| James Kon |
MEMBERS of the Christian community in the Sultanate celebrated Christmas with their close families and their respective churches yesterday.
Besides the Chinese New Year, Christmas is a public holiday in Brunei Darussalam.
More than 1,500 expatriates in the country gathered at the St George’s Church in the heart of the capital on Friday to celebrate Christmas. Similar events were also held in Seria and Kuala Belait.
“Religious tolerance is the cornerstone of Brunei Darussalam’s constitution. Catholics have always been able to practise their faith here as a worshipping community and we are looking forward to do so in the future,” Bishop Cornelius Sim told the Weekend Bulletin in an interview.
“Our community is also duty-bound to contribute to the nation’s development through individual efforts and through schools and other social services. We will certainly be committed to these efforts as we have done in the past,” the bishop added.
Bishop Cornelius Sim, the Vicar Apostolic of Brunei, said “religious tolerance is the cornerstone of Brunei Darussalam’s constitution”. – JAMES KON
Bishop Cornelius Sim, who was appointed as the Vicar Apostolic of Brunei on January 21, 2005 said, “In my experience, the authorities in Brunei are very respectful and considerate towards other religious communities.
“To be honest, we did not experience any difference in the way we celebrated Christmas this year compared to previous years,” he said.
Citing some of the activities this year, the bishop highlighted that “we have just completed nine days of dawn masses which we celebrated every morning at 5am beginning from December 16”.
“On December 24, we held the dawn mass an hour earlier at 4am to facilitate the annual procession to celebrate the birth anniversary of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). This was at the request of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and we happily accepted it. Christmas midnight masses were also held on Thursday in Bandar Seri Begawan, Seria, Kuala Belait and Temburong District,” the bishop said.
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