Establishing friendly cultural exchanges with other religious groups from the perspective of culture and art has always been one of the aims of the Macao Catholic Culture Association. On December 5, 2021, the Macao Catholic Culture Association, together with other religions - Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Bahá’íism - jointly presented Macau’s first "Five Religions’ Music Appreciation Concert” at “The Broadway Macau” by the Galaxy Entertainment Group in celebration of the 22nd anniversary of the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region. It uses music as a medium of exchange among the different religions in Macao to promote peace, love, communion, unity, and the spirit of mutual respect, cooperation and appreciation of all religions.
The guests who attended the event included Edmund Ho Hau-wah, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; Fu Tiesheng, Director-General of the Coordination Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR); Mok Ian Ian, President of the Culture Affairs Bureau of the Macao SAR Government; Bishop Stephen Lee Bun Sang, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Macao and Chairman of the Macao Catholic Culture Association; Fashi Shijiesheng, President of Buddhist Association of Macau; Ng Peng Chi, President of the Macao Taoist Association; The Revd Simon Fan, General Secretary of Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui Missionary Area of Macau; Kong Siew-Huat, Chairman of The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Macau; and Francis Lui, Vice Chairman of Galaxy Entertainment Group.
Sacred music builds bridges to bring people close to supernatural things. St. Augustine said: "He who sings, prays twice.” This is why the Catholic Church is also committed to promoting traditional and Chinese sacred music, praising the Lord through singing, and spreading the gospel message with the beauty and power of music.
The Macao Catholic Culture Association specially invited the "Cathedral Schola" and the “Diocesan Choir” to jointly perform five classic sacred music pieces. Sacred music is music written specifically for the liturgy. The repertoire included songs in Latin, English and Cantonese, covering traditional polyphonic and modern hymns. The performances included “Jesus, I trust in You” by Fr. Tadeu Tang Is-Yan, and "My Spirit Desires for God,” which was performed for the first time in Macau. As it is now the Advent season, it also included a Christmas hymn “In the Bleak Midwinter,” which brought a little Christmas atmosphere to the audience in advance.
Through this occasion, the Macao Catholic Culture Association hopes to share Catholic sacred music of the modern times with the general public in order to build a foundation for mutual understanding from a cultural perspective, continuously promoting Sino-Western exchanges, and thus contributing to the future of Macau’s society.
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