Welcome Deacon Sherman Kuek!
Photo: Deacon Sherman at St Peter’s Square, Vatican, September, 2016 (taken from the Splendour Project)
The Reverend Deacon Professor Dr. Sherman Kuek O.F.S. is a permanent deacon of the Catholic Church, a Secular Franciscan, theologian, teacher, and preacher. As a deacon, he is incardinated in the Diocese of Melaka Johor, Malaysia.
As a theologian, Deacon Sherman is the Cornelius Cardinal Sim Professor of Theology and Dialogue at the Christian Institute for Theological Engagement (CHRISTE), an ecumenical and cross-disciplinary research institute chartered under the EUCLID prerogative (United Nations Treaty Series 49006/49007) and affiliated with the School of Theology and Interfaith Studies of Polê Universitaire Euclide (UNESCO/IAU WHED ID: IAU-024734).
Photo: Deacon Sherman serving Holy Mass with the late Cornelius Cardinal Sim (taken from the Splendour Project)
He has also been appointed Visiting Professor at several institutions of higher education locally and abroad. As a teacher of the Catholic faith, he is the Convenor of the Splendour Project, a Catholic apostolate for formation, evangelisation, and discipleship.
Formation-Based Pilgrimages
Deacon Sherman Kuek conceptualised a different kind of pilgrimage, realising that many conventional pilgrimages take pilgrims to sacred sites without proper spiritual and theological guidance. As a result, pilgrims are often unable to optimise the benefits they are supposed to received from such trips. Deacon Sherman therefore conceptualised "formation-based pilgrimages", these being trips that continue to take pilgrims to traditional pilgrimage destinations but are accompanied by daily systematic faith formation throughout the trips.
Photo: Deacon Sherman and the late Cornelius Cardinal Sim with a group of Pilgrims at St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City, Rome. (taken from the Splendour Project)
Today, Deacon Sherman accompanies groups of pilgrims on such trips to ensure that faith formation is provided for these pilgrims each day on their trips. These trips are strictly formation-based, so that pilgrims have a better understanding of what they see and experience in the course of the trips. They are also guided on spiritual practices to be undertaken in the places they visit. A priest is usually requested to join in the trips to administer sacraments to the pilgrims daily while Deacon Sherman takes care of their faith formation.
Deacon Sherman spends much of his time communicating the Christian faith through prolific speaking, writing and media production. His Doctor of Theology degree was conferred by Trinity Theological College in Singapore.
We warmly welcome Deacon Sherman to the Totus Tuus Apostolate!
