Bishop's Message Archives - The Methodist Church in Singapore

Bishop’s Message

Seek first the kingdom of God

1 January 2025

Our hearts are full of thanksgiving as we begin a brand new year. Two events that stood out from 2024 fill me with gratefulness: the peaceful transition of leadership as Mr Lawrence Wong assumed his role as Singapore’s fourth Prime Minister in May, and Singapore winning a bronze medal in kitefoiling at the Paris Olympic Games in August.

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A practical principle on loving our neighbours

1 December 2024

To love our neighbour as we love ourselves is to treat them not in the way they might actually treat us, but in the way we wish they would treat us.

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Toilets, kindness and Christ?

1 November 2024

A good and godly Singaporean once told me that he was born on World Toilet Day. I knew he was a November baby, but I didn’t know that 19 November had been designated by the United Nations as World Toilet Day! Nor did I know that this Toilet Day gave the Singapore Government (through the efforts of Jack Sim) its very first successful Resolution adopted by the UN in 2013!

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When a harmful spirit depresses

1 October 2024

It’s Time to Prioritise Mental Health in the Workplace. This is the theme adopted for this year’s World Mental Health Day (10 October 2024). Recent years have generated more awareness of the importance of mental health. Today, mental illness afflicts many more of us than we used to think. We would be wise to acquaint ourselves with the different ways to promote stronger mental health in our families and friends.

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And are we yet alive?

1 September 2024

This is the opening line of a hymn by Charles Wesley which Methodists traditionally sing every year at the start of their annual meetings. We will sing the same at the opening of our General Conference meeting on 2 September.

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Disciples, the Bible and politics

1 August 2024

We don’t have kings in Singapore, but we do elect leaders to receive authority to govern our nation. The Bible here urges us to pray with thanksgiving for our nation’s leaders. May God grant them the wisdom and discernment so “that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness”.

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Faithfulness at the workplace

1 July 2024

She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” So Naaman went in and told his lord, “Thus and so spoke the girl from the land of Israel.” 2 Kings 5:3-4
We don’t even know her name, but I’m sure God does.

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Social concerns as a way of truth and life

1 June 2024

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27 (NIV)

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Children as God’s gift

1 May 2024

Psalm 127 concludes in verse 5 by saying, “Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of (children)”. It is clear that Psalm 127:3-5 encourages us to regard children as a gift and blessing from God. But we should not ignore the way the Psalm begins: “Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain” (Psalm 127:1, NIV).

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Looking at foreigners with God’s heart

1 April 2024

We humans tend to form cliques, and we click with those who are like us and who like us. We avoid those who are different from ourselves—who talk differently, see differently, hear differently, move differently or even think differently—and especially those who believe differently. In our minds, perhaps they are like “foreigners”.

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