Celebrating 90 years of faithful stewardship

Evangelism and pastoral care throughout the years have changed the lives of tens of thousands of Ibans in the Saribas basin and ushered them to a new way of life where faith in God, hope in eternity, peace, discipline, diligence, pursuit of knowledge and goodness to fellow mankind are the defining hallmarksEvangelism and pastoral care throughout the years have changed the lives of tens of thousands of Ibans in the Saribas basin and ushered them to a new way of life where faith in God, hope in eternity, peace, discipline, diligence, pursuit of knowledge and goodness to fellow mankind are the defining hallmarks.

When the early English missionaries set sail for Sarawak to evangelise to the natives in the interior and establish an Anglican mission in the Iban heartland of Saribas, they were inspired by the hope and vision that their new mission field would grow and flourish to become the Canterbury of Borneo serving its vast parish across what was then the Second Division.

Like the historic Canterbury in South East England, the “Canterbury” envisioned for the Saribas basin was to be the hub of the Anglican mission for the spread of the gospel to the Ibans in the vastly dispersed longhouses and the provision of education from primary to secondary school to the locals.

The years that followed saw the mission setting up the St Augustine’s Church on a high terrain at Munggu Lelang, allocated by Sir Charles Brooke, overlooking Betong town and also the St Augustine’s Primary and Secondary Schools and later St Margaret Girls School on a vast physical expanse adjacent to the church.

Although there was a demand for education, an earlier initiative by Lawrence Currey, a lay missionary, to set up an industrial school in Betong was abandoned.

The seed of hope had been planted and the path for spiritual enlightenment and growth had been charted.

The church together with the schools became the nucleus and catalyst for the outreach work of the Anglican mission in the Saribas, Skrang and territories beyond.

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