User:DaveKameron/Church of St Michael (Alor Setar)

The Church of St Michael is located in the capital of the state of Kedah, Alor Setar. It is also known as Gereja Katolik St Michael.

History
The oldest parish in the Diocese of Penang.

Contrary to popular belief, the first place in the northern half of Malaya to welcome Catholicism was not Penang. Rather, it was the state of Kedah that first accepted the arrival of Catholics in the northern regions.

Before the Church of the Assumption was founded in the island of Penang in 1786, persecuted Christians from Siam had sought refuge along the west coast of the Isthmus of Kra, Jung Ceylon (Phuket) and Kedah. It was during this time that the French missionaries, Msgr. Arnold A. Ciarnault MEP and Fr. Joseph Louis Conde MEP, also escaping persecution in Siam, arrived in a small fishing village named Port Queda (Kuala Kedah) in 1781. Finding Catholics there without facilities to practise their religion, the missionaries founded a small community of about eighty Catholics made up of Portuguese and Siamese refugees from Siam. This would eventually become the Parish of St. Micheal, Kedah, and the beginning of the Catholic Diocese of Penang.

In 1782, His Majesty Sultan Abdullah Mukarram Shah, the 20th Sultan of Kedah, most graciously gave the Catholic community of Port Queda a large house to use as a church and a religious center. The church was called St. Michael's Chapel. There, the first parishioners of St. Michael’s Parish, practised their faith. The sermons was preached in Portuguese and Siamese on alternate Sundays.

When Francis Light set up a British trade post on the island of Penang in 1786, it was a great opportunity for the many Eurasian parishioners of Port Queda to move over to Penang. However, most Catholics of Indian and Chinese descent remained behind instead of relocating. For them, St. Michael’s Chapel faithfully continued serving as the sole religious and community centre. It was serviced by the occasional visiting priests from the Island of Penang.

After devotedly serving the Catholic community for more than 130 year, the Catholic population eventually became too large and too widespread for the small Catholic centre in a tiny coastal town to handle. The church was eventually shifted from Port Queda to the capital Alor Setar and was tasked to oversee the pastoral care and the spiritual needs of the larger and fast-expanding Catholic community of Kedah.

In Alor Setar, Fr. Louis Dux Elle MEP built a small chapel made out of bamboo, a brick basement and an attap roof on a plot of land along Jalan Langgar after the missionaries obtained permission from the Sultan of Kedah. This would be the present site of the existing Church of St Michael. This church was dedicated to St. Michael in 1918 by Fr. Duvelle, in memory of the first Catholic chapel built in Port Queda. The adjoining plot of land was also purchased for the building of a Catholic English School i.e. St. Michael School. The church building was expanded and given a facelift by Fr. Victor Renard MEP in 1925. In 1927 Fr. Louis Riboud, a visiting French Missionary, with the assistance of Mother Tarsicius of the Infant Jesus Sisters, put up a parochial house.

There was still no resident priest at the time in Alor Setar or “Laosta” as fondly referred to by Fr. Riboud. The various visiting priests included Fr. L. Ashness, Fr. Nonamy, Fr. Vendargon, Fr. M. Seet, Fr. P. Lee and Fr. P. Wong. According to the family of the late catechist Mr Victor, the visiting priests had to cover other areas including Bukit Mertajam, Kulim, Sungai Petani, Arau, Changloon and Jabi, to offer masses and to see to the needs of the Catholic families. They had to cycle from one town to another.

The first resident priest, Fr. Regis Mourge MEP, was appointed to the Church of St. Michael on the 19th of July, 1953. Fr. Mourge was a French missionary who had spent 15 years in China. Shortly after his arrival, the groundbreaking to build the present church in place of the rustic chapel was done on the 7th of December, 1953. A year later, on the 29th of September, 1954, the new and improved Church of St. Michael was officially opened and blessed by His Grace Archbishop Olcomendy.

The church continued to grow in population in the early years. During the Emergency, the Catholic Church of Alor Setar was renowned for its welfare work among the poor. Before the 1980's, the Church covered a total of 30 areas, with the majority from the Chinese and English speaking groups. In 1997, a building housing the new parochial house and a parish centre (collectively named the Catholic Centre) was erected by Fr. Peter Shyu near the church. Two years later the Catholic Centre was renovated to its current form.

Current status
The parish is managed by the Parish Council, headed by the chairman and all the respective heads of the BECs and Service Groups. The Parish Council (PPC) currently is the only body that brings together all ministries and groups in the Parish including the BECs, the liturgical committee, the catechetical ministry, the youth group, the finance committee, the cemetery committee and the various Apostolates (Mandarin, Tamil and NTA).

Over the years, the Parish Council had 11 Parish Council Chairpersons since the launch of RPP:-

1. Vincent Koong (prior to RPP) 2. Paul Ooi 3. Susan Saw 4. Chang Seng 5. Henry Goh 6. Peter Gan (2003) 7. James Lau (2004 - 2009) 8. Vincent Victor (2009 - 2012) 9. Dave Kameron (2012 - 2016) 10. Anthony Charles (2017) 11. Adrian Davidson (2018 - present)

Centenary Celebration
On 29 September 2018, the Church celebrates it's Centenary Celebration with the theme 100 Years of Christian Hope. The year long celebration led up to a climax with a 9-day Novena to Saint Michael which began on 21 September 2018.