Patrick Comerford
Father Jeffry Renos Nawie of Saint Augustine’s Church, Mambong, has brought us on whirlwind tours of over a dozen Anglican churches and chapels in his part of the Diocese of Kuching over the past two weeks or so.
He has also brought us to see the orangutans in the rainforest in Semenggoh Nature Reserve and we have spent a morning together in the Sarawak Cultural Village, an award-winning Living Museum at the foot of Mount Santubong.
We have received warm welcomes in all seven of his churches and chapels clustered around Saint Augustine’s Church. During our visits, I remarked on how the influence of the early missionaries from SPG means many of these churches and chapels in the Diocese of Kuching are named after saints and martyrs who are popular in the names of churches in England – Saint Augustine of Canterbury, for example, Saint George, Saint Edmund, Saint Clement, Saint Alban, Saint Giles, Saint Gregory and so on.
Of course, there are churches named after apostles and evangelists too, such as Saint Thomas, Saint John, Saint Paul, Saint Matthew and Saint Matthias.
To my delight, then, the last church Father Jeffry brought us to see is Saint Patrick’s Chapel, a mission chapel in Semadang that dates back to the 1930s, and neighbouring Saint Patrick’s School, which dates from 1953.
Semadang is about a 1½-hour drive south from Kuching city centre, half-way between Kuching and the border with Indonesia, and just a few miles north of the Equator.
The Sarawak River in this area is known as the River Semadang (Sungai Semadang). A stretch of the river, from Kampung Semadang to Kampung Danu in the upper reaches, is gaining popularity as a place for kayaking, raft safaris, water sports and outdoor activities such as hiking.
The two villages are home to the Bidayuh community and the attractions include clear rivers with plenty of fish, beautiful caves and forested areas. Kayaking on the river and below the waterfalls is a growing tourist attraction.
The annual Semadang River Fishing Festival is one of few occasions when fishing in the river is allowed and it attracts thousands of visitors to this part of the rain forest and mountains of Borneo. The villagers look after the stretch of water closest to them and they see themselves as the guardians and protectors of the river.
The Bengoh Cultural Carnival is among other annual events that also attract large numbers of visitors to the area.
The majority of people living in this area south of Paduwan are from the Bidayuh community, but there are also small numbers of Iban people and Chinese people in the area too.
We drove south to Semadang and Saint Patrick’s Chapel and School from Kuching, through Padawan, passing Semenggoh Wildlife Centre, the Rajah Charles Brooke Memorial Hospital and a local police academy.
The church is in striking, bright orange and white colours, and the school beside it is in bright, striking green and white colours, so that the whole site strikes this Irish visitor as a bright eye-catching display of green, white and orange.
Perhaps the colour scheme is nothing more than coincidence, and I imagine few other visitors notice the vivid and colourful combination or make a mental association with the Irish flag.
Saint Patrick’s Chapel dates from the 1930s, and was probably given its name by missionaries from the Anglican mission agency SPG (now USPG, United Society Partners in the Gospel). The present church building was consecrated on 3 May 2009 by Bishop Bolly Lapok of Kuching, who presided at the Cathedral Eucharist in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching, this morning.
Bishop Bolly also became the Archbishop of the Church of the Province of South East Asia in 2012 and was installed in Saint Thomas’s Cathedral, Kuching. He retired in 2017.
The present priest-in-charge of Saint Patrick’s is the Revd Kamor Diah. Parishioners told us how Saint Patrick’s has a congregation of about 200 on Sundays, but these numbers can reach 800 at major festivals and celebrations.
Next to Saint Patrick’s Chapel, Saint Patrick’s school in Semadang is also affiliated to the Diocese of Kuching. It was established in 1953 and took in its first students in 1955.
The school has been rebuilt, renovated and upgraded in the years since.
From Saint Patrick’s chapel and school, we crossed the River Semadang on a traditional rope and wood suspension bridge that can only take people on foot. There were boats in the river below, and a traditional Bidayuh roundhouse on the other side of the bridge.
It was a morning when we managed to visit at least half a dozen churches, and we stopped for coffee in Paduwan on our way back to Kuching.
But more about these churches in the rural villages in the Diocese of Kuching in the weeks to come, hopefully.
Crossing the suspension bridge over the River Sarawak at Semadang, from west to east … at the east side are Saint Patrick's Chapel (Anglican) and School (Patrick Comerford, 2024)
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