Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
May the peace of God reign in your hearts.
We have just celebrated Pentecost Sunday when we remember the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into the church.
We are also at the end of the Circuit Breaker and gradually resetting our country. It will be a slow process, and at least for the next month, we will still be unable to meet nor celebrate Holy Communion as a gathered people. However, the Presidents and I are praying over and exploring ways and means where we may be able to do so.
The Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) has given new guidelines for the easing of the Circuit Breaker Measures and in our Methodist context, we may now resume conducting weddings with 10 or fewer people in attendance. Worship services will continue to be held online with minor administrative changes for the church teams which record them. Should you need urgent pastoral care, we continue to provide it via phone call or video chat as church offices remain closed.
The enforced solitude of the last eight weeks has caused us to re-examine ourselves as a church and as individual believers. It lifts my heart to see Methodists working in concert or as silent individuals to extend the love of Christ to our neighbours. Churches have opened their premises to provide shelter to rough sleepers and groups have organised themselves to provide food, comfort and prayer to those left stranded by the pandemic, including the foreign workers and the elderly and shut-in. Even as individuals, we have sought to help our neighbours when we saw and sensed the need without being asked to. This is the Social Holiness we seek to embody.
My prayer is that we continue in this spirit of servanthood even after the crisis is long over, and the Methodist legacy to our country is one of standing together with our neighbours as we continue to build a community that glorifies God. I look forward to our being able to gather to proclaim His mercy and joy face-to-face again soon.
Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)
Your humble shepherds,
Bishop Dr Chong Chin Chung
Rev Dr Gregory Goh Nai Lat, President, Chinese Annual Conference
Rev James Nagulan, President, Emmanuel Tamil Annual Conference
Rev Dr Gordon Wong, President, Trinity Annual Conference