Catholics Close Year of St Paul with Original Musical

Friday, Jun. 26, 2009 Posted: 4:52:31PM HKT

A parish will commemorate the closure of the Catholic Year of St Paul by staging a major musical on the spectacular conversion of the apostle starting this evening at the National University of Singapore.

Through the original theatrical production, the production team from Church of St Mary of the Angels wishes the depict the leader of the early church beyond Israel in the reality of his humanness “with all his human hopes, fears, and dreams”.

This in turn is set in the context of his conversion, which is depicted as a “journey of realisation and redemption: Paul starts off as an enemy of the Church but dies a faithful witness to Christ”, as stated on the website of the event.

The musical, which will be staged on three consecutive evenings from Friday to Sunday at the University Cultural Centre, takes place on the final week of the Year of St Paul according to the Catholic Church.

Pope Benedict XVI had decreed in 2007 that June 2008 to June 2009 would mark the 2000th anniversary of Paul’s birth and set apart the year for the promotion of study meetings on the life and teaching of the apostle and the production of special publications on Pauline texts.

Paul The Musical will bring together a cast and crew comprising more than 100 individuals and is slated to revolutionise the standards of local amateur theatre.

In conjunction with the musical, the parish will hold an exclusive three-day art exhibition, Drawn by Grace. Organised by ministry Heartspace@St Mary’s, this will mark the second exhibition since a successful inaugural event in 2008.

Heartspace is an art therapy ministry that seeks to enhance the emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing of individuals through creative self-expression in a group setting.

The Church of St Mary of the Angels located at 5 Bukit Batok East Avenue 2 is one of the 31 parishes of the Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore, which has a membership of some 200,000 people.

Nathanael Ng
Christian Post Reporter