Divine Mercy last year, the congregation of St Anne's Church is not as crowded as compared to the previous two years since faithful of Pasir Ris has chosen CDM to participate in mass than travelling to St. Anne's or other nearby Churches.

If St Anne's condition can be as bad, I believe that the Parish Priest would have approach the Archbishop for more Priests for assistance and increase one more mass.

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