Kampong Kapor Methodist Church (KKMC), the fourth-oldest Methodist church in Singapore, was founded on 25 Jan 1894 by the Rev William Shellabear and Miss Sophia Blackmore. It held worship services conducted in the Peranakan-Malay language at a building at 155 Middle Road.
The church, which moved to 1 Kampong Kapor Road in 1930 where it stands today, is multi-generational family-oriented church with more than 1,100 members. Presently, six worship services are held on Sundays, conducted in the four commonly-spoken languages of Singapore – English, Malay (Peranakan), Mandarin and Tamil.
Some of the more unique or key ministries of our church include:
- Conducting two out of six worship services where our pipe organ, installed in 1937 and the only one in a Methodist church in Singapore, is played in support;
- Having good and strong choirs (both adult and/or children) supporting the same worship services;
- Engaging in services or programmes, anchored by our church members and friends, that we hope will be a blessing to the community (see below for more details);
- Supporting 26 missionaries across the world, including in Singapore;
- Encouraging respectful interaction of our members with other faith communities as part of our responsibility as fellow citizens of Singapore;
- Having LifeGroups across the four language congregations (including one Peranakan Bible study) which help our church be more relevant to Singaporean society.
Besides sponsoring two Boys’ Brigade Companies and one Girls’ Brigade Company, and running Alpha courses for a number of years, the church is actively involved with the community by running a kindergarten since the early 1960s, a homework centre (providing a safe place for children to study), a seniors’ corner for residents, as well as Basic Work English classes for migrant workers.
We also feed the community once a month with the distribution of food packets to the hungry as they pass by our church, and visit the residents of our community at least twice a year to bless them and find out how they are doing. Finally, the church is also associated with two Family Service Centres (St George’s and Whampoa areas), and partners the Kampong Glam Residents Committee in running useful programmes for residents.
We do face challenges in learning how best to be relevant in our ministry to the community around our church, as well as helping our church members really grow in their trust in God and in the knowledge of the Christian beliefs, as we all live in a world where values are deemed relative, instead of absolute.
We want to be a church that truly worships God, is faithful to the Good News of Jesus Christ, is grounded in the Word of God, is caringly relevant to the community it is based in, and is actively doing our part in reaching and blessing peoples of other nations.
Hence, our theme for 2016 to 2018 is “IN & INVOLVED – about the church, along the streets, and across the seas”, which will lead up to our church’s 125th Anniversary in 2019.
When I became Pastor-in-Charge in 2012, I knew a little about KKMC but not its specific ministries. Three words have since become closely identified with our congregation – “In and Involved”. We want all or nearly all of our congregation members and friends to give themselves fully in service to God and man, for nothing could be more important!
And so, I pray for KKMC, as Moses prayed in his time as recorded in Psalm 90:17 (NIV):
“May the favour of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us —
yes, establish the work of our hands.”
Kampong Kapor Methodist Church
(Trinity Annual Conference)
1 Kampong Kapor Road, Singapore 208673
Sunday Services:
8 a.m., 9.30 a.m., and 11.30 a.m. English (Sanctuary)
11 a.m. Peranakan (Chapel)
2 p.m. Mandarin (Sanctuary)
5.30 p.m. Tamil (Sanctuary)
Contact us: www.kkmc.org.sg, mailbox@kkmc.org.sg, www.facebook.com/kampongkapormethodistchurch or 6293-7997
The Rev Kenneth Huang –
is Pastor-in-Charge of Kampong Kapor Methodist Church.
We continue our series of profiling local churches from our three Annual Conferences of The Methodist Church in Singapore. As we come to have a better understanding of each other’s history and ministry, we may discover more opportunities to forge cross-church partnerships and collaborations.