The Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church (

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

: 布连拾街长老会磐石堂) is located on Prinsep Street within

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, bor ...

's central business district. It is approximately 350 metres from Rochor MRT station. The church, previously known as the Malay Mission Chapel, was founded by Rev. Benjamin Peach Keasberry in 1843. The

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

was replaced with the present Romanesque-style building in 1930. It was

gazette A gazette is an official journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper. In English and French speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name ''Gazette'' since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspaper ...

d a national monument by Singapore's National Heritage Board on 12 January 2000.

History

In 1843, Rev. Keasberry was able to raise sufficient funds to build a small chapel on Prinsep Street for outreach to the

Malay people Malays ( ms, Orang Melayu, Jawi: أورڠ ملايو) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to eastern Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula and coastal Borneo, as well as the smaller islands that lie between these locations — areas that are ...

., 320-322 Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church 7, Jun 23 2018

By the early 20th century, the area around the church became densely populated. This led Scotsman James Milner Fraser to start the 1st Company of the Singapore Boys’ Brigade in the church. Its formation in 1930 led to a large number of young people joining the church. In 1950, the 7th Girls' Brigade Company was formed in the church, drawing the students from the Singapore Chinese Girls' School and the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (CHIJ) in Victoria Street. In the 1960s, the Church operated a kindergarten in the mornings. An outreach ministry was started in

Woodlands Woodlands may back refer to: * Woodland, a low-density forest Geography Australia * Woodlands, New South Wales * Woodlands, Ashgrove, Queensland, a heritage-listed house associated with John Henry Pepper * Woodlands, Marburg, Queensland, a her ...

in 1983. Then in 1984, a tuition outreach ministry began at 25 Adam Road. In 1992, the Woodlands and Adam Road ministries merged to form the Woodlands-Adam Road Ministry. This was eventually reconstituted as Adam Road Presbyterian Church in 1997. Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church was

d a national monument by the National Heritage Board of

on 12 January 2000.

Architecture

The Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church was designed by

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

C.J. Stephens of Swan and Maclaren. Its notable features are the deep red bricks and raised

brickwork Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called ''courses'' are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall. Bricks may be differentiated from blocks by si ...

on the

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specifi ...

and belfry. At the front of the church, lightly modelled brickwork rises high in

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

formation expressing the shape of the

roof A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of te ...

and culminating in a

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

tower, now housing a

loudspeaker A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or ...

. The buildings within the enclosure are all rendered and painted.

Sunday Services

The Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church conducts several multi-lingual services on Sunday. All services involve lay participation. Apart from English and Mandarin services, the church also holds services for

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

worshippers, and is one of the few churches in

to hold services in the

Mizo language The Mizo language, or ''Mizo ṭawng'', is a Kuki-Chin-Mizo language belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family of languages, spoken natively by the Mizo people in the Mizoram state of India and Chin State in Myanmar. The language is also known as ...

. Presently, about 40

Mizo people The Mizo people ( Mizo: ''Mizo hnam'') are an ethnic group native to the Indian state of Mizoram and neighbouring regions of Northeast India. The term covers several related ethnic groups or clans inside the Mizo group. All Mizo tribes and cla ...

, mostly foreign domestic workers, worship in a room on the upper level of the church.

References

News articles

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External links

Prinsep Street Presbyterian ChurchThe Presbyterian Church in Singapore
{{Authority control Presbyterian churches in Singapore Landmarks in Singapore National monuments of Singapore Rochor