The roots of Methodism can be traced to John Wesley, after his heart was strangely warmed on Aldersgate Street in London on 24 May 1738. We are reminded of God’s faithfulness to The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS) through our annual Aldersgate celebrations, and how the three Annual Conferences are united as one Church to be a beacon of God’s light in our society. This year, we visited the topics of whether the end of Methodism is imminent, and how we can love God by doing good to our neighbours.
The end of Methodism?
The AldersgateSG 2024 celebrations began on 23 May with a lecture about “The end of Methodism?”, with an attendance of approximately 200 people who braved the rain to come down to Faith Methodist Church, along with another 1,300 views via livestream. The speaker, Rev Dr Chiang Ming Shun, a lecturer in Church History at Trinity Theological College and an ordained minister with the Trinity Annual Conference, began the lecture by sharing how MCS is historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church (UMC). He mentioned how missionaries such as James Thoburn, Sophia Blackmore and Benjamin West introduced Methodism to Singapore, though MCS eventually separated from the UMC and has its own Book of Discipline.
Rev Dr Chiang then analysed the health of the Methodist Churches in America and Britain. In America, he commented how Methodism is waning due to the increasing age of and lack of diversity among its congregants, and with schisms within the Church. Likewise in Britain, he cited how the Church has been losing 10,000 members a year and had just 136,000 members in 2022. He attributed this decrease to an ageing population, a lack of focus on missions and evangelism and an absence of strong visionary leadership. Finally, he compared the state of these Churches to the Church in Singapore. He commented how there seems to be increasing porosity of congregants moving between the Methodist churches and other denominations.
“I think what may end us is our people not knowing what Methodism is all about. How can we be Methodists if people don’t know what Methodism is?” said Rev Dr Chiang.
To this end, Rev Chiang referenced The Character of a Methodist written by John Wesley. He listed three characteristics of Methodists that Wesley highlighted— that we do not assent to any specific set of notions or pay heed to opinions that do not strike at the roots of Christianity, that we are not attached to any mode of speaking or expression and that we always rejoice in the Lord. Rev Dr Chiang concluded that Methodists do not need to labour to distinguish themselves from other denominations. Rather, he argued that Methodists should simply aspire to be the best Christians they could be. Therefore, the desired “end of Methodism” would be when there is “no more need for distinctions among denominations”, once Jesus comes again to unite the Body of Christ.
The Q&A session brought many insightful questions from the floor. One notable question asked how MCS could avoid following in the footsteps of the UMC in terms of losing members. In response, Rev Dr Chiang said that it is vital to know the Bible as we will lose our bearings if we are not grounded in Scripture. Another question was whether it is helpful to focus on denominational affiliation, which could appear to be competitive rather than collaborative, in the pursuit of holiness. Rev Dr Chiang reaffirmed what he shared in his lecture—that it is not necessary to harp on differences. Instead, it is more crucial to focus on what unites Christians, and not what divides us, since our differences are miniscule compared to our similarities. Yet another question was if Methodism should stop being taught or preached, even to the extent that Aldersgate should stop being commemorated. Rev Dr Chiang stood by his belief that it was more important to strive to be the best Christian we can be. The session concluded with a call to action to spur one another on in our faith, equipping ourselves through learning and applying the Methodist Social Principles.
Loving God by doing good to our neighbours
The next day, congregants from the three Annual Conferences packed the sanctuary for the AldersgateSG 2024 Celebration Service which commenced with a triumphant procession of banners into the sanctuary to the hymn “O For a Thousand Tongues”, as the congregation praised God. The service continued with music by the Methodist Festival Choir and the Methodist Festival Orchestra as the congregation joined in lustily.
Bishop Dr Gordon Wong shared this year’s message in a unique manner—using a conversation between an owl and a lion to explore what it means to love God by doing good to our neighbours. In answer to the question of what the meaning of life is, he shared how Ephesians 2:10 says that we can find such meaning from God’s purpose for us—that he created us for good works to share with our neighbours as part of the Great Commission.
Bishop Dr Wong took care to point out that doing good works is not a means to salvation since no one can be saved by doing good works alone. Instead, it is through faith and by the grace of God that we have been saved, with good works being the fruit of our faith. He further elaborated that when we do good to our neighbours, we are also doing good to ourselves by fulfilling the purpose which God created us for. He shared the example of Wendy, a resident of MWS Bethany Nursing Home, who found joy in making paper flowers for the staff and residents of the Home despite suffering from Parkinson’s disease and a degenerative spinal condition which paralysed her legs and an arm.1 To conclude his message, Bishop Dr Wong reminded the congregation of John Wesley’s summary of the Great Commission—to “[d]o all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, … to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”
Following the Bishop’s message, the President of the Chinese Annual Conference, Rev Dr Gregory Goh, led the congregation in the covenant renewal as we ratified our commitment to deny ourselves, take our crosses and follow Jesus. The service concluded with a benediction from each of the Annual Conference Presidents and the Bishop, as the latter encouraged the congregation to say to one another, “Tzetchem l’shalom” (“Go in peace”).
1 To know more about the story of Wendy, please refer to MWS’ Uncommon Voices newsletter: https://mws.sg/uncommon-voices/living-life-in-full-bloom/