REV PHILIP LIM, 58, has been elected the new Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore (MCS). He will be consecrated on 6 December 2024, taking on the role of spiritual leader for more than 45,000 Methodists in 46 churches across Singapore. He was elected Bishop on the 7th ballot at the Church’s 13th General Conference Session held from 2 to 6 September 2024.
Rev Lim is currently Pastor-in-Charge of Kum Yan Methodist Church. He is also the Chairperson of the Board of Ministry at the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC), a connection of 17 Methodist churches in Singapore which reaches out to the Chinese community including those who speak Mandarin, English and dialect (Hokkien, Cantonese, Foochow, Hakka, Teochew, Hinghwa). 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. He oversaw the growth of the church, as well as community development programmes such the Methodist School of Cambodia and Community Outreach Services Immanuel.
Rev Lim returned to the MMS home office to serve as Area Director for Cambodia before becoming MMS’ Executive Director from 2012 to 2018. In 2019, he returned to pastoral ministry at CAC.
Rev Lim is married to Lydia Ng and they have an adult daughter, Olivia. He succeeds Bishop Dr Gordon Wong who is retiring after serving as Bishop for a term of four years. Bishop Dr Wong was elected in 2020, and his term ends in December 2024.
Upon being elected, Rev Philip Lim said, “The work of the Bishop is immense; the responsibility as the spiritual head of the Methodist Church is great. The task now is to inspire the Church to the mission that God has called us to and to help the Church grow in spiritual holiness. All this work cannot be done by one person—we need all the churches to come together. Let us all work together, and as the Bible says, let us spur one another on towards love and good deeds!”
Bishop Dr Gordon Wong congratulated the Bishop-Elect and said, “Rev Philip Lim was from the Chinese Annual Conference. As I was from the Trinity Annual Conference (TRAC), I did not have much opportunity to work with him until as President of TRAC, I went up to Cambodia where he was our missionary. I met him and his wife, Lydia, where they were serving God and our Methodist Church for many years. Now that he has been elected to the office of Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore, I wish him well and am grateful to God for moving us together as one General Conference to elect our next Bishop.”