Dr Ong beats a gong to declare open the church while (from left) Wat, Steward and others look on.
MIRI: Parishioners from the Iban community here are invited to attend the weekly Sunday service at the newly-opened Iban Methodist Church in Lutong.
The church, which started operation in March last year, was officially declared open by Bishop of the Methodist Church of Malaysia, Dr Ong Hwai Teik, yesterday.
The president of Sarawak Iban Annual Conference (SIAC) Rev Steward Damat, local church executive committee chairman Christopher Bundan, Rev Roselind Ijah Jugo and chairman of the church building fund committee Wat Unchard were also present at the opening ceremony and dedication service.
According to Wat, the church is the first and only Iban Methodist church in Miri, and thus hoped that Iban Methodists in the city could start attending their weekly Sunday service at the church.
“I am very happy that we finally have a church that caters to our (Iban) congregation. This is like a dream come true,” he said when met yesterday.
He said the Iban Methodist group took roots here in 1984 as a small group that worship every Sunday at St John’s Chapel in the Field Force Camp here.
After the chapel was closed down, the group operated from a shoplot in Lutong under the name ‘Life Methodist Church’, and since then, the committee had been working hard to realise their dream of having a church of their own.
“With help from a church member, we managed to acquire a piece of land to build the church, but the problem was, we did not have enough funding at that time.
“However, we had support from our congregation as well as other Methodist churches, including Methodists from Singapore. We are really thankful for that. Because of them we now have a church to call our own,” he said.
The earth-breaking ceremony took place in 2013, and the journey to raise fund for the church building project costing over RM1,800,000 began with various fund-raising activities.
Today, the church has about 300 members, and Wat hopes that the number of members will grow with the official opening of the church yesterday.
The weekly service starts at 9am every Sunday, and is led by Rev Roselind.
Dr Ong (standing second right) poses with the church working committee and other guests after the opening ceremony.