This is my story - 51

51 – Ecumenical relationships

When our appointment was announced in the War Cry and the local paper The Straits Times we received many congratulatory messages from our friends and well wishers, local and overseas. This was the first time a Singaporean was appointed as the General Secretary, the second in Command. A reporter from the Straits Times called at the office, conducted an interview and reported it in the paper the next day.

The President of The Bible Society of Singapore and Malaysia, Rev. Khoo Siau Hua, on behalf of its Executive Committee approached the Officer Commanding Lieut. Colonel James Sloan for me to join their Board. Up till then The Salvation Army had been represented by expatriates and the Society felt it was time a national be appointed as the Army’s representative. Lieut. Colonel Sloan needed no prompting for he felt the same way and immediately agreed to the proposal. So I was the Army’s representative till we received a change of appointment to go to Hong Kong in January 1983.

Bible Societies all over the world exist to translate, publish and distribute the Bible so that no one would be denied the Word of God. By being part of that effort to spread God’s Word to all corners of the globe, the Bible Society of Singapore is in effect going into the world and making disciples of nations. I was glad of the privilege to be part of this organization which The Salvation Army has always supported.

During our fourteen years of service in Malaysia, we had always been involved in ecumenical relationships. “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body.”1 Corinthians 12:12-13. In the state of Penang and Selangor, I served as chairman of the local state council.

The Malayan Christian Council, which was established in 1948 to promote Christian unity among the Churches and Christian organizations in Malaya and Singapore, was succeeded in 1961 by the Council of Churches of Malaysia and Singapore. As an association of churches and other Christian organizations, each believing that it is God’s will that His Body, the church should again be visibly one, and each desiring to work towards this end.

Later, in view of Malaysia and Singapore having separated and become independent sovereign nations, it was considered desirable to have separate Councils of Churches for each nation and, therefore, the National Council of Churches of Singapore was duly constituted in Singapore on 24th July, 1974 to carry on and fulfil the vision and aspirations of the founders.

My involvement in these ecumenical bodies resulted in friendships with many prominent Church leaders, like Rev. T C Nga, and Rev. Alfred Yeo, Wong Hoon Hee, Dr. George Wan of the Methodist church, Canon James Wong, Bishop Chiu Ban It, Dr Moses Tay of the Anglican church, Dr. Chung Chee Pang of the Lutheran church and many more from other denominations like the Presbyterian, Mar Thoma Churches.

There were some church leaders who felt uncomfortable associating with the National Council of Churches as a body because of its link with the World Council of Churches. A number of us felt the need to include the fast growing number of evangelical churches in the advancement of the gospel. Some of these were new denominations while others had been around for a long time. They had played prominent part with us and the para churches in evangelistic efforts, like the Dr. Billy Graham Crusade in December 1978. Two hundred thirty seven churches took part. At that time Lieut. Colonel George Engel played a significant role in the Billy Graham Committee. The Colonel was always very active in ecumenical relationships. When we were stationed in Kuala Lumpur, he would often travelled to the capital of Malaysia to attend the Council’s meetings.

A number of us like Dr. Benjamin Chew, Rev. Alfred Yeo, Mr. Liew Kee Kok and Dr. William Wan worked tirelessly to form Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore. Originally it was called Singapore Evangelical Fellowship or SEF but the Registrar suggested the change to EFOS. It exists for the furtherance of the gospel in its simplicity and splendour as ‘the power of God for the salvation of those who believe.” (Rom. 1: 16) It is committed to maintain and defend the faith of the gospel as defined authoritatively in the God-inspired Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. (2 Tim. 3: 14-17)

Another area I was very much interested and involved in was the Keswick Convention. It was in July 1875 that Canon T D Harford-Battersby, the Vicar of St. John’s Church, Keswick in collaboration with his friend Mr. Robert Wilson a Quaker industrialist erected a tent seating 600 people in his vicarage grounds and held the first convention. – little thinking that he was inaugurating an annual gathering which would continue to grow many times from its original size. It spread to many parts of the world including Singapore.

The first Keswick convention was held at NTUC hall at Shenton Way and later at the National Theatre at Tank Road. (The National Theatre has been demolished) The Salvation Army has always placed great emphasis on the teaching of the doctrine of holiness. In fact our Sunday morning meeting traditionally has been known as the Holiness meeting. In many territories Brengle Institutes or Holiness convention are held regularly and my wife and I have had the privileged of being invited to speak at these conventions in Australia, New Zealand and United States.

Rev, Prabhu Das, Rev.Alfred Yeo and a few others worked closely every year to organise the Keswick meetings. We invited outstanding international speakers such as Dr. Alan Redpath, Dr. Philip Teng, Dr. Paul Rees, Dr. Stuart Briscoe. I took my share in leading the meetings and introducing the speakers. This was something we all looked forward to every year. The National Theatre was always packed and late comers were refused entry because of fire regulations.

I need also add my wife was actively involved in Women’s organisations like the World Day of Prayer Committee and Fellowship of the Least Coin serving as Treasurer. In fact in 1978 she was selected as the Singapore representative to the Asian Church Women’s Conference in Gotemba Tokyo. I took furlough to look after Poh Chin during the time she was away.

As we look back, we give thanks to God for calling us to this vocation as Salvation Army Officers. God’s grace sustained us as we tried to balance time for family, for our own work in the office dealing with business of The Army and at the same time, wisdom and strength to do our share for the wider community – our involvement with other denominations and para church groups for the sake of His kingdom and glory of God.