18 Feb. 2007 issue of the Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The St Michael’s League (SML) of the Church of St Anne recently visited a home. The project was headed by Peter Sylvester together with 10 members.

A week before the project was held; the committee members visited the home and enquired on what items were most needed. The home, Rumah Kanak-Kanak Cacat Yee Ran Jing Sheh caters about 45 mentally challenged people from the age of 4 to 45. The caretakers listed some daily use products, such as dry food and drinks and items like diapers, soap, etc.

Taken from The Herald of 5 Nov. 2006 issue 

BUKIT MERTAJAM: A one-day session on the Eucharist was held at the Church of St Anne.

“Whatever we celebrate in a Sacrament, we include the Liturgy. Without the Liturgy, the church is dead,” explained Fr Francis Andrew who gave the session together with Fr Michael Dass.

Liturgy is divided into three major parts: the spoken words, gestures and actions. The liturgy also includes the celebration of the seven Sacraments and the Liturgy is the public official worship of the Church. The Liturgy comes from the Passover Meal, which is found in the Gospel.

1 October issue of The Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Tamil Catholic community of Bukit Mertajam recently celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The feast was celebrated in their Alma chapel on Sept 16, with Fr Maiccal Sinappan as the celebrant.

In the homily, Fr Maiccal touched on the Second Reading, taken from St James, where Christians are encouraged to be good examples for others, but he challenged the people on this statement.

"There are many Catholics I know that like to preach and give advice to people, but they do not like to share their resources with the needy, whom Jesus is asking us to reach out to."

24 September 2006 issue of the Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: About 60 priests and bishops concelebrated the Mass on the occasion of Msgr Stephen Liew's Sacerdotal Silver Jubilee on Thursday, September 7, 2006, at the Church of St Anne.

Among those present were Archbishop Murphy Pakiam, Archbishop Emeritus Anthony Soter Fernandez, Bishop Antony Selvanayagam, Bishop Anthony Lee Kok Hin (from Miri), Msgr James Gnanapiragasam, Msgr Sebastian Francis and Msgr Liew’s three special friends who were classmates during their time at the  seminary: Fr Ambrose Vaz, Fr John Lau and Fr Stephen Lim.

23 September 2006 issue of the Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The Church of St Anne celebrated the Silver Jubilee of Msgr Stephen Liew with much excitement and anticipation. It was an event that took so much of planning and coordination as this is one of the biggest events for Msgr Liew who became a priest 25 years ago.

The guests started arriving immediately after Mass at Dewan St Anne. The crowd for the grand event numbered about 1,300 people inclusive of parishioners from all over Penang Diocese.

10 Sept. 2006 issue of the Herald 

PENANG: To celebrate our Independence Day, the Church of St Anne is displaying one of the biggest flags at its premise. The flag was sponsored by 15 men from the parish.

This flag-cum-banner is displayed as a sign of gratitude to this country that has given us the freedom to build this huge church and have a yearly celebration without any obstacles.

10 Sept. 2006 issue of the Herald 

PENANG: The annual Thanksgiving Dinner was held on Aug 27 at Dewan St Anne for all the volunteers of St Anne’s feast.

This dinner was held as an appreciation to all the volunteers of the recent week-long celebration. About 700 people attended this dinner. The volunteers were not only parishioners from St Anne’s church but also from various churches around the Penang diocese who contributed their services for the celebration.

30 July 2006 issue of the Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: A trip was organised to Melaka for the 500th Birth Anniversary of St Francis Xavier.

Forty participants, mostly women from the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (NBVM) in Butterworth and St Anne’s Church attended the pilgrimage tour organised by Catherine Cheen from Butterworth and M. Victoria from BM.

30 July 2006 issue of the Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Thousands of pilgrims flock to Bukit Mertajam for the Feast of St Anne every year. People throng to this sanctuary with the hope that their prayers will be answered.

The feast also means a lot to the parishioners of St Anne. Every year, by April/May, preparations for this grand event take place. The preparations involve almost every single person from the parish.

23 July 2006 issue of the Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: About 25 students with excellent results received awards from the parish priest, here in St Anne’s Church.

These were students who excelled with straight As in the major examinations: UPSR, PMR & SPM. These students were awarded cash prizes by Msgr Stephen Liew during the Sunday Mass on July 9.

This is the first time students who excelled in the major examinations were awarded in this parish. There were 10 students each who scored straight As for the UPSR and PMR examinations, and three bright students for SPM.

16 July issue of the Herald

One of the life-size statues erected throughout the church grounds.  (pic)

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Pilgrims from all over Malaysia and the region who flock to the St Anne’s Sanctuary here in July will find several new features at the complex which have been constructed to enhance their spiritual experience during the Feast of St Anne.

Among the new attractions are the 15 Stations of the Cross with life size statues depicting the Passion of Christ erected throughout the church grounds.

18 December issue of The Herald

BUKIT MERTAJAM: St Anne�s Church held its annual Parish Assembly on Sunday, December 4. Some 71 participants comprising mainly service group committee members were present.�

�Msgr Stephen Liew, the parish priest, remarked that the presence of the participants was a good sign � a sign of hope and concern for the parish and an expression of love for the community. �Your feedback and constructive criticism at the assembly will help the improvement and growth of the community.

14 August 2005 issue of The Herald.

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The crowd at the St Anne�s Feast here this year during the last week of July was noticeably lesser than in previous years.

Despite appeals by Parish Priest Msgr Stephen Liew to pilgrims during the Novena Masses throughout the week� not to believe a rumour going around that a tsunami 10 times greater than the one which hit Penang on Dec 26, 2004 would hit Penang that weekend, the feast this year was obviously less attended.

3 July 2005 issue of The Herald.

BUKIT MERTAJAM: The parishioners of the Church of St Anne were challenged to work with the poor. They were helped by the screening of the movie In The Name of God�s Poor, a movie depicting the life of Mother Teresa and her works with the poor.

Fr Alexander Edwin, pic told those gathered that there are people here who do similar work like Mother Theresa. Fr Alexander said that there is a home that cares for the sick in Mak Mandin. Sr Collete has been running the home for some time. She also works and lives with the poor. He challenged the people to go and visit the place one day and spread the news.

3 July 2005 issue of The Herald

BUKIT MARTAJAM: Bishop Antony Selvanayagam�s 4-day pastoral visit to the Church of St Anne culminated in a 3-language Eucharistic Celebration on Sunday, June 12. Close to 1000 parishioners turned up. The con-celebrants were Msgr Stephen Liew and Fr Francis Chao.

In his homily, Bishop Selva urged the congregation to listen to the Word of God seriously. "A good number of us come to church, gather together, to listen to the Word of God. Somehow the significance of this Word of God proclaimed is not well-understood. Just imagine, after three readings, when asked what God said, many are not able to recall much. Based on my observations, experience, dialogues and questioning, I notice that a good number of us simply do not listen seriously to the Word of God."

3 July 2005 issue of the Herald.

BUKIT MERTAJAM: Bishop Antony Selvanayagam made a pastoral visit to the parish of St Anne from June 9 to 12.

He met with members of the Tamil Apostolate team first and then with members of the Chinese Apostolate team for a dialogue session.

On Friday morning, Bishop Selva paid a visit to Pusat Haemodialisis St Anne. The chairman, Michael Ng, was on hand to brief the Bishop about the centre, including the latest addition of a machine and its set-up which caters for kidney patients with hepatitis B and C. Bishop Selva told the committee members to keep up the good work, advising them not to be disheartened when donations did not come as initially expected.