“Living in Faith” Official Premiere
The Macao Catholic Culture Association launched a brand-new “Living in Faith” short video series on 4th December 2020, Friday and held its official premiere at the opening of the Macao Cardinal Newman Centre of Cultural and Performance Arts. The list of guests who attended the premiere to witness this precious moment included, Ms Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director of the Macao Government Tourism Office; Ms Mok Ian Ian, Director of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao; Ms Leong Wai Man, Vice-Director of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao; Mr Wong Ka Ki, Head of Education and Youth Affairs Bureau of Macao; Ms Un Sin Man, Senior Technician of Division of Cultural, Recreational and Association Affairs of Macao Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau of Macao, and Bishop Stephen Lee, the Bishop of Macao.
The first episode shown at the premiere featured Ms. Maria Fong, who was not only the tailor of the three Bishops of Macao, but what is less known is that her final piece of work before her retirement is the bedding for the Procissão do Senhor Morto, an intangible cultural heritage that has newly been listed by the Cultural Affairs Bureau of Macao in June 2020. The casting of each episode has its own characteristics, including local Catholics of different occupations, races, and ages which shows that Catholic culture and charity are indifferent. The filming crew went to different places in Macau to shoot the scenes, from the famous Catholic cultural heritage site to the Catholic institutions, capturing rich Catholic sentiments and memories. In line with contemporary new media, this new series integrates the historical characteristics of Macao’s Catholic culture into modern new media culture, and the collective memories derived from Catholic culture can be seen from a new perspective. The Macao Catholic Culture Association is very pleased to invite Macao’s renown calligrapher, Master Choi Chun Heng, to write the title logo for the “Living in Faith” series and the calligraphy artworks in the videos, demonstrating the harmonious integration of traditional Chinese culture and the Catholic faith.
This “Living in Faith” short video series aims to reveal the Christian lives lived by local Macao faithful who, through their witness, help people experience authentic local Catholic culture. Macao has over four hundred years of religious history and customs that are not only an important cultural heritage but also contribute to the enrichment of the local communities. It is through these long-term collective experiences that gives certain peculiar characteristics to the Catholic Church and its faithful in Macao which are expressed in a distinctive way.
The “Living in Faith” series will premiere on the official website of the Macao Catholic Cultural Association, Facebook and YouTube on 4th December, 2020. All videos are with both Chinese and English subtitles.