Rev. Tay Sek Tin (1872 - 1944) was a Chinese pastor. He helped set up the Chinese Reading Room in 1902 and was a member of the

Tongmenghui The Tongmenghui of China (or T'ung-meng Hui, variously translated as Chinese United League, United League, Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, Chinese Alliance, United Allegiance Society, ) was a secret society and underground resistance movement ...

Biography

Tay was born in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

in 1872 and became a Christian when he was thirteen years old. When he was nineteen, he joined the

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

class of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...

Xiamen Xiamen ( , ; ), also known as Amoy (, from Hokkien pronunciation ), is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait. It is divided into six districts: Huli, Siming, Jimei, Tong'an, ...

. Tay became a pastor in 1896. By 1987, his health had begun to decline, and was advised to migrate to the warmer climate in

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 ...

. There, he was ordained pastor by the presbyterian congregation. In 1902, he helped establish the Chinese Reading Room to give public access to reading materials as well as to spread Christian faith. In 1904, Tay became the first pastor of the Hokien Chinese Church, now known as the Jubilee Church. In 1903, he assisted Rev. J. A. B. Cook set up the Paya Lebar Church. In 1908, he began a church in

Seletar Seletar is an area located in the north-east of Singapore. Its name can also refer to the Seletar Planning Area (as defined by the Urban Redevelopment Authority), situated in the North-East Region of Singapore. The place name was derived from th ...

with land provided by . In 1906, Tay joined the

in Singapore and was more active in revolutionary active in the years just before the

1911 Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...

in China. He was involved in the local revolutionary dramatist movement and was one of the organisers of the "Fang Ai Pan", which translated to the Universal Love Troupe. After his health further deteriorated, Tay gave up the work of his pastorate and instead turned to the rubber industry, becoming the director of Han Yang Plantations Ltd., which was set up by

Lim Boon Keng Lim Boon Keng (; 18 October 1869 – 1 January 1957) was a Peranakan physician who advocated social and educational reforms in Singapore in the early 20th-century. He also served as the president of Xiamen University in China between 1921 and ...

and

Lim Nee Soon Lim Nee Soon (; 12 November 1879 – 20 March 1936) was a Singaporean banker and businessman who promoted social and community matters, and was a respected community leader in Singapore. Lim was of Peranakan descent, with ancestry from Chenghai D ...

, for a while. He continued to be an honorary pastor and provided active supervision during the vacancy in the pastorate of the Tanjong Pagar Church.

References

{{Reflist 1872 births 1944 deaths Tongmenghui members