St Francis de Sales Parish, Narengi
The Catholic parish at Narengi, under the patronage of St Francis de Sales (SFS) and opened by Most Rev. Thomas Menamparampil, Archbishop of Guwahati, was entrusted to the MSFS in 1997. The parish was carved out of the Resurrection parish, Sonaighuli and St Joseph Co-Cathedral parish, Panbazar. The boundary of the parish stretches to Noonmati and Gitamandir on the west, Chandrapur at the north east and Borbari at the south west.
The first Parish Priest, Fr Tomy Thekkel, residing in a building that was already there in a newly purchased plot of land, began functioning as the Parish Priest. On the same plot of land, the MSFS Provincial House and SFS School were built up later. When the new Provincial House was completed in 1996, the Chapel of the Provincial House began to be used as the parish church. The arrangement continued till the construction of the parish church, which was begun with the laying of the foundation stone by Fr George Panthanmackel, the Provincial, and the blessing of the site by Most Rev. John Moolachira, Archbishop of Guwahati, on Saturday the July 21, 2016 at 3.30 pm. At the completion of the church construction, the new church was blessed and dedicated as St. Francis de sales Shrine by Most Rev. John Moolachira, Archbishop of Guwahati, and inaugurated by Fr. George Panthanmackel MSFS, the former provincial of the Northeast India Prvince on January 24, 2018. St. Francis De Sales Shrine, Narengi is the first ever Shrine in the name of St. Franis de Sales in Northeast india. The relic of St.. Francis de Sales is placed on the alter of the shrine for special devotion and veneration to St. Francis de Sales. The Shrine can accommodate 500 people. The parish has a total catholic population of 1300 from 420 families. The Venerini Sisters (Maestre Pie Venerini) assist the parish in its ministries.
SFS Parish is cosmopolitan in the true sense as it consists of multilingual and multicultural faithful. The people of the parish hail from the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh and speak languages such as Hindi, Assamese, Garo, Boro, Khasi, Nagamese, Manipuri, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Khasi and Jaintia. Approximately twenty percent of the faithful are quasi domiciles.
Majority of the parishioners live in the villages while others reside in urban areas. The catholic villages of the parish are Bongaon, Bonda, Ekrabari, Hatisila, Sualiluka, Kilingkok and Sompathar. Among these, the last three are far away from the city as they are situated in the midst of the forest. It takes a walk of three hours from the nearby road at Ekrabari, to reach these villages. A lively and active Adivasi Catholic community settled in Amsing Jorabat, a small Bodo community at Gitanagar, a vibrant mixed community in the Army Cantonment and a number of families settled on different streets under the township completes the parish.
Venerini Sisters (M P V)
Jyotiniketan: The community of the Religious Teachers Venerini at Narengi was started on January 25, 1994. The sisters run ‘Jyotiniketan’, a special school for the visually impaired children, and a Kindergarten school. They render their service in our educational, pastoral and social ministries.
|
SL. NO |
PARISH PRIEST |
YEAR |
|
1 |
Tomy Thekkel |
1997-1999 |
|
2 |
Sebastian Kuzhupil |
1999- 2002 |
|
3 |
Joseph Thekkel |
2002-2004 |
|
4 |
Bernard M. Sangma |
2004-2009 |
|
5 |
Thomas Nirappel |
2009-2011 |
|
6 |
Shaibu Ezhanikat |
2012-2016 |
|
7 |
Jose Thekkel |
2017 - |
|
SL. NO |
ASST.PARISH PRIEST |
YEAR |
|
1 |
Clean Nongbak Arengh |
2011-2012 |
|
2 |
Nikseng M Sangma |
2013-2015 |
|
3 |
Sudhir Kullu |
2016 - |
|
4 |
|
|
|
5 |
|
|
|
6 |
|
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