The Church of the Province of South East Asia is an autonomous member of the

Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

, created in 1996 with the four

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

s of

Kuching Kuching (), officially the City of Kuching, is the capital and the most populous city in the States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Sarawak in Malaysia. It is also the capital of Kuching Division. The city is on the Sarawak River ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah borders the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and the North Kalimantan province of Indone ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

and

West Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

. There are approximately 98,000 Anglicans within the province, and the current Metropolitan Archbishop and Primate of the Province is

Melter Tais Melter Jiki Tais is the sixth Archbishop and Primate of the Church of the Province of South East Asia since 9 February 2020 and the Bishop of its Sabah Diocese since 2015, being the first native of Sabah to be installed as bishop of that dioc ...

, Bishop of Sabah.

History

Early Developments

Sir James Brooke (1847) by Francis Grant

Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

was first introduced with the establishment of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

's settlement of

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

Island in 1786.

George Caunter George Caunter (c. June 1758 – 25 December 1811) was a British administrator who governed Prince of Wales Island (Penang Island) as Acting Superintendent from 1797 to 1798 and again from 1798 to 1800. As First Assistant under Lieutenant-Gove ...

, a local magistrate, was appointed as a Lay Clerk/Acting Chaplain in 1799 under the jurisdiction of the See of Calcutta. In 1819, the first Anglican church building, the Church of St. George the Martyr, was consecrated by the Bishop of Calcutta, Thomas Fanshawe Middleton. In 1826, the Mission Chapel of the London Missionary Society (LMS) started services in

and the first church building in Singapore was built in 1837. In 1842, a missionary of the LMS started the first girls school in Singapore, now known as St. Margaret's School. The work in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

started in 1848 when a group of missionaries led by

Francis Thomas McDougall Francis Thomas McDougall (30 June 1817 – 16 November 1886) was the first Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak from 1849 to 1868. Life McDougall was born in Sydenham, son of William Adair McDougall, captain in the 88th regiment. He was educated at King ...

was invited by James Brooke, the Rajah of

Sarawak Sarawak (; ) is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia. The largest among the 13 states, with an area almost equal to that of Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak is located in northwest Borneo Island, and is bordered by the M ...

. In 1849, a wooden church was built in Kuching. In 1851, this church was consecrated by Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta in honour of St. Thomas the Apostle.

Establishment of Missionary Dioceses

Letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...

was issued in 1855 to establish the Bishopric of Labuan and McDougall was appointed the first

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of Labuan. McDougall was also appointed the Bishop of Sarawak by the Rajah of Sarawak due to the political conventions of the day ruled that no Anglican Diocese might be created outside the limits of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

, and Sarawak was then technically an independent kingdom. This practice prevailed until the Sarawak became a

Crown Colony A Crown colony or royal colony was a colony administered by The Crown within the British Empire. There was usually a Governor, appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the UK Government, with or without the assistance of a local Counci ...

in 1946. In 1867, The East India Company transferred Penang to the British Crown and with that ended the chaplaincy of the

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency, or the Presidency of Fort St. George, also known as Madras Province, was an administrative subdivision (presidency) of British India. At its greatest extent, the presidency included most of southern India, including the ...

in Penang. The Anglican churches in Penang,

Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...

and Singapore were organised into the Church in the Straits Settlement while remaining under the jurisdiction of the

See See or SEE may refer to: * Sight - seeing Arts, entertainment, and media * Music: ** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals *** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See'' ** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho * Television * ...

of Calcutta. The Church in the

Straits Settlement The Straits Settlements were a group of British territories located in Southeast Asia. Headquartered in Singapore for more than a century, it was originally established in 1826 as part of the territories controlled by the British East India Comp ...

was separated from the See of Calcutta by an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

in 1869 and placed under the episcopal care of the Bishop of Labuan as the United Diocese of Singapore, Labuan and Sarawak. In 1909, the United Diocese was further divided into the Diocese of Singapore, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak. The 3 separate Dioceses developed independently from then onwards until the creation of the Province.

Anglican work in Malaya and Singapore (1909–1996)

The period between the division of the United Diocese and the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the Pacific, missionary work continued with increasing ordination of local clergy and planting of churches all throughout the

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

and Singapore. During the duration of the Second World War, most expatriate clergy and missionaries were interned by the Japanese. Without the benefit of its expatriate clergy, the work of the church fell on the shoulders of local clergy and church workers. This development highlighted the urgent need for training local leaders for this developing part of the Anglican Church and eventually led to the establishment of Singapore's Trinity Theological College in 1951. Malaya gained her independence from British rule in 1957. Following this, in 1960, the Diocese was renamed the Diocese of Singapore and Malaya. In 1970, the churches in

were separated from the Diocese and reconstituted as the Diocese of West Malaysia by an Act of Parliament and the Diocese was renamed the Diocese of Singapore.

Anglican work in British Borneo (1909–1996)

Work in

British Borneo British Borneo comprised the four northern parts of the island of Borneo, which are now the country of Brunei, two Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, and the Malaysian federal territory of Labuan. During the British colonial rule before Worl ...

after the division of the United Diocese until the outbreak of the Second World War followed a similar pattern to the work in Malaya and Singapore. It was supported from 1909 by the

Borneo Mission Association The Borneo Mission Association was founded in 1909 by Bishop W. R. Mounsey to assist the work of the Church of England in Labuan, Sarawak and British North Borneo. It ceased operation in 2015, with its remaining funds transferred to the United So ...

. Anglican missionaries were however more successful than their counterparts in Malaya and Singapore in evangelising the indigenous peoples. Following the devastation of the Second World War, the Diocese of Labuan and the Bishopric of Sarawak was joined together as the Diocese of Borneo and the first Bishop,

Nigel Cornwall Nigel Edmund Cornwall CBE, (13 August 1903 – 19 December 1984) was an English clergyman in the Church of England. He held the post of Bishop of Borneo from 1949 until 1962. Early life Cornwall was the son of Alan Cornwall, who was Archdeacon of ...

, was consecrated in 1949. In 1962, the Diocese was again divided into the Diocese of

Jesselton , image_skyline = , image_caption = From top, left to right, bottom:Kota Kinabalu skyline, Wawasan intersection, Tun Mustapha Tower, Kota Kinabalu Coastal Highway, the Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, the Wism ...

(later Diocese of

) which included Labuan, and the Diocese of Kuching which included

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

Province of South East Asia

In 1996, autocephaly was attained when the Province of South East Asia consisting of the Dioceses of West Malaysia, Singapore, Kuching and Sabah was established by the then-

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

George Carey George Leonard Carey, Baron Carey of Clifton (born 13 November 1935) is a retired Anglican bishop who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, having previously been the Bishop of Bath and Wells. During his time as archbishop the Ch ...

Moses Tay Moses Tay Leng Kong ( zh, t=鄭靈光; born 1938) is a retired Singaporean Anglican bishop. He was the 7th Bishop of Singapore from 1982 to 1999 and the first Archbishop of the Province of Anglican Church in South East Asia from 1996 to 2000. Tay ...

, Bishop of Singapore, was installed as the first Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province the same year. The Province celebrated its 20th Anniversary in February 2016.

Membership

Today, there are at least 98,000 Anglicans out of an estimated population of 33.9 million.

Structure

The polity of the Church of the Province of South East Asia is Episcopalian church governance, which is the same as other

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

churches. The church maintains a system of geographical

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

es organised into

s. The Province is divided into four dioceses. Furthermore, the Dioceses of Kuching, West Malaysia and Singapore are further subdivided into

archdeaconries An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of most ...

and deaneries. *The Diocese of Kuching *The

Diocese of Sabah The Diocese of Sabah is an Anglican diocese which covers Sabah and Labuan in Malaysia. Founded in 1962, the see was originally part of the much larger Diocese of Labuan and its Dependencies which was established in 1855. Following the carving ou ...

*The Diocese of Singapore *The

Diocese of West Malaysia The Diocese of West Malaysia is an Anglican diocese which covers the entire West Malaysia. The Diocese of West Malaysia (DWM) was founded on 8 April 1970, as DWM together with Diocese of Singapore split from Diocese of Singapore and Malaya. As ...

Current diocesan bishops

– Archbishop of South East Asia and Bishop of Sabah *

Steven Abbarow Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; h ...

–

Bishop of West Malaysia The Bishop of West Malaysia is an Anglican prelate who oversees the Diocese of West Malaysia in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. The current bishop is the 5th Bishop of the Diocese since its creation in 1970. His seat is St. Mary's ...

*Danald Jute –

Bishop of Kuching The Bishop of Kuching is the ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of Kuching in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. The bishop exercises episcopal authority over Anglican churches in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and in the independent n ...

Titus Chung Titus Chung Khiam Boon (Chinese: 章剑文) is the 10th Bishop of Singapore. He is a systematic theologian who serves at St. Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore. He was ordained in 1997 in the Diocese of Singapore after graduating from Trinity T ...

– Bishop of Singapore

List of primates of South East Asia

Worship and liturgy

The Church of the Province of South East Asia embraces three orders of ministry: deacon, priest, and bishop. A local variant of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

is used.

Doctrine and practice

The center of the Church of the Province of South East Asia's teaching is the life and resurrection of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. The basic teachings of the church, or

catechism A catechism (; from grc, κατηχέω, "to teach orally") is a summary or exposition of doctrine and serves as a learning introduction to the Sacraments traditionally used in catechesis, or Christian religious teaching of children and adult c ...

, includes: *Jesus Christ is fully human and fully God. He died and was resurrected from the dead. *Jesus provides the way of eternal life for those who believe. *The Old and New Testaments of the Bible were written by people "under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit". The Apocrypha are additional books that are used in Christian worship, but not for the formation of doctrine. *The two great and necessary

sacraments A sacrament is a Christian rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments to be a visible symbol of the real ...

are

Holy Baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

and

Holy Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ot ...

*Other sacramental rites are

confirmation In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. For adults, it is an affirmation of belief. It involves laying on ...

ordination Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorization, authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominational ...

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

reconciliation of a penitent Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of one's sins (sinfulness) or wrongs. Christianity Catholicism In Catholic teaching, the Sacrament of Penance (Catholic Church), Sacrament of Penance is the method of the Church by whic ...

, and unction. *Belief in

heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...

hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location in the afterlife in which evil souls are subjected to punitive suffering, most often through torture, as eternal punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hell ...

, and Jesus's return in glory. The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. This balance of scripture, tradition and reason is traced to the work of

Richard Hooker Richard Hooker (25 March 1554 – 2 November 1600) was an English priest in the Church of England and an influential theologian.The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church by F. L. Cross (Editor), E. A. Livingstone (Editor) Oxford University ...

, a sixteenth-century apologist. In Hooker's model, scripture is the primary means of arriving at doctrine and things stated plainly in scripture are accepted as true. Issues that are ambiguous are determined by tradition, which is checked by reason.

Ecumenical relations

The dioceses of the Church of the Province of South East Asia participate in the ecumenical

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...

via their respective national church councils: *Council of Churches of Malaysia **Diocese of Kuching and Brunei **Diocese of Sabah **Diocese of West Malaysia *National Council of Churches of Singapore **Diocese of Singapore However, unlike many other Anglican churches, the Church of the Province of South East Asia is not a member of the

in its own right.

Anglican realignment

Together with the

Church of the Province of Rwanda The Anglican Church of Rwanda (French: ''Église anglicane du Rwanda'') is a province of the Anglican Communion, covering 11 dioceses in Rwanda. The primate of the province is Laurent Mbanda, consecrated on 10 June 2018. Official names The Provinc ...

, the Church of the Province of South East Asia maintained a missionary organisation, the

Anglican Mission in the Americas The Anglican Mission in the Americas (AMiA) or The Anglican Mission (AM) is a self-governing church inheriting its doctrine and form of worship from the Episcopal Church in the United States (TEC) and Anglican Church of Canada with members and chu ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, from 2000 to 2011. The Church of the Province of South East Asia has been active in the Anglican realignment, as member of the

Global South The concept of Global North and Global South (or North–South divide in a global context) is used to describe a grouping of countries along socio-economic and political characteristics. The Global South is a term often used to identify region ...

and the

Global Anglican Future Conference The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) is a series of conferences of conservative Anglican bishops and leaders, the first of which was held in Jerusalem from 22 to 29 June 2008 to address the growing controversy of the divisions in the An ...

. The province was represented at the GAFCON III, held on 17–22 June 2018, in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, by a 18 members delegation, coming from

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...