Most productive church in Singapore is Anglican

The Chapel of the Resurrection(Anglican), now pastored by Canon Daniel Tong, is definitely the most productive(or “reproductive”), and yet unrecognized, church in Singapore’s church history. It has pioneered a path that few local churches can claim to have neared. Its glory is that it is the mother of many churches, a few of them, much bigger than herself. A few have lost their Anglican roots, two of which have become large, autonomous and independent churches. COR is just short of being a church planting movement, as  the churches that were birthed and matured have not gone on to birth more new churches.

This blog post is based on conversations I had with Christiana Tan(current secretary of retired Canon James Wong) and John Seet from Century Christian Fellowship. They have been with the Chapel of Resurrection when she was under Canon James Wong, when she experienced this remarkable spiritual movement and mobilization of the church members. More facts are needed to give a better picture but what I have is sufficient to give a sketch of the greatness of this Anglican church.

The womb that gave it birth

The fertile womb of this reproductive spurt of several decades was the charismatic revival of the early 1970’s. The then Bishop Chiu Ban It opened the heavy cathedral doors to the Holy Spirit and the fresh wind swept away all the cobwebs hanging from the candlesticks to the altar and the pews.  Wherever the Spirit was welcome, He left behind pulsating Anglican congregations, alive in Christ and hungry to realize their full potential as the animated body of Christ. In fact, the Anglican church, was like “an exceeding great army”. The bones had come together, the flesh had clothed the skeletons, and the breath of God had just filled their lungs. They were eager for battle. For too long they have sung their songs in the prison of dead orthodoxy. The Chapel of Resurrection was birthed as two fired up Anglican house groups from Holland Village and Depot road were welded together to form a formidable weapon.

“There was a man sent by God….”

The impetus for all this came from a robust, daring, visionary priest- a man filled with the new wine of the Spirit in the 1970’s. He was convinced the new Anglican wine, a laity filled with the Spirit, needed new wineskins, so that the newfound bubbling energies and overflowing life, may have new open structures for expression and extension.  For him, the answer was planting new churches. He was going to put his doctoral thesis into practice. The timing was perfect, and for such a time as this, this “sent one” was the inimitable  James Wong. God had a new weapon in His hand, and the weapon of choice was a battering ram!

Mother of many

Here is a list of the Anglican churches and church plants initiated by the Chapel of Resurrection:

1. The extension in Ghim Moh became was absorbed by St John-St Margaret’s and became part of one of its services.
2. The extension in Whampoa became the Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
3. The extension at Marine Parade became Marine Parade Christian Community.
4. The extension at Bukit Batok married with St Andrew’s Cathedral extension and birthed Westside Anglican Church.
5. Two extensions(Hougang  Christian Centreand Orchard City Church) married and became St Andrew’s  City Church.
6. An extension comprised of four youth cells from Chapel of Resurrection married an extension of Church of our Savior in Woodlands and became the Light of Christ, Woodlands.
7. An extension started in 1991,  mainly meeting in the east, is the Century Christian Fellowship.
8. The extension at Bukit Timah multiplied and formed two churches: Chapel of Christ the King which meets at St Margaret’s Primary School, and the other became an autonomous, independent church called Hephzibah Fellowship, a quite controversial offspring, quite unlike its Anglican parentage.
9. An extension became the Marine Parade Christian Community which raised two great leaders Kong Hee and Yang Tuck Yoong, who went on to found the respective megachurches  City Harvest Church and Cornerstone Community Church. The exact circumstances of their moving out, whether with “seed members” or not,  are details I cannot confirm. Both leaders do look up to Canon James Wong, now retired Anglican clergy but still committed to ministry, as their mentor or inspiration.

A legacy of manifold benefits

The benefits of the legacy of this productive spurt in the Anglican denomination are many: a “can do” spirit of faith in the Anglican ethos, not existent before then, and now spilled over into missions in the region; depth and maturity of clergy and lay leadership in strong local churches built to last, over against an over-dependency on the rare and “many talents” charismatic leader;  harnessing and releasing thousands of revived laity into ministry and maturity, who otherwise might have left for other more dynamic, open structures at that time, namely the Calvary Charismatic Centre; it cemented the Anglican denomination’s position of being the third largest “church” in Singapore after the Roman Catholics and the Methodists; and without doubt, the Anglicans have long had an “apostle” in its midst, with the credentials, though not the official title.

( This is no research paper, just a blog post. However it is the digital age, so do fill in the comment box with information that will enhance or increase the accuracy of what was written.)