Diary

Singapore Night Festival 2017 | Cathedral of the Good Shepherd

August 24, 2017

Cathedral of the Good Shepard, Singapore. — Singapore Night Festival 2017: Cathedral of the Good Shepherd

In the second part of my previous double post on Singapore Night Festival 2017, I mentioned visiting the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. Here are the photos taken during that brief visit.

Angelic choir lights display in the courtyard.

As I wrote in the previous post, the cathedral isn’t listed as one of the performance or display venues of the festival. On the cathedral’s website, though, it’s stated that on the weekends of the festival, an event simply titled as Pray for Peace – for Singapore, our home and the world, would be hosted.

Other than the lighting of votive candles for peace, hour-long tours would also be given of the cathedral, which is both Singapore’s oldest and the Mother Church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore.

I didn’t attend the tour, not knowing of it beforehand. I did, however, had a great time touring the nave, which underwent a major restoration not too long ago.

Lastly, allow me to again highlight that I have not been here for ages. If memory serves me right, the previous time I entered was in the mid-90s.

Singapore’s Oldest Catholic Church at Night

The candles were lined on the ground to form words. Plenty of church helpers were around to help visitors with them too.

My first impression was that the candle lighting was for the victims of the heinous Barcelona attacks, which happened hours earlier. But this couldn’t have been since the Cathedral scheduled tours as well.

The nave. With the signature Doric columns of the cathedral.

I have something “sinful” to reveal, sort of.

I love visiting churches, even though I’m not of the Christian faith.

In short, I appreciate churches for their architecture, art, and ambience. When it comes to Singaporean churches, though, I have never been keen, for the simple reason they all feel kinda … straight-forward to me?

Now, I know how this sounds. I am well aware that cathedrals and churches are not meant to be art galleries too, they are sanctuaries of worship.

What pleasantly surprised me, thus, was that the restored Cathedral of the Good Shepherd felt to be the perfect balance of simplicity and elegance. It’s not large, it’s streamlined, so to speak. At the same time, it’s also tastefully furnished and adorned.

Standing in the nave, I was vaguely reminded of my visits to Europe’s great cathedrals too. Needless to say, I also experienced several moments of blissful, quiet spirituality.