The Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS), Bishop Philip Lim, was elected on 8 May 2025 as the new President of the National Council of Churches of Singapore (NCCS).
The election took place during the Annual General Meeting of the Council. A new Executive Committee (Exco) was also elected. The two-year term of the new leadership begins with immediate effect.
Bishop Lim succeeds the Lutheran Bishop, Rt Rev Lu Guan Hoe, the immediate past President.
Said Bishop Lim, “I am honoured to be the President of NCCS. I look forward to working with our fellow Christian brothers and sisters, to do the work of the Lord.”
According to the NCCS constitution, the post of President rotates among the heads of the four traditional mainline denominations: Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian. Presidents cannot serve a second term. The last Methodist Bishop who was the President of NCCS was Bishop Emeritus Dr Wee Boon Hup, who served as President from 2014 to 2016. Bishop Emeritus Chong Ching Chung served as Vice-President from January 2017 to March 2021. More recently, Bishop Emeritus Dr Gordon Wong was Vice-President of NCCS from April 2021 to February 2025, and Bishop Lim took over his post after being appointed by the General Committee.
Prior to becoming the Bishop of MCS, Bishop Lim was an ordained minister under MCS’ Chinese Annual Conference (CAC) and has served as its Chairperson of the Board of Ministry. He was posted to Cambodia in 2004 as a missionary with the Methodist Missions Society (MMS) where he served for seven years, laying the foundation and growing MMS’ missional ministry in its early days there.
Bishop Lim then returned to the MMS home office to serve as Country Director for Cambodia before becoming MMS’ Executive Director from 2012 to 2018. In 2019, he returned to pastoral ministry at CAC. An alumnus of Trinity Theological College (TTC), Bishop Lim is married to Lydia, and they have an adult daughter, Olivia.
On the many challenges facing the Church today, Bishop Lim said, “Our ageing population is a big challenge. The issue is how churches are reaching out to them and their caregivers and caring for their well-being. Another challenge is how we can build biblically strong and resilient families to future proof our younger generations. As a collective body, we can look into encouraging more people to respond to the call to be pastors and missionaries.”
The other Methodists in the newly elected Exco are Rev Dr Ngoei Foong Nghian, who is the General Secretary, Rev Dr Chiang Ming Shun, who is the Associate General Secretary, and Mr Daniel Chan, who is the Chairman of the Investment Committee. Rev Ngoei was formerly the Principal of TTC for nearly 20 years until he retired and has served as General Secretary of the NCCS since February 2015. Rev Chiang is a lecturer in Church History at TTC and is an ordained minister with the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC) of MCS. Mr Daniel Chan has over 35 years of investment management experience having served as Chief Investment Officer at UOB Asset Management (UOBAM) and Lion Global Investors, and is also the Chairman of the Investment Committee of Singapore Bible College.
Lianne Ong is the Editor of Methodist Message. / Photo courtesy of Wesley Loh, Memphis West Pictures
