By Ivy Chai
KUCHING — Servant Communities Emmaus, formerly known as Emmaus Servant Community, was founded in 1992 by PACEM founder, the late Rev Fr Leonardo Polinar of the Philippines. It is one of more than 300 servant communities in the Philippines and overseas.
Fr Leonardo Polinar first visited Kuching to conduct a Life in the Spirit Seminar for a capacity crowd of more than 800. That visit later led to the formation of a community in Kuching named Emmaus, a name chosen by its first Head Shepherd, the late Rev Fr Lawrence Chua.
Commissioned on 15 March 1992 comprising a small group of parishioners who stepped forward in faith, the community grew to 57 aspirants. They pledged to Love and Serve at a Covenanting ceremony on 22 March 1993 at Holy Trinity Church, the birthplace of Emmaus.
When Fr Lawrence Chua was transferred in 2003 to serve as rector of the new Blessed Sacrament Church, Emmaus, as a parish-based community, decided to move there with him. Today, 34 years later, Servant Communities Emmaus has become an active community of 152, with eleven English speaking cell groups and eight Chinese speaking cell groups.
On 19 July 2026, Emmaus members renewed their pledge to Love and Serve at a Covenanting ceremony at Blessed Sacrament Church conducted by Past Servant General of PACEM, Rev Fr Walter Zerda, assisted by PACEM priest Rev Fr Raul Dumadag.
Among the members renewing their pledge for another two years were 22 English cell aspirants and 10 Chinese cell aspirants.
The Covenanting Mass was celebrated by Fr Walter and concelebrated by Fr Raul and current Emmaus Head Shepherd Rev Fr Leonard Yap, rector of Blessed Sacrament Church. A dinner reception marking Emmaus’ 34th Anniversary was held later that evening at a local restaurant.
In her address to the Emmaus community at the dinner, Head Servant Christina Eng emphasised the need to move forward together as one community. She said members must remain united and motivated to build and strengthen Emmaus by staying faithful to their covenant promises, attending and contributing to cell meetings, prayer meetings and formation programmes, and continuing to serve in their ministries.
During their stay in Kuching, Fr Walter and Fr Raul gave talks on ‘Rooted in Christ: Growing in Holiness’ for the parish community on 16 and 17 July and special training sessions for the Emmaus community over the next few days.
The visitors also paid a courtesy call on Archbishop Simon Poh at his office at ACCPC on their arrival in Kuching, accompanied by some members of the Emmaus Pastoral team.
