By Kuching SOCCOM
KUCHING — The Kuching Archdiocese held a preparation session on 15 March 2026, for its representatives who will be participating in the upcoming Malaysia Pastoral Convention 2026 (MPC2026).
The history-making convention, the first national-level gathering of its kind for the Malaysian Catholic Church with the theme ‘Celebrate, Listen and Walk Together’, will be held from 9 to 13 September, 2026, in Sibu.
The first preparation session for the Kuching Archdiocese was held at St Rose Room of the Archdiocesan Curia and Cathedral Pastoral Centre, with around 80 participants and coordinators from all the parishes under the archdiocese in attendance.
Based on the ‘Remote Preparation Booklet I’, Father Patrick Heng, a member of the MPC2026 Central Working Committee Core Team, briefed the participants on the background and objectives of the convention, with emphasis on the synodality of the event.
“Synodality is the walking together of Christians with Christ towards God’s Kingdom, in union with all humanity,” Fr Patrick said, quoting a line from the booklet.
“The convention is the culmination of a journey that began in 2018 with the Malaysia Catholic Clergy Assembly.”
During the MPC2026, participants will come together as the Malaysian Catholic Church, listen to how the Holy Spirit is working in the local Church, and together discern and chart pastoral pathways towards God’s Kingdom based on the bishops’ shared vision.
Fr Patrick stressed on the importance of responsible and meaningful participation in the convention, thus the need to prepare participants interiorly and familiarise them with the journey through preparatory sessions and the reading of preparation booklets provided to come to a common understanding.
The highlight for the day’s session was the practice known as ‘Conversation in the Spirit’ (CIS), that was done in small groups with a facilitator, a notetaker and a timekeeper.
CIS is a structured form of prayer and sharing that seeks to help participants arrive at a consensus through prayerful listening to one another and to God as the People of God that journey together.
After listening to Fr Patrick’s explanation, participants were divided into groups of about ten people to practise the CIS.
During the CIS exercise, participants shared that they did not know what the MPC2026 is actually all about before the session. Nevertheless, they decided to join it because they felt called to walk together with their parish priests and fellow parishioners, thus showing synodality in action.
Although it was only a practice session, Fr Patrick encouraged participants to go through the CIS seriously as a familiarisation exercise because the CIS will help participants to come to a consensus during the MPC2026.
He said the CIS could also be used at the parish level for group sharings and similar activities.
During the CIS, participants are to be themselves and share personal faith experiences. They are basically asked to listen actively (without any interjection), speak from the heart, take responsibility for their experiences, and make space for the Holy Spirit that might have different ideas from their own.
Fr Patrick ended the three-hour session with an encouragement to all the participants to read and study the first preparation booklet and practise the personal CIS as stipulated on Pages 30-31. Part Two of the preparation will be held after Easter.
The organisers of MPC2026 in Sibu are anticipating they can shape a synodal Church with the participation of 800 Catholics from the nine dioceses in Malaysia, namely Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca-Johore, Kuching, Sibu, Miri, Kota Kinabalu, Keningau and Sandakan.
