Young Catholic choristers from Singapore placed sacred music at the heart of their recent pilgrimage to Kuching in Malaysia, reflecting a growing revival of traditional liturgical singing among youth in the region.
The Cathedral Choir of Saint Gregory the Great, whose members serve at the Sunday 6 p.m. Mass at Singapore’s Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, spent four days in Sarawak combining prayer, cultural immersion, and musical ministry.
They began their visit with an early-morning climb of Mount Singai in Bau, where they made the Stations of the Cross before chanting the Divine Office and celebrating Mass with Fr Delphin Ndungu, SDB.
The rest of their itinerary blended worship and formation with visits to the Sarawak Cultural Village, the Archdiocesan History Gallery, and Saint Joseph’s Cathedral.
At the First Friday Mass celebrated by Archbishop Simon Poh, the choir presented Kuching Catholics with a Holy Door brick from the Archbasilica of St John Lateran in Rome.
“It is a tangible connection between our mother church in Rome and the cathedral of Kuching, and we offer it to the faithful here as a token of our friendship and esteem,” said music director Alphonsus Chern.
The pilgrimage’s musical focus came to the fore at St Peter’s Church Padungan, where the choristers joined the resident choir for the Sunset Mass.
During Communion, they presented two motets, including Ave Verum Corpus, which was composed by Chern “in honor of the Sacred Presence,” and Tu es Petrus by Palestrina, whose 500th birth anniversary falls this year.
Fr Vincent Chin, rector of St Peter’s, said he “really felt the congregation participate most actively in singing during the Mass,” noting how the collaboration deepened communal worship.
Choir master Stephen Chin said he hoped the experience would encourage more young Catholics to take part in liturgical music.
Echoing the words of Saint Augustine, he added, “To sing well is to pray twice. We hope the beautiful voices of the St Gregory choir combined with our St Peter’s Sunset Mass Choir will inspire those among our faithful to come forward and share their talents in praising the Lord.”
The pilgrimage concluded with fellowship between the two choirs over dinner, ending the night with a heartfelt singing of the Malaysian national anthem, Negaraku.
