Have a Covid-19 Christmas!

15 December 2020 Leave a comment

The thought that Christmas in most churches would be a muted, quiet affair does not faze me. Straits Times’ journalist Lee Siew Hua wrote an article (click here) that sketched what a pandemic Christmas would look like for churches in Singapore. And nothing is likely to change in terms of the church’s programs for the Prime Minister’s announcement yesterday was that Singapore will move into Phase 3 of its Covid-19 management only in 28th December. 

In my opinion, it is time we had a Christmas more in keeping with the quiet, inconspicuous Christmas of Bethlehem. More in keeping with the spirit of silence, worship, and wonder of the original occasion of Christ’s birth.

The stage was a manger, not a fancy church stage. The youthful couple were in a panic, not in a party. Their guests were gate-crashing strangers filled with amazement and adoration- some educated, respected, and well-off; and others uneducated, despised and poor. And all they did was worship.

There, before a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths, they stood in silence, worship and wonder. All their cares, worries and duties forgotten during that comma when time stood still, and they wished it lasted forever. They simply stood in stillness, silence and surrender. 

The Savior has come, let us cease from the hassle and frazzle of past Christmas, and immerse ourselves in the simple peace of pause and pray. The Savior is with us. This Christmas can be very special if we choose not to be afraid of stillness, silence and solitude. 

Why not try this: on Christmas eve, hide yourself somewhere, whether in a room, a park, or on a bench in the open air, and be all alone. Relish the fact you are all alone – this is a rare Christmas treat. 

Read a passage or two about the birth of our Savior. Read it slowly more than once. Savor the word, phrase or image that draws you into meditation. Allow the memory, emotion or song that rises to consciousness to breathe. Be conscious of the presence of the Savior – and talk with the Lord. Take your time: ramble on and on if you must. Or be silent before Him and let your heart do the talking when it is ready. 

Breathe in and soak in the love of our Savior, like in a spiritual spa. The finished work of Christ is made available to us because Jesus came as a helpless, powerless babe in the trust of youthful parents who were all alone and far away from the community support they needed. God became a human, a helpless babe to save us ungrateful, rebellious and sinful humans. What astounding divine love!

I am not afraid of a quiet, muted Christmas. In fact, I look forward to it. Hopefully, we do not try to substitute this muted Christmas with more amusement, and more gluttony, and more noise, and more activity. Hopefully, we will re-connect with the original spirit of Christ’s birth. Hopefully, we will never ever be satisfied again with the “normal” kind of razzle- dazzle Christmas we have gotten used to and are tired of. 

What about you? What kind of Christmas are you looking for?

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Preaching at St Andrews Community Chapel during covid 19

19 November 2020 2 Comments

St Andrews Community Chapel has an interesting way of serving their gathered and scattered congregation, their on-site and online service. I was invited to guest preach before Covid 19 gatecrashed the Singapore church and turned every church’s program upside down. Unsure of whether they still wanted me to preach, I wrote to them and released them from any commitment to have me if the new circumstances warranted something different. They promptly replied that the guest preaching appointment was still in place as their congregation had already started to meet under the government guidelines of 100 maximum in the hall with social distancing and other safety measures in place.

Pre-recording and on-site preaching

The interesting thing was that they would also like me to pre-record the same sermon I would preach to the on-site service, and hand the recording to them beforehand so that they could screen it at the same time for the online congregation to watch. I will post this pre-recorded sermon in another post.

The chapel originally was located with St Andrews Community Hospital but due to covid 19 they were using the auditorium of the St Hilda’s Primary School in Tampines. Covid 19 has been disruptive in more than one ways. 

Vicar Daniel Tong

I had a chat with the vicar Daniel Tong, a veteran Anglican vicar and notable author of five books and had a chat with him. While I think and talk about writing books, he has already written books that are selling quite well. Seeing him made me wonder if I have what it takes to write a book. 

The order of service

Soon the service started and noticeably there were no songs. However, they used liturgy to establish a connect between the gathered people of God and worship of God. Before I knew it, I was at the stage preaching with a mask on. It wasn’t easy as members still trickled in in front of everyone, while I was speaking, and it affected my concentration. 

The late we have with us always. Most would at least come before the sermon and they would sit at the back, but with covid 19, there is no buffer time of three songs and announcement and prayer, and in a performing art auditorium, there are no entrances near the back rows (everyone sees you when you are late!). 

Online service pampering

Online services also have its late-comers. Many actually attend to the services later on. And they can use the cursor to move forward the video to skip what they are not interested in, perhaps the preliminaries, and merely watch what they like. Online services facilitate the making of churchgoers into consumers, and not disciples! The several months of online pampering have sealed the marriage of God’s children to comfort, convenience and compromise. 

On site services impacted by covid 19

Covid 19 has also conditioned us pastors to offer a more compact and concise service. The service I preached it included baptism and holy communion, and all in, if I remember correctly, the service ended in one hour fifteen minutes. Safety measures meant that we had to keep our services compact and dismiss God’s people into the world (without much interaction in the church premises). Outside they can have lunch together in public eating places in groups of five. And we Asians are communal and put community above individualism and we comply with law and order. 

I noticed that no offering bags were passed around. Digital giving is encouraged, but those who still want to give cash can put in in an offering box at the front of the stage. Holy Communion is by intinction, partly dipping the consecrated wafer into the wine and handing it to the communicant for consumption. Safety observed at all times.

My personal take on online services

This new normal is something I am grateful for even though it stifles the church of expression of worship in song, in prayer, and warm fellowship. I pray the church will soon go back to what it was before. I miss live worship among God’s gathered saints. I miss singing heartily and mingling around and catching up with church folks. I do not want the spiritual disconnect I feel when I watch an online service. I love the comfort and convenience and time-saving of commute free Sunday worship, but I fear it places limits on the felt experience of the Spirit’s moving and activity on the affections and desires of God’s gathered people. We must determine to awaken God’s people from their atrophied spiritual muscles, and stir holy desire and hunger for God afresh.

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Weddings during covid 19

29 October 2020 Leave a comment

I have twenty days of leave to clear. Covid 19 made it impossible to travel and my annual leave was mostly untouched. But then I still had remaining work to clear, an office full of books, documents and stuff to clear. Last week was a case in point. I had two weddings and an outside speaking engagement.

This meant I had to do two wedding rehearsals: one at the bride’s Toa Payoh Methodist Church, and one via zoom, since it was held in the home. Two different weddings but both on Saturdays, one in the morning and one in the evening. One for guests of about 100, and the other, limited to about 10 guests.

Covid 19 has really put the plans of many couples into a tailspin or on hold. Originally it was for 10, then 50, then a 100. I cannot even remember the numbers. It was stressful for all who planned weddings during this period. Many had no choice but to postpone their weddings. Others went ahead with their plans but with a reduction in the number of guests. All are disappointed because what could have been their dream wedding turned into a migraine.

The husband and wife giving their touching thank you speeches.
I was delighted to sit among the young and good-looking

Thankfully the solemnisation I conducted was after the authorities increased the number of guests who could attend the wedding. There were of course the usual safety measures: masks, social distancing, temperature taking, registration, groups of 50s separated by a few metres, keep the wedding short, and no singing nor buffet permitted. The wedding went like clockwork from beginning to end, yet remained cosy and special and happy.

I was blown away by the Western bento and Ark Coffee

We were given a bento box and Ark Coffee to take away. There was enough to feed myself and my wife. Generous portions and quality stuff. There was even choices: vegetarian, Peranakan, and Western. I took the Western bento as I have been having too much spicy stuff of late. Enjoyed it.

The husband and wife giving their moving thank you speeches
The wife’s close relatives. Her parents are in Indonesia due to travel restrictions.

The evening wedding was also special. Beautiful white blooms framed the whole event. Only close relatives, a pair of friends and a pair of dogs in attendance. The limits is due to the constraints of space in an apartment. The whole thing was live-streamed to all their friends and relatives to as far as Indonesia, as the bride’s family are Indonesians. It was a civil ceremony but I added the Blessing Song, some reading of scriptures from 1 Corinthians 13 and a prayer of blessing on the couple. This wedding was relaxed and intimate being held in the new home of the now newly married couple.

After the wedding, I was happy to call it a day and return home to reflect on the day and feel satisfied. One of the joys of pastoral ministry is doing solemnizations.

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Worship without singing aloud

4 September 2020 Leave a comment

The thought of being in a worship service with a pre-recorded video showing a worship leader singing did not seem appealing to me. That was until I had to guest preach at the Anglican Church of True Light. Strangely I felt connected with God as I followed the lyrics and tune in my heart. My soul was sweetly lifted to God in prayer and song. How could I explain it?

Perhaps I have been singing in a perfunctory way all along, being caught up with the external stimuli of sight and sound and stage, instead of singing out of simple pure adoration. Yet a stripped down version somehow brought me back to “the heart of worship”, of sincere and simple reverential love for God.

One of the few reasons people give for socially distanced worship physical gatherings is that you are not permitted to sing. And I for one felt that way. I should be surprised at myself for feeling this way, since I am so familiar with contemplative prayer, that thrives in silence, in waiting on God’s movement in my heart. So it was good to have experienced this way of expressing our love for God in silent worship – just listening and feeling but not being able to sing aloud. It’s good. It is worship. A fresh way though unfamiliar way to worship. And its usually for two songs at most, so it is not monotonous.

Have you attended a physical gathering of Sunday worship recently? What was it like? Out of the maximum of fifty attendance how many seats were taken up?

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Guest preaching at Church of True Light

Guest preaching at Church of True Light during covid 19

31 August 2020 Leave a comment

The Church of True Light entrance looked unusually quiet. For a moment I thought the church was closed. Oops, I was looking at the wrong doors. Two women were there at the front desk. One greeted me and asked for my name. I said, I am the guest preacher for the English congregation. She checked my temperature, and briskly showed me to the lift.

The worship hall was a welcome sight. They had done modest renovations and the place looked more conducive than before. Later, I found that I sounded good over the microphone. They must have upgraded the PA system too. Wonderful.

A tall, tan Anglican priest with silvered hair welcomed me, and I suddenly felt more at home. I have known Revd Vincent Hoon for close to two decades. We met as strangers put together to share a room in a Love Singapore Pastors Prayer Summit ages ago. We have since become prayer partners through thick and thin; fellow-pilgrims and fellow-servants in the Lord’s vineyard.

I met with their new vicar, Revd Barry, formerly from Marine Parade Anglican Church. He was newly posted to this church. This means he must be effectively bi-lingual. Later, at the end of the service, they showed a superbly done video introduction of him, and he came off as someone with confident, decisive, humorous and authentic. The former vicar, Revd Winston had retired, and as in any change of leadership, much prayer and patience and grace is needed in order that God’s purposes be fulfilled by His man in that new season the church is in.

  • Future priest Aaron, Revd Vincent Hoon, and myself with the plastic face shield

With some curiosity, I took a selfie to see how I look like beside the priests there. I look like some lau hero in a movie about containment of some infectious disease. I cannot say I felt like one when it was my turn to mount the stage and take the pulpit. It felt awkward. I chose a lapel mike. The crowd was sparse with thirty plus folks, and a battery of young adults at the end where the equipment for live-streaming and sound control were. Evidently, the Chinese services would be starting physical gatherings soon and were there to learn how to operate the equipment. So speaking to this disparate groups seated apart from each other except for couples felt different. “Are they listening to me?” I asked myself, as I felt a bit of nervousness. “Am I getting through?” As I reached the final third point I panicked because I realised I had missed a whole chunk of explanation in the second point. Since it was live-streamed I needed to keep it concise to 20 – 30 minutes, I had been reminded earlier. “Doesn’t matter…just carry on. The Lord is able to work with mistakes like this. He will make good come out of it.” Sometimes, people feel relief with short sermons. Hope that at least it is the case here.

The service began at 9am and ended at about 10am. Is this the “new normal”?

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