Charis Methodist Church
Guide To Know About Charis Methodist Church
Methodists in Singapore are members of the Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS). The Church is the largest mainline Protestant denomination in Singapore, with 46 congregations and about 42,000 members on the island. Rev. Dr Gordon Wong, who was chosen as the current bishop and head of the Church on September 7, 2020, during the General Conference’s 12th Session, is now in office. The Charis Methodist Church oversees five daycare facilities, 15 schools, and 13 kindergartens.
History
In 1885, Rev. James Thoburn of the South India Conference in India launched a missionary project that would eventually become the Charis Methodist Church in Singapore. The mission’s foundation was laid in Singapore by Rev. William Fitzjames Oldham. The Anglo-Chinese School, founded by Oldham in 1886, was the first English-language boys’ school. Following this, in 1887 and 1888, respectively, two girls’ schools—Methodist Girls’ School and Fairfield Methodist Girls’ School—were founded. In addition, the ministry built a clinic and youth dormitories.
In February 1885, the Wesley Methodist Church established. Fort Canning Hill is where it is situated. In the 1890s, the mission expanded from its Singapore base to the Malay Peninsula and Sarawak. With time and growth, the Methodist Mission in Singapore and Malaya attained the administrative status of a conference within the Methodist Church. It eventually extended across Southeast Asia, which resulted in the founding of the Southeast Asian Central Conference in 1950.
In 1968, the Malaysian and Singaporean parts of the mission formally separated from their Western parent organisations into an Asian church with a bishop chosen from among the local ministers. To reflect Singapore’s separation from Malaysia in 1976. The Methodist Church in Singapore and The Methodist Church in Malaysia.
About
The 46 local congregations that make up the Methodist Church in Singapore organised into conferences: the general conference, annual conferences, district conferences, and local conferences. In 1930, Christ Methodist Church founded. East Coast Road is where it located.
The highest decision-making body of the MCS, the General Conference, meets every four years and is presided over by the elected and an equal number of chosen representatives (clergy and laity) from each of the three Annual Conferences. The General Conference Executive Council has the authority of the General Conference for daily matters between General Conference sessions (GCEC).
Organisation
The sole entity that represents in an official capacity is the General Conference. Since the General Conference alone has the only authority to speak on behalf of The Methodist Church, no individual, group, or publication has the right to do so.
The Women’s Society of Christian Service (WSCS) founded to encourage and push Methodist women to respond to God’s redemptive fellowship, spread the gospel over the globe and develop a sense of personal responsibility for the overall mission of the Church. Its ministries cover Christian education, missions concerns, and spiritual life.
The Methodist Church in Singapore’s missions organisation, the Methodist Missions Society (MMS), was founded in 1991. In areas of the region where there are no Methodists, MMS aims to develop native churches aided by mission efforts. Due to their proximity to Singapore and the numerous potential to reach the unreached people groups in these nations for religious conversion, the Asian region is currently the emphasis, notably Cambodia, China, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam.
