On a beautiful Saturday morning, St. Theresa Cathedral Parish in Kator was filled with excitement as Arabic Choir celebrated its 39th anniversary.<\/p>\n
The atmosphere was electric and filled with an air of celebration as the choir members performed various songs and hymns to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n
The choir joyously sung songs of praise during a Holy Mass, presided over by parish priest Fr. Gabriel Asida Andrew, amidst ululation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was 39 years ago that a group of our faithful here started the Arabic mass in the cathedral,\u201d said Fr. Andrew.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday as we celebrate the 39th anniversary we also remember those who have passed because a number of them have gone to the Lord but their name are still continued because they are still with us and without them we won\u2019t celebrate this day today,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
He added that the upcoming 40th anniversary would be significant because it has a theological meaning in the Bible \u201cThe children of God were enslaved for 40 years, took them 40 years to enter the promised land -40 years of hurdles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who started it were few groups but today you have seen the number of choirs \u2013 they are over a hundred singing but it started with five, four people and it counted to ten and now to over 100,\u201d noted Fr. Andrew.<\/p>\n
Father Andrew echoed the message of peace, reconciliation, and forgiveness among South Sudanese.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we have heard from the bishops and the head-of-state this year each one is given his message of peace sung by the angels and that is to rest in our hearts and its only in God we rejoice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the head of Arabic gospel singers, Afaf Ambrose, who narrated the history said the choir was established on January 6, 1984, in a Holy Mass presided by Fr. Philipcina during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very pleased because today is a great day as Arabic choir, our group was established in 1984 and it is now turn to 39 and the first priest who conducted the Holy Mass that day was Fr. Philipcina,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n
She mentioned some of the pioneers who are still in the group \u2013 in persons of Ustaz Andrew, John Sabit, and Ustaz Al-Haj as well as conveyed her heartfelt condolences to some members who passed on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also have some of our colleagues who passed away and we convey our condolences and appreciate their contribution because they founded this choir group that we are proud of today,\u201d said Afaf.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also hope that the upcoming generation will pick from where we left it and continue with the journey,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
Afra John Hassan, a choir and chairperson of the organizing committee for 39 Anniversary said the preparation for the D-Day colorful started almost three months ago to ensure perfection.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur choir group has today reached 39 years since its formation and we are celebrating it today,\u201d said Afra.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a beautiful day for us because it is our Remembrance Day as the Arabic Choir group at St. Theresa Cathedral and I hope that God will continue to protect us so that we keep celebrating this D-Day,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
According to Afra, the anniversary holds special meaning to all choir members, adding it resembles their birthday the same way each one celebrates their birthdays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On a beautiful Saturday morning, St. Theresa Cathedral Parish in Kator was filled with excitement as Arabic Choir celebrated its 39th anniversary. The atmosphere was electric and filled with an air of celebration as the choir members performed various songs and hymns to mark the occasion. The choir joyously sung[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":20452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Arabic-Choir-at-St.-Theresa-Cathedral-Parish-Kator-photo-by-William-Madouk.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20454,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20451\/revisions\/20454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}